Later Career
Guthrie, after retiring as Chief of the Defence Staff He was one of the several retired Chiefs of Defence Staff who spoke out in the House of Lords about the risk to servicemen facing liability for their actions before the International Criminal Court, particularly in respect to the invasion of Iraq. was created a Life Peer, as Baron Guthrie of Craigiebank, of Craigiebank in the City of Dundee, in June 2001, and sits as a crossbencher in the House of Lords. However Guthrie has been criticised by George Monbiot for an alleged lack of understanding of international law. Monbiot based his argument on Guthrie's September 2002 statement for an invasion of Iraq and subsequent comments, in which he appeared to support launching "surprise wars", something forbidden by the United Nations Charter. Guthrie also clashed with Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown in 2008 over military funding.
In 2007 Guthrie co-authored a book on Ethics in Modern Warfare with Michael Quinlan, former Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Defence.
Guthrie was promoted to the honorary rank of Field Marshal in June 2012. Guthrie represented HRH the Prince of Wales at the Cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday 2012 where he was photographed wearing the epaulettes of a Field Marshal and carrying his Field Marshal's baton.
Guthrie is a non-executive director of N M Rothschild & Sons, Gulf Keystone Petroleum, Ashley Gardens Block 2 Ltd, Colt Defense LLC, Sciens Capital and Petropavlovsk PLC and non-executive chairman of Siboney Ltd. He is also a member of the Top Level Group of UK Parliamentarians for Multilateral Nuclear Disarmament and Non-proliferation, established in October 2009.
Guthrie is President of several charities, including Action Medical Research, the Army Benevolent Fund, the Federation of London Youth Clubs and the Progressive Supranuclear Palsy Association. He is a Deputy Lieutenant for Dorset.
A Roman Catholic convert, he became a Knight of Malta and Patron of the Cardinal Hume Centre.
His interests include tennis, opera and travel.
Read more about this topic: Charles Guthrie, Baron Guthrie Of Craigiebank
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