Alex Walmsley MA (Hons) 1993 Ph.D. 1998

Alex excels in Ambassadorial leadership roles and is a skilled fundraiser. She inspires and motivates people around her and brings energy and positivity to everything she does. She is international in outlook, cosmopolitan, comfortable addressing audiences whether large or small, engaging with individuals and global media organisations and a staunch advocate for causes about which she cares. She is approachable, relatable, and would be visible within the university community. 

One of her colleagues offered the following endorsement: "on a regular basis I speak to people about what an incredible ambassador you are. The passion you have for the organisation, and how you share that with the people you meet, is at a level I haven’t seen anywhere else in my career."

St Andrews University - and St Andrews the town - is somewhere which holds a special place in her heart. It is the place which made her the woman she is now, both personally and professionally. She is St Andrews to her core. She would excel as its ceremonial figurehead, representing the university locally, nationally and around the world. 

Alex graduated from St Andrews in 1993 with a MA(Hons) in Modern History with International Relations and then again in 1998 with a Ph.D. in Modern History. She also studied Russian and Scottish History. She was President of the Russian Society from 1990-1992.

While a postgraduate, Alex tutored First Arts Modern History, Junior Honours International Relations, and lectured on the collapse of the USSR. She worked

throughout her studies as a researcher for the late Ming Campbell.

Alex lived in University Hall from 1989-1993, and served as Treasurer of the Hall Committee for the last two years. She then moved to a flat in North Street for her Ph.D. years.

Alex is now the National Vice-Chair of SSAFA the Armed Forces Charity, the world's oldest tri-service military charity, supporting some 2 million eligible beneficiaries (serving and former British military personnel and their familiies) around the world, from Canada to Thailand. She is responsible for the charity's governance and is also heavily involved in fundraising and philanthropy. Since being widowed in 2022, she is focusing on what gives her a real sense of purpose and satisfaction. SSAFA has given her a reason to not just to keep going, but to thrive in this new chapter of her life. 

But back in 1998, on leaving St Andrews, Alex became the first defence analyst at the Centre for European Reform and launched the Centre’s Russia programme. She also began honing her

philanthropy skills and secured a significant proportion of the Centre’s vital income.

In 2001, Alex started consulting and founded Ashbourne Strategic Consulting Ltd in 2004, specialising in transatlantic security. Since 2014, Alex has built a secondary career in the nuclear sector, running the UK subsidiary of America’s GEL Laboratories and advising radiation detection businesses. 

In 2025 Alex was elected to the Program

Advisory Committee of WM Symposia, the global organisation dedicated to the safe management of radioactive matter. She chairs NATO’s annual Radiological/Nuclear Conference.

Alex is Senior Adviser to the global consultants Newton and also to FIPRA, headquartered in Brussels. From 2007-2012 she was a member of UK Trade & Investment’s Defence Advisory Group. 

Alex was appointed an Associate Fellow of the Royal United Services Institute in 2006 and elected as a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society in 2012. Her book, Lithuania: the Rebirth of a Nation, was published in 1999. 

Not a straightforward question! At work, Alex is Dr Alexandra Walmsley after being awarded her Ph.D. (a lot of her colleagues call her "Dr A"). She became Lady Walmsley by virtue of her marriage to her wonderful and much-missed husband, Vice Admiral Sir Robert Walmsley. As a student and until her marriage she was Alex Ashbourne. But she is just Alex to everyone who knows her!