Lieutenant General Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a three-star military rank (NATO code OF-8) used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the ...

Sir Simon Vincent Mayall, (born 7 March 1956) is a retired

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

officer and a Middle East Adviser at the Ministry of Defence.

Early life

Mayall was educated at St George's College, Weybridge, Balliol College, Oxford (

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...

in Modern History, 1979) and King's College London (

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Th ...

in International Relations).

Military career

Mayall was commissioned into the 15th/19th The King's Royal Hussars in 1979.Sandhurst Foundation
From 1985 to 1988 he was seconded to the Sultan of Oman's Land Forces. He was operations officer for the 1st Armoured Division in the

Gulf War The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a Coalition of the Gulf War, 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Ba'athist Iraq, ...

. After that he completed a Defence Fellowship at St Antony's College, Oxford studying Turkish security policy. He then became Commanding Officer of

1st The Queen's Dragoon Guards 1st The Queen's Dragoon Guards (QDG) is a regiment in the Royal Armoured Corps of the British Army. Nicknamed The Welsh Cavalry, the regiment recruits from Wales and the bordering English counties of Cheshire, Herefordshire, and Shropshire, a ...

in 1997, in which capacity he was deployed to the British Army Training Unit Suffield and to

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

. In 2001 Mayall became Commander of 1st Mechanised Brigade, which was subsequently deployed to

Kosovo Kosovo ( sq, Kosova or ; sr-Cyrl, Косово ), officially the Republic of Kosovo ( sq, Republika e Kosovës, links=no; sr, Република Косово, Republika Kosovo, links=no), is a partially recognised state in Southeast Euro ...

. He received the

Queen's Commendation for Valuable Service The King's Commendation for Valuable Service is a British military award for meritorious service in an operational theatre. It was established in 1994, when the award of the Queen's Commendation for Brave Conduct and the Queen's Commendation for ...

in recognition of his "distinguished services" on the deployment. Mayall was the Deputy Commanding General of the

Multi-National Corps – Iraq Multi-National Corps – Iraq (MNC-I) was a formerly multinational, later U.S. only, army corps created on 15 May 2004, fighting the Iraq War. Its superior body, the Multi-National Force-Iraq (MNF-I) had replaced Combined Joint Task Force 7 on ...

in late 2006 and early 2007, for which he was awarded an

Officer of the Legion of Merit The Legion of Merit (LOM) is a military award of the United States Armed Forces that is given for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services and achievements. The decoration is issued to members of the eight ...

by the United States. He was appointed Assistant Chief of the General Staff in January 2007 and, in 2009, became Deputy Chief of the Defence Staff (Operations). He was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath in the

2010 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 2010 were announced on 31 December 2009 in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Cook Islands, Barbados, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Saint Lucia, Belize, Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Christopher and NevisSaint Christ ...

, and made Defence Senior Advisor Middle East at the Ministry of Defence in May 2011. He was replaced in that role by Lieutenant General

Tom Beckett Lieutenant-General Sir Thomas Anthony Beckett, (born 1962) is a former British Army officer. He served as Chief of Staff for the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan. Early life and education Beckett was born in 1962 in Bahra ...

in late 2014, having been appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the

2014 Birthday Honours The 2014 Birthday Honours were appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. The Birthday Honours are awarded as part of ...

Post-retirement

In 2015, Mayall retired from military service and joined Greenhill & Co., an investment bank, as a senior advisor. On 25 February 2015, he was appointed

Lieutenant of the Tower of London The Lieutenant of the Tower of London serves directly under the Constable of the Tower. The office has been appointed at least since the 13th century. There were formerly many privileges, immunities and perquisites attached to the office. Like the ...

. He retired from that post on 20 August 2021.

References

, - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Mayall, Simon 1956 births 1st The Queen's Dragoon Guards officers 15th/19th The King's Royal Hussars officers Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford Alumni of King's College London British Army generals British Army personnel of the Gulf War British Army personnel of the Iraq War Companions of the Order of the Bath Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire Living people Officers of the Legion of Merit People educated at St George's College, Weybridge Recipients of the Commendation for Valuable Service