Wall graduated from the
Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and was commissioned into the
Royal Engineers in April 1974 with his commission being confirmed in December 1974, with effect from 9 March the same year. After a short period of military duties, Wall studied engineering at
University of Cambridge, before joining airborne forces and going on to serve with the Royal Engineers in
Belize and
Rhodesia. Wall was promoted to
captain on 9 September 1980 and to
major on 30 September 1987. He was appointed Chief of Staff of the
5th Airborne Brigade in 1988, before commanding
9 Parachute Squadron, Royal Engineers from 1990. he was appointed Commanding Officer of
32 Engineer Regiment in Germany in 1994, He was deployed to the
Former Republic of Yugoslavia in Spring 1996, promoted to
colonel on 30 June and awarded the
Queen's Commendation for Valuable Service in November. He was then promoted to
brigadier on 31 December 1998 with seniority from 30 June 1998, before assuming command of
24 Airmobile Brigade in 1999. Wall went on to serve as Chief of Staff of the National Contingent HQ in Qatar, overseeing UK operations in Iraq, from January 2003. In May 2003, Wall assumed the appointment of
General Officer Commanding 1st (UK) Armoured Division with the substantive rank of
major general, in which capacity he was responsible for security in
Basra in Iraq. In 2005, he became Deputy Chief of Joint Operations at the
Permanent Joint Headquarters Northwood and, on 1 August 2007, he was appointed
Deputy Chief of the Defence Staff (Commitments) and promoted to
lieutenant general. Appointed a Knight Commander of the
Order of the Bath in the
2009 Birthday Honours, Wall succeeded General
Sir Kevin O'Donoghue as
Chief Royal Engineer on 10 May 2009 before taking up the post of
Commander-in-Chief, Land Forces and receiving promotion to the substantive rank of
general on 17 July 2009. He was also appointed the
aide-de-camp general to Queen
Elizabeth II on 30 October 2009. , commander
ISAF, in January 2012. On 6 January 2010, Wall
gave evidence to the
Iraq Inquiry in which he claimed that troops were vulnerable in their base at
Basra Palace and in May 2010, Wall was listed amongst the top 172 government servants that earn more than the Prime Minister, with a salary of £160–165,000, excluding his non-contributory final salary pension. Then on 29 July 2010, Wall was named as the next
Chief of the General Staff, the professional head of the British Army. On 15 September 2010 Wall took over the post from General
Sir David Richards who became
Chief of the Defence Staff in late October 2010. On 24 June 2011, it was reported that Wall, who had publicly questioned Prime Minister
David Cameron's handling of the conflict in
Afghanistan, would – in a major defence reorganisation that would also affect the other service chiefs – lose his position on the Defence Board, the highest non-ministerial Ministry of Defence committee, which makes decision on all aspects of military policy. The changes took effect on 1 November 2011. Amidst ministerial, Wall told an army magazine in April 2014 that lifting the ban on women serving in combat units was "something we need to be considering seriously." It came to light that, under European law, the policy of preventing female soldiers from applying for certain jobs in the army was to be reviewed by 2018, and that the US, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Holland, Denmark, Norway and Israel all allowed women to serve in combat units.
The Times had reported that his main motivation for changing this rule was showing potential female recruits that the army was an equal opportunities employer: Wall was appointed
Colonel Commandant of the
Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers in 2002, He was appointed a
Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath in the
2013 Birthday Honours. From April 2012 until August 2016 Wall served as the Colonel Commandant of the
Brigade of Gurkhas. He was elected an Honorary Fellow of the
Royal Academy of Engineering in 2013. Since leaving the army, Wall co-founded and is Chief Executive of a leadership and change consultancy, Amicus Limited. ==Personal life==