Geeks with guns and gongs

An Army sergeant major has been awarded an MBE for his work in creating the British Army's website.

Sergeant major Russell Manning has been in the Army since he was 16-years-old. He spent 15 years with the Royal Artillery.

Manning taught himself his IT skills while with the Royal Artillery export support team - helping UK companies sell defence equipment. He developed an interest in computers and taught himself basic programming and system analysis.

This led to a posting to sort out the Army's website. He changed it from a basic brochure to an informative, interactive page with full job listings. The next stage will see it offer internal email, online learning, and interactive message boards.

Sergeant Major Manning created a content management system that allows anyone with basic IT skills to update the site. The Army claims this means the site can be maintained by four people instead of a team of 50 normally required.

An editor with basic knowledge of Microsoft Word should be able to update content on the site.

Manning claims to have had offers of work by the private sector but is happy to soldier on.

The Army now receives 40 per cent of initial recruitment enquiries through its website and received 50,000 such enquiries last year.

Manning was awarded the honour at Buckingham Palace last Friday.