New head of Army faces tough challenges

Gen Wall, 55, who is currently the Commander-in-Chief Land Forces, will take over as Chief of the General Staff in September.

He succeeds General Sir David Richards who is to become the overall

head of the armed forces as the Chief of the Defence Staff.

Lieutenant General Sir Nick Parker, who is deputy commander of international forces in Afghanistan, will be the new Commander-in-Chief Land.

Defence Secretary 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."

Gen Wall takes over at a difficult time for the Army.

He will have to oversee the continuing operations in Afghanistan amid clear signs that the new coalition Government is anxious to start bringing home the 10,000-strong British contingent as soon as possible.

At the same time he will be responsible for implementing the outcome of the strategic defence and security review – which is expected to see painful cuts for all three armed services.

Gen Wall joined the Army in 1974 with the Royal Engineers before studying engineering at Cambridge.

He saw early service in Belize, Rhodesia, Germany and Hong Kong, before becoming Chief of Staff of 5 Airborne Brigade.

That was followed by spells commanding 9 Parachute Squadron Royal Engineers and 32 Engineer Regiment, deploying on operations in Bosnia.

In 1999 he was promoted to brigadier and was given command of 24 Airmobile Brigade.

Two years later he was made Chief of Joint Force Operations and during the invasion of Iraq in 2003, served as Chief of Staff to the UK contingent in Qatar.

He was made Deputy Chief of Joint Operations in 2005, Deputy Chief of the Defence Staff (Commitments) in 2007, and took up his current post in 2009.