UK — New Chief of the General Staff announced

Her Majesty The Queen has approved the appoint­ment of Gen­er­al Sir Peter Wall as the new Chief of the Gen­er­al Staff, it has been announced today, Thurs­day 29 July 2010.

Gen­er­al Sir Peter Wall KCB CBE ADC Gen Source: Min­istry of Defence, UK Click to enlarge

Gen­er­al Wall will take over from the cur­rent Chief of the Gen­er­al Staff, Gen­er­al Sir David Richards, in Sep­tem­ber this year. 

Lieu­tenant Gen­er­al Sir Nick Park­er, cur­rent­ly Deputy Com­man­der Inter­na­tion­al Secu­ri­ty Assis­tance Force — Afghanistan, will take over from Gen­er­al Wall as Com­man­der-in-Chief Land Forces, in the rank of Gen­er­al, in Octo­ber this year. 

The Sec­re­tary of State for Defence, Dr Liam Fox, said: 

“I’m absolute­ly delight­ed with both of these appoint­ments. We’re very lucky to have men of such high cal­i­bre at this time.” 

Gen­er­al Sir Peter Wall KCB CBE ADC Gen 

Gen­er­al Sir Peter Wall (Late Corps of Roy­al Engi­neers) is cur­rent­ly Com­man­der-in-Chief Land Forces. 

Peter Wall was com­mis­sioned into the Roy­al Engi­neers (RE) in 1974 then read Engi­neer­ing at Cam­bridge. His ear­ly ser­vice was spent in Belize and Rhode­sia, in ‘Cold War’ Ger­many, as a pla­toon instruc­tor at Sand­hurst, and in Hong Kong. 

He has com­mand­ed 9 Para­chute Squadron RE, 32 Engi­neer Reg­i­ment in Hohne — includ­ing time in Bosnia, 16 Air Assault Brigade in the UK, the Joint Force Head­quar­ters, and 1st (UK) Armoured Divi­sion in Iraq and Germany. 

Staff posts have includ­ed Chief of Staff of 5 Air­borne Brigade, a Mil­i­tary Advis­er post in MOD, Project Man­ag­er in Abbey Wood, Chief of Staff of the UK Nation­al Con­tin­gent HQ for Op TELIC 1, and Deputy Chief of Joint Oper­a­tions (Ops) in the Per­ma­nent Joint Headquarters. 

In July 2009 he moved from Deputy Chief of the Defence Staff (Oper­a­tions) in MOD to become Com­man­der-in-Chief Land Forces in Wilton. 

He is Chief Roy­al Engi­neer and pres­i­dent of Army rug­by, Asso­ci­a­tion Foot­ball, mod­ern pen­tathlon and sport para­chut­ing. Mar­ried to Fiona, they have two teenage sons, Alexan­der and Archie. He fol­lows most sports and plays occa­sion­al games of golf and vil­lage cricket. 

Lieu­tenant Gen­er­al Sir Nick Park­er KCB CBE Source: Min­istry of Defence, UK Click to enlarge

Lieu­tenant Gen­er­al Sir Nick Park­er KCB CBE

Lieu­tenant Gen­er­al Sir Nick Park­er (Late Roy­al Green Jack­ets) is cur­rent­ly Deputy Com­man­der Inter­na­tion­al Secu­ri­ty Assis­tance Force — Afghanistan. 

Nick Park­er was com­mis­sioned in 1973. After ear­ly ser­vice in the infantry he com­mand­ed the 2nd Bat­tal­ion The Roy­al Green Jack­ets from 1994 to 1995. 

His staff train­ing includes the Army Staff Course in 1986 and the High­er Com­mand and Staff Course in 1996. He has held two staff appoint­ments in the Min­istry of Defence. He com­mand­ed 20th Armoured Brigade from 1997 to 1999 — this includ­ed some time in Bosnia, and he was Gen­er­al Offi­cer Com­mand­ing (GOC) 2nd Divi­sion and Gov­er­nor of Edin­burgh Cas­tle from 2002 to 2004. He has been both the Deputy Com­man­dant (1999–2001) and the Com­man­dant (2004–2005) of the Joint Staff College. 

Recent oper­a­tional tours include the com­man­der of the UK Joint Task Force and advi­sor to the Pres­i­dent of Sier­ra Leone in 2001 and Deputy Com­mand­ing Gen­er­al (UK) Mul­ti-Nation­al Corps Iraq from August 2005 to Feb­ru­ary 2006. 

He took over as GOC North­ern Ire­land in July 2006, UK Com­man­der Region­al Forces in August 2007 and took over as Deputy Com­man­der ISAF in Novem­ber 2009. 

He is mar­ried to Bec­cy and has two sons. His inter­ests include fish­ing and Coro­na­tion Street. 

Press release
Min­istry of Defence, UK 

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