He was born in 1950 and was educated at Hele's School Exeter, the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and St Johns College Cambridge. He was commissioned in 1970 into the Royal Tank Regiment and served with the 3rd Royal Tank Regiment in Germany and Northern Ireland as a troop leader equipped with Chieftain Tanks and armoured reconnaissance vehicles. He qualified as a helicopter pilot in 1974 and commanded the 1st Royal Tank Regiment Air Squadron in Central America and Northern Ireland.

He attended the Army Staff College Camberley in 1982. He commanded the 3rd Royal Tank Regiment and the 7th Armoured Brigade - the Desert Rats, and was the commander of UN Forces in Central Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1994. He has served in the Ministry of Defence as Colonel Army Programmes running the Army budget, as the first Director of Operational Capability and the first Director General of Training and Education. He has also been employed as the Chief of Joint Force Operations which included service with the US led Coalition Task Force in Kuwait. He was the Chief of Staff of the NATO ACE Rapid Reaction Corps and Chief of Staff of Kosovo Force for the entry into Kosovo in 1999. His last military appointment was as Chief of Defence Intelligence and Deputy Chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee.

His overseas service has included duty in Germany, Northern Ireland, Belize, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kuwait, Macedonia and Kosovo.

He was appointed CBE in 1995 and CB in 2001 and awarded a QCVS in 2000. He received the US Defense Intelligence Agency award in 2005. He was admitted as a Commander Brother in the Order of St John in December 2006.

He is married to Valerie, a professional housewife and mother, and has four children and two granddaughters and one grandson. He is Honorary Colonel of Cambridge University Officer Training Corps and a keen support of the British Bobsleigh Association. He is a member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies and the Royal United Services Institute. His interests include skiing, bobsleighing, fly-fishing, surfing and golf, which he is hoping to improve.