Alex Walmsley, charity trustee and defence consultant
Alex Walmsley graduated with a MA Honours degree in Modern History with International Relations in 1993, and then stayed to complete a PhD in Modern History in 1998. She has enjoyed a long career in the defence sector advising on foreign policy and nuclear waste management.
Alex Walmsley (née Ashbourne) remembers her time at St Andrews fondly. She lived in University Hall for four years as an undergraduate and served as the Hall Treasurer. She also was the President of Russian Society and remains close friends with members of her academic family to this day.
“I made some lifelong friends, literally on the first night of Freshers’ Week…So many memories of balls, parties, formal dinners, friendship and fun.” [i]
During her time as an undergrad, she studied Modern History, International Relations, Russian, and Scottish History. While completing her PhD on newly independent Lithuania in the early 1990s, Alex tutored Modern History and International Relations and lectured on the collapse of the Soviet Union. She also worked for the late Chancellor Lord Campbell of Pittenweem (who was then Member of Parliament for the university) throughout her undergraduate and postgraduate studies, researching defence issues. [ii]
Though her career path falls more into the IR portion of her joint MA degree, Alex still cherishes her time studying modern history:
“I also remember that during my third and fourth undergraduate years I had the best history lecturer and tutor anyone could ever hope for, and a great tutor group. We would sit every Wednesday in his office on the first floor of St Katharine’s Lodge, with a wonderful view out to the sea. The juxtaposition of this amazing historic building with the quality of teaching and learning that took place there was something that I’ll never forget.”[iii]
After completing her PhD, which was published as a book in 1999 (Lithuania: The Rebirth of a Nation 1991-1994), Alex got a job at the Centre for European Reform and became the think-tank’s first Defence Analyst.
“After graduating I tried to get a job – which wasn’t as easy as you might think! I eventually managed and have spent the last 20 something years being a defence and nuclear consultant, because that is what you do with a PhD in modern Lithuanian history, isn’t it?!”[iv]
While much of Alex’s career has been spent tackling contemporary global defence and nuclear issues rather than history, she has served in a variety of fascinating roles across sectors. After that first job, Alex co-founded a boutique defence consultancy before starting her own strategic defence consulting firm Ashbourne Strategic Consulting Ltd in 2004. It took the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 for her specialism in Eastern European history to finally become relevant in her daily work.
Asked how studying History shaped her career, she says:
“It’s not about the subject per se, but studying history taught me how to analyse and evaluate primary sources, which in this era of “fake news” and AI-generated material, has never been more important. It also taught me how to marshal my thoughts to build a clear and constructive argument. Periodically the specific areas I studied do become relevant – it’s hard not to draw parallels between the prelude to World War II and some of what we’re seeing today. And today instability in Eastern Europe with the War in Ukraine and Putin threatening the NATO alliance has made my area of interest more pertinent than in many decades.”[v]
In addition to her expertise in defence, Alex has enjoyed a secondary branch of her career in the nuclear sector as the Managing Director of the UK’s subsidiary of GEL Laboratories since 2014. The radiochemistry laboratory analyses samples from potentially radioactive sites, as part of decommissioning the UK’s old nuclear power stations.[vi]
Since 2006, Alex has been an Associate Fellow of the Royal United Services Institute, a defence think tank. Additionally, Alex is a Senior Advisor to Newton Europe, a strategic delivery consultancy and to CMS Strategic, a specialist defence PR agency, and as a Special Advisor to FIPRA, a Brussels-based public affairs agency.[vii]
In October of 2024, Alex became the National Vice Chair of SSAFA, the Armed Forces charity which is the UK’s oldest military charity. SSAFA supports 2 million active and former members of the armed forces and their families. Alex has helped fundraise for the charity for twenty years, and had been appointed as a Trustee in 2022.[viii]
In 2025, Alex was elected to the Program Advisory Committee of WM Symposia, which is responsible for the largest annual convention on nuclear waste, and awards a number of scholarships for postgraduate and post-doctoral research into the subject.
Alex will leave a legacy gift to the university as the Ashbourne-Walmsley scholarships for PhD students. When asked her reasoning for doing so, Alex explained that;
“When I was applying to do my PhD, it was virtually impossible to get funding in arts subjects because there was a perception at that time that it should go towards science or science-based work. In my day it was the British Academy that awarded funding, and to get that you needed a First. I was not a stellar student; I was a 2:1 all the way through, so that wasn’t an option for me. That’s why I will always be grateful to the Department of Modern History for awarding me a departmental scholarship to cover my PhD fees. One of my friends who did her PhD at the same time as me took twice as long because she had to work as well. I was lucky – I didn’t have anything to distract me from my research. It made all the difference. Now I’m in a position to give back by setting up a scholarship that will help other History or International Relations students who haven’t got access to PhD funding.”[ix]
Most recently, in early 2026 Alex ran in the University of St Andrews Chancellorian election. She was unsuccessful in the race which was won by current Chancellor Dame Anne Pringle.[x]
This story was written in spring 2026 by Sophia Kazan, MA Modern History (2026). All photos are courtesy of Alex Walmsley.
[i] Alex Walmsley, Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/337950454026/posts/10166305941509027/ [accessed 27 April 2026].
[ii] Alex Walmsley, Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/groups/337950454026/user/100002369865158/ [accessed 27 April 2026].
[iii] University of St Andrews Alumni Relations, ‘Leaving a Legacy: Alexandra Walmsley’, https://alumni.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/2023/02/10/leaving-a-legacy-alexandra-walmsley/ [accessed 27 April 2026].
[iv] University of St Andrews Alumni Relations, ‘Leaving a Legacy: Alexandra Walmsley’, https://alumni.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/2023/02/10/leaving-a-legacy-alexandra-walmsley/ [accessed 27 April 2026].
[v] Personal communication from Alex Walmsley, 5 May 2026.
[vi] ‘Alex Walmsley (Ashbourne)’, LinkedIn, https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-walmsley-ashbourne-547b89/ [accessed 27 April 2026]
[vii] Terence Handley MacMath, ‘Interview: Alex Walmsley, director, Ashbourne Strategic Consulting; national vice-chair of SSAFA’, Church Times (Jan 2025), https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2025/3-january/features/interviews/interview-alex-walmsley-director-ashbourne-strategic-consulting-national-vice-chair-of-ssafa [accessed 27 April 2026].
[viii] ‘Lady Alexandra Walmsley – National Vice Chair’, SSAFA, https://www.ssafa.org.uk/about-us/our-organisation/our-governance/alexandra-walmsley/ [accessed 27 April 2026].
[ix] University of St Andrews Alumni Relations, ‘Leaving a Legacy: Alexandra Walmsley’, https://alumni.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/2023/02/10/leaving-a-legacy-alexandra-walmsley/ [accessed 27 April 2026].
[x] Eden Leavy, ‘Dame Anne Pringle Elected as New University Chancellor’, The Saint Newspaper, https://www.thesaintnewspaper.co.uk/post/dame-anne-pringle-elected-as-new-university-chancellor [accessed 27 April 2026].