Nicholas Cottam

Nicholas Cottam
Born	1951 (age 63–64)
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	British Army
Years of service	1973-2008
Rank	Major-General
Commands held	5th Infantry Division
Battles/wars	Operation Banner
Awards	Companion of the Order of the Bath Officer of the Order of the British Empire

Major-General Nicholas Jeremy Cottam CB OBE (born 1951) was a senior British Army officer who went on to be Military Secretary. He is now the Registrar of St Paul's Cathedral.

Military career

Cottam was commissioned into the Royal Green Jackets in 1973.^[1] He became Commanding Officer of his Regiment and was deployed in Northern Ireland in the early 1990s being appointed to the OBE^[2] and mentioned in despatches for his service there.^[3] In 1994 he went to South Africa as part of a Commonwealth Peace Keeping Force.^[4]

He became Director of Personnel Services in 2001 for the Army^[5] and went on to be General Officer Commanding 5th Infantry Division in 2003^[6] and Military Secretary in 2005.^[6] In that role he increased the retirement age for officers in the Territorial Army to 60^[7] and carried out a review of the Reserves recommending that they be used for augmentation as much as for maximum effort.^[8]

Cathedral Registrar

In 2008, following retirement from the Army, Cottam became Registrar of St Paul's Cathedral,^[9] a post he still holds. In this position he returned to global prominence during the 2011-2012 Occupy London protests outside the cathedral buildings. He was called upon to lead the public response of the cathedral community to the protests, and to head public statements following the successive resignations of three members of the cathedral's clergy,^[10] including the Rt Revd Graeme Knowles, the Dean of St Paul's, who resigned following the backlash against his Chapter's resolution to forcibly evict the Occupy London protesters, the Revd Canon Dr Giles Fraser, Canon Chancellor, who resigned due to his opposition to the Chapter's majority decision, and the minor cleric Fraser Dyer, who resigned from a part-time chaplaincy role. Cottam spoke out against the unruly behaviour of the protesters, who he said had in some instances desecrated the cathedral.^[11] Cottam was widely reported to have been furious at Giles Fraser's decision not to support agreed policy, and to resign from the cathedral staff.^[12]

References