James Cowan (British Army officer)

James Cowan
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	British Army
Years of service	1982–2015
Rank	Major General
Commands held	3rd (UK) Division 11th Light Brigade Black Watch
Battles/wars	The Troubles Iraq War War in Afghanistan
Awards	Commander of the Order of the British Empire Distinguished Service Order Mentioned in Despatches

Major-General James Michael Cowan CBE, DSO is a former British Army officer. He is now CEO of The HALO Trust, a humanitarian organisation which works in post-conflict zones.

Educated at Wellington College, Cowan joined the Ulster Defence Regiment as a private soldier in 1982 during The Troubles. and then studied Modern History at Pembroke College, Oxford before being commissioned into the Black Watch in 1987.

He served first in Berlin and from 1989 until 1991 he served in Northern Ireland, where he was Mentioned in Despatches. He became commanding officer of 1st Battalion The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) in July 2003 and in that role was deployed to Iraq for Operation Telic in Summer 2004. Towards the end of the tour, Cowan led his Battalion during Operation BRACKEN, seeing action during the Second Battle of Fallujah, for which he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire. He became Chief of Staff for 3rd (UK) Division and was deployed to Iraq as Chief of Staff for Multi-National Division (South East) from July 2006 until January 2007.

He became Commander of 11th Light Brigade in October 2007 and in that role he led Task Force Helmand during the Helmand province campaign in 2009–10 which he described as his most demanding tour. He had hoped that Operation Moshtarak would mark "the start of the end of this insurgency". At the very least it would become a test of whether the Afghan forces would be able to make their country peaceful and safe. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order at the end of his tour of command.

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