Army officer who grew up in Boston speaks of pride at receiving OBE

Lt Col Daniel Herberts was made an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in the 2025 New Year’s Honours.

The married, father-of-two was born in Nottingham in 1979, but grew up in the Boston area (mainly Sibsey) from the age of seven, attending Old Leake Primary School and Boston Grammar School.

He was awarded his OBE in recognition of his work as the Commanding Officer of 5th Regiment Royal Artillery (The Yorkshire Gunners) from February 2022 to August 2024.

An extract from his citation reads: “As Commanding Officer, Lt Col Herberts electrified his people to realise an operationally agile force with battle-winning potential.

“His leadership and passion has revitalised the regiment comprehensively. He has transformed every aspect of his regiment to place it at the very start point of the Army’s warfighting capability while sustaining persistent operational output.”

Speaking to The Standard last week, he said: “I feel proud of all I have achieved and done in my career of over 24 years to date, but would consider being awarded an OBE as recognition for my time as Commanding Officer a specific career highlight.

“Commanding Officer was a hugely rewarding but demanding role. It provided me with many complex problems to solve and manage, but it came with the privilege to then deliver change and to improve people’s lives.

“Command of any large organisation is typically quite lonely, but I was fortunate to have a team full of exceptional, loyal individuals who trusted my vision and worked hard to achieve it – I am most grateful to them.”

The 5th Regiment Royal Artillery is based at Catterick, North Yorkshire. In his role there, Lt Col Herberts was responsible for the command of the 525 service personnel in the regiment and the support to their families. This included welfare, infrastructure, equipment (vehicles and military systems), training and support.

He said: “It was a challenging time. The invasion of Ukraine occurred in my very first week, we had the honour of supporting the funeral of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and for the Coronation of His Majesty King Charles III and, after implementing a few changes, we provided persistent support on numerous operations (Central Europe, Kosovo, Cyprus, Middle East) and deployments around the world and support to the Home Office in the UK.”

Having passed army officer selection when he was young, Lt Col Herberts says he knew what his likely path would be after school. However, to gain some life experience first, he completed a degree in sports science, before joining the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in January 2001, aged 21.

Since joining the army, he has completed numerous operational tours, including in Iraq, Afghanistan and with the United Nations.

In addition, he has been deployed around the world and has lived in Germany, Canada, Cyprus, Edinburgh and in numerous other locations across the UK, including two years working in Whitehall at the Ministry of Defence.

Today, he lives with his wife and two sons plus an energetic cocker spaniel called Poppy, in Wiltshire.

There, he works at the nearby Army headquarters on leading military capability design, and on Monday is due to assume the rank of colonel.