Simon Mayall

Lieutenant General Simon Vincent Mayall, CB, is Middle East Adviser at the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence.

Early life
Mayall studied Modern History at Balliol College, Oxford, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in 1979.

Military career
Mayall was commissioned into the 15th/19th The King's Royal Hussars in 1979. From 1985 to 1988 he was seconded to the Sultan of Oman's Land Forces. He was operations officer for 1st Armoured Division in the first Gulf War. 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 in 1997 in which capacity he was deployed to the British Army Training Unit Suffield and to Northern Ireland.

In 2001 Mayall became Commander of 1st Mechanised Brigade which was subsequently deployed to Kosovo. He was the Deputy Commanding General of the Multi-National Corps – Iraq in late 2006 and early 2007. 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 made Middle East Adviser at the Ministry of Defence in May 2011.

Mayall was appointed Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in the 2010 New Year Honours.