Ben Wallace

Robert Ben Lobban Wallace (born 15 May 1970) is a British politician and former British Army Officer who served as Secretary of State for Defence from 2019 to 2023.

Wallace was born on 15 May 1970 in Farnborough, Kent.

His father was a soldier in the 1st King's Dragoon Guards and served in Malaya.

Wallace was educated at Millfield, a private school in Somerset.

While at school, he attended a young officers’ course for the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, and after leaving school was interviewed by the Regular Commissions Board.

He then spent some time as a ski instructor at the Austrian National Ski School in the village of Alpbach in Austria.

After training as a cadet at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, in June 1991 Wallace was commissioned into the Scots Guards as a second lieutenant, with a short service commission.

From 1991 to 1998, he served in Germany, Cyprus, Belize, and Northern Ireland.

In April 1993, he was promoted lieutenant, and later that year was mentioned in dispatches for an incident in Belfast where the patrol he was commanding captured an entire IRA active service unit (ASU) attempting to carry out a bomb attack against British troops.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) later said that no one arrested as a result of the patrol was prosecuted.

In 1996 he was promoted captain.

Wallace was on duty on the night of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, and was a member of the party sent to Paris to bring home her body.

In June 1998, Wallace transferred from the Active List to the Regular Army Reserve of Officers as a captain, thereby ending his active service and beginning a period of call-up liability.

He later explained that he had decided against seeking to become a regular officer and to continue after the age of thirty, as the part of the work he had really enjoyed was commanding soldiers, and this was likely to diminish after that point.

Wallace is a member of the Royal Company of Archers, a ceremonial unit that serves as the Sovereign's bodyguard in Scotland.

As such, he participated in the vigil over the Queen's coffin as she lay in state in Westminster Hall on 15 September 2022.

Wallace entered politics after leaving the army, citing as a reason for this decision the experience he had commanding men from some of the UK's most economically deprived areas, which he averred could be improved by promoting a more aspirational society.

He was elected in 1999 as a Conservative list Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for North East Scotland, serving until 2003.

He subsequently resigned from the Scottish Parliament, moved to Lancashire and sought selection for a Westminster constituency in England.

Wallace became a Conservative Member of the Scottish Parliament in 1999, as a list MSP for North East Scotland.

He did not seek re-election at the 2003 Scottish Parliament election, as he sought selection for a Westminster constituency in England.

Wallace was the Scottish Conservatives' shadow health spokesman during that time.

From 2003 to 2005 he was overseas director of the aerospace company QinetiQ, the UK's former Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA).

A member of the Conservative Party, he has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Wyre and Preston North, formerly Lancaster and Wyre, since 2005.

Before becoming involved in politics, Wallace was a captain in the Scots Guards.

First elected to the UK Parliament in 2005, Wallace served as a backbencher for nearly five years.

Wallace was elected as Member of Parliament for the Lancaster and Wyre constituency at the 2005 general election.

He gained the seat from Labour with 22,266 votes and a majority of 4,171 (8.0%).

Wallace faced local criticism after it was revealed that in 2008 he had made the fourth-highest expenses claim of any MP, claiming £175,523 on top of his £63,000 salary.

However, he defended this by arguing that his constituency had an electorate that was nearly 20% larger than the average one in England.

From 2010 to 2014, he was Parliamentary Private Secretary to the then Secretary of State for Justice, Ken Clarke.

His constituency was abolished for the 2010 general election, and Wallace was instead returned for the new seat of Wyre and Preston North with 26,877 votes and a majority of 15,844 (30.9%).

Wallace served as a party whip from July 2014 to May 2015.

Following the 2015 general election and the formation of the majority Cameron government, he became Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Northern Ireland Office.

He was re-elected at the 2015, 2017, and 2019 general elections, with majorities suggesting he now held a safe seat for his party.

In 2016, he was appointed Minister of State for Security and Economic Crime by Theresa May, holding the position until she left office in July 2019.

A supporter of Boris Johnson, Wallace was promoted to the senior cabinet role of Secretary of State for Defence, after Johnson became Prime Minister.

He continued the role under Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, making him the longest serving member of the Cabinet to serve continuously in the same position until he left office.

In July 2023, he announced that he intended to resign as Secretary of State for Defence at the next Cabinet reshuffle, and that he would not be seeking re-election as an MP at the next general election.

In August 2023, Wallace formally resigned as Secretary of State for Defence.