Chris Ghika, the British major general who was rebuked by the Pentagon for saying there was “no increased threat” from Iran, is a descendant of Romanian royalty who took part in the 2011 wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton.
Ghika, 47, a Northern Ireland, Balkans, Sierra Leone, Iraq, and Afghanistan veteran, is the son of the late Brigadier Prince John Ghika, an Irish Guards officer who traced his royal title back to 1658, when the Ghika dynasty ruled over Moldavia and later Wallachia. The family lost its ruling status in 1859 when the two principalities were joined, but the title and lands remained intact.
In 2015, he was accused of colluding with criminals to claim a forest owned by the Romanian state. He was said to have exaggerated his royal inheritance so he could claim the 43,000-hectare forest through a Romanian restitution process after the collapse of its communist government. Ghika said the allegations were “completely untrue.”
Prince John Ghika was sent to England after Romania was caught up in World War II following Germany’s invasion of Poland in 1939. The young Prince John was registered as an enemy alien because Romania was an ally of Germany, but he was educated at the Catholic boarding school Ampleforth nevertheless.
In 1978, when the Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu and his wife Elena paid a state visit to Britain, Prince John Ghika was the commander of the Irish Guards troops on parade and mounted on his horse at the entrance to Buckingham Palace as they arrived.
Chris Ghika followed his father’s path by commissioning into the Irish Guards — known as “the micks” and with a history of foreigners and oddballs in its officers’ mess — in 1993. He was a platoon commander in Northern Ireland during the Irish Troubles and also served in Macedonia in 1998 and Kosovo in 1999 during the Balkans conflict.
When Prince John Ghika died in 2003, the Times of London noted in his obituary that he had “a son, who is a major in the Irish Guards and will continue the title, as Prince Christopher Ghika.”
Chris Ghika, who does not use the title “prince” publicly, was a military observer during the civil war in Sierra Leone and commanded a company in Iraq and then the Irish Guards battalion in Helmand in 2010 during some of the bloodiest combat experienced by the British. He was also a military aide in British Ministry of Defense, where he was a friend of Lt. Col. Rupert Thorneloe, who in 2009 became the first British battalion commander to be killed in action since the Falklands War in 1982.
After his return from Helmand, he took part in the marriage of Prince William — the 10th colonel of the Irish Guards — to Kate Middleton, saying: “There is no greater contrast than between being on patrol in Afghanistan and being in the Queen’s Guard on the day of the royal wedding, but the requirements are the same: self-discipline, being part of a team, and generating excellence in whatever we do.”
Ghika’s open split with the Americans is especially unfortunate given his long experience of operating with U.S. forces and the esteem for him among American troops; he became deputy commander of the 1st Infantry Division — known at “the Big Red One” — based at Fort Riley, Kan., deploying with them to Iraq for nine months in 2015.
He became deputy commander of strategy and information for the U.S.-led Operation Inherent Resolve campaign against ISIS last summer.
Ghika earned a rare rebuke from the Pentagon on Tuesday after he downplayed the threat posed by Iran to troops in Iraq and Syria. “There’s been no increased threat from Iranian-backed forces in Iraq and Syria,” he told reporters in a video press briefing from Baghdad.
Hours later, U.S. Central Command issued a statement that said Ghika’s comments “run counter to identified credible threats available to intelligence from U.S. and allies regarding Iranian-backed forces in the region.”
