Simon Mayall

Mayall was educated at St George's College, Weybridge, Balliol College, Oxford (Bachelor of Arts in Modern History, 1979) and King's College London (Master of Arts in International Relations).[1]

Mayall was commissioned into the 15th/19th The King's Royal Hussars in 1979.[2] From 1985 to 1988 he was seconded to the Sultan of Oman's Land Forces.[1] He was operations officer for the 1st Armoured Division in the Gulf War.[2] After that he completed a Defence Fellowship at St Antony's College, Oxford studying Turkish security policy.[1] He then became Commanding Officer of 1st The Queen's Dragoon Guards in 1997,[2] in which capacity he was deployed to the British Army Training Unit Suffield and to Northern Ireland.[1]

In 2001 Mayall became Commander of 1st Mechanised Brigade, which was subsequently deployed to Kosovo.[3] He received the Queen's Commendation for Valuable Service in recognition of his "distinguished services" on the deployment.[4] Mayall was the Deputy Commanding General of the Multi-National Corps – Iraq in late 2006 and early 2007,[2] for which he was awarded an Officer of the Legion of Merit by the United States.[5] He was appointed Assistant Chief of the General Staff in January 2007 and,[2] in 2009, became Deputy Chief of the Defence Staff (Operations).[6] He was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath in the 2010 New Year Honours,[7] and made Defence Senior Advisor Middle East at the Ministry of Defence in May 2011.[8] He was replaced in that role by Lieutenant General Tom Beckett in late 2014,[9] having been appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2014 Birthday Honours.[10][11]

In 2015, Mayall retired from military service and joined Greenhill & Co., an investment bank, as a senior advisor.[12] On 25 February 2015, he was appointed Lieutenant of the Tower of London.[13] He retired from that post on 20 August 2021.[14]