Celia Harvey

Celia Jane Harvey (née Plummer) was born on 4 December 1962 in Leicester, England. She is a British military officer and academic. Harvey has served in the Territorial Army (TA) since joining the Women's Royal Army Corps (WRAC) in 1987. She transferred to the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME) on 1 April 1991, following the disbandment of the WRAC, and was promoted to the substantive rank of captain with seniority from 1 January 1991.

Harvey was commissioned as a probationary second lieutenant on 5 July 1987, with her full commission confirmed in 1988. She was promoted to the rank of lieutenant on 5 July 1989. She was promoted to major on 20 January 1997, with seniority backdated to 10 January 1994. Harvey was awarded the Efficiency Decoration for twelve years of service in the TA on 24 August 1999 and promoted to lieutenant colonel on 1 January 2001. She commanded the East Midlands University Officer Training Corps from February 2001 to May 2003, and was nominated for appointment as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, which was approved in the 2003 Birthday Honours.

In her personal life, she married John Attlee, 3rd Earl Attlee, on 31 July 1993, and was styled Countess Attlee after the marriage. She later divorced the Earl and married John Harvey, a TA colonel, with whom she has a child born in November 2001. Harvey has worked as an instructor at the Joint Services Command and Staff College and was promoted to colonel on 1 March 2005. She was awarded the Queen's Volunteer Reserves Medal in the 2009 New Year Honours and received the Volunteer Reserve Service Medal on 23 June 2009.

Harvey was selected as the Conservative Party candidate for the Leicester West constituency in July 2009. She contested in the 2010 United Kingdom general election, finishing second to Labour's Liz Kendall, with an increased Conservative vote share. Her campaign resulted in a decrease of Labour’s majority to 4,017 from 9,070.

In her academic career, Harvey has worked as a lecturer in business studies and published research on topics including innovation and entrepreneurship, such as her 2014 publication titled *Entrepreneurship and Marketing: Issues for Independent Inventors*. She also worked as a consultant for Marketwise in 2004 and is involved with her local branch of the Royal British Legion.

By 2017, Harvey attained the rank of brigadier and served as assistant commander of Force Troops Command. On 4 June 2019, it was announced by Defence Secretary Penny Mordaunt that Harvey would be promoted to major general and appointed deputy commander of the Field Army, effective March 2020. Her promotion made her the third female major general in the British Army and the first from the reserve forces. She assumed this position on 11 March 2020, and was promoted to major-general simultaneously. Harvey retired from the British Army on 4 December 2022.