Prime Minister Boris Johnson has appointed former Scots Guards officer Ben Wallace defense secretary, making him the latest member of the storied unit to reach the highest levels of British government.
Wallace replaces Penny Mordaunt, the first serving naval officer to hold the post, after just 85 days. The member of parliament for a Lancashire district, Wallace supported the Remain campaign during the 2016 Brexit referendum but was one of two people to sign staunch Leaver Johnson’s nomination papers to become Conservative Party leader after Theresa May announced her resignation in May.
Wallace, 49, entered the Scots Guards at 20 following his graduation from the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. His deployments included Germany, Cyprus, and South America, with his fighting feats earning him the moniker “Captain Fantastic.”
Former Scots Guard commander Lt. Col. Willie Swinton said he remembered Wallace well from their time serving together in Belize during the 1990s, calling the London-born officer a very effective soldier.
“I’m delighted, he’ll be really good,” Swinton, who lives in the United States, told the Washington Examiner. “It’s always exceptional to have somebody in that appointment both in the U.K. and indeed here, if at all possible, who has got prior military service.”
Wallace earned a mention in dispatches while in combat against a terrorist unit in Northern Ireland and left the Army in 1998, after suffering wounds during a gun battle.
He almost immediately entered the Scottish parliament, where he stayed until heading to Westminster as an MP in 2005. He also served as the overseas director of British multinational defense contractor QinetiQ from 2003 to 2005.
The Scotsman bid farewell to the member after six years by declaring, “The Scottish parliament will certainly be a quieter and more restrained place without him.” The paper called him “a colourful, quotable, young Tory” and noted, “For a man who likes gangster films, action thriller novels and My Fair Lady, yet whose dress sense is reminiscent of the 1920s, he is not a typical MSP.”
Before May appointed Wallace her security minister, he chaired the all-parliamentary group on Iran from 2006 to 2014. That puts him in position to tackle perhaps the most pressing problem his department faces. Iran seized a British-flagged oil tanker a week ago in retaliation for Britain’s seizure of an Iranian tanker headed to Syria in violation of European Union and U.S. sanctions.
Wallace joins fellow guardsman Alex Younger, the head of the MI6 intelligence service, in government.
Swinton was also a contemporary of Younger and called him a “fantastic guy” who has led a more private life than Wallace, due to his intelligence background. Younger left the military after four years of service in 1990 and joined MI6 the next year. He has been vocal in his belief that cyberattacks and propaganda efforts by hostile states pose a “fundamental threat” to European democracy.
Founded in 1642, the Scots Guards are one of the five elite foot guards of the British Army and the oldest serving formed regiment. While they are most recognized for their bright red uniforms and ceremonial role guarding the royal family, the Scots Guards are a premier front-line force with a reputation for toughness, including during a famous bayonet charge during the 1982 Falklands War.
Scots Guard veterans now fill two of the most important national security positions in government, but though the unit is only around 800 strong, its members have a long history of success both in and out of the military.
Mark Carleton-Smith, the chief of the British Army, was in the Irish Guards but also served with the Scots. Tim Spicer, the head of major defense contractor Aegis, commanded the Scots Guards and served in the unit from 1970 until 1994. David Stirling, the founder of Britain’s Special Air Service, was a member of the Scots Guards before creating the commando force during World War II.
Swinton himself went on to a successful career in the defense industry after leaving the Guards, joining Spicer at Aegis from 2012 to 2014 before moving to his current post at GardaWorld Federal Services.
When asked what makes a Scots Guardsman so special, Swinton said the organization has high expectations of its members and demands “excellence in action,” in ceremony and on the battlefield.
