General Sir John McColl KCB CBE DSO
Chairman of Cobseo – the Confederation of Service Charities
General Sir John McColl is the Chairman of Cobseo, taking up the post on 1st January 2017. Sir John acts as the voice of the Service Charitable Sector within Government and the Private Sector and is charged with encouraging cooperation and collaboration across the Service Charitable Sector to enhance the support given to the Armed Forces Community. He chairs the Confederation’s Executive Committee and is a member of a number of cross Government committees including the Covenant Reference Group and the MOD Service Charities Partnership Board. He meets regularly with Ministers and is widely consulted by the MOD.
General Sir John McColl was sworn in as Lieutenant-Governor of Jersey on 26th September 2011. He was commissioned into the 1st Battalion of the Royal Anglian Regiment in Cyprus in 1973. His early career included the usual Regimental appointments before attending the Army Staff Course in 1984.
On completing the staff course he served as a staff officer in Germany. He joined the 2nd Battalion as a rifle company commander in 1987, serving Colchester and Celle. In 1989 he was posted to the 3rd Royal Tank Regiment to command an armoured squadron, followed by a tour at the Staff College as a member of the Directing Staff.
In 1992 he assumed command of the 2nd Battalion, based in Celle. His command included deployments to East Tyrone and Bosnia with UNPROFOR. On leaving command in 1995 he was appointed Chief of Staff 1st (UK) Armoured Division, returning to Bosnia as part of NATO’s Peace Implementation Force (IFOR) in 1996.
From 1997 to 1999, he commanded the 1st Mechanized Brigade based in Tidworth, followed by a posting to HQ Land Command as ACOS Commitments until 2000, a period which included the Kosovo and Sierra Leone deployments. Promoted to Major General, he was appointed to command 3rd (UK) Division in 2000.
As GOC of 3rd (UK) Division, he deployed to Afghanistan establishing the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF 1) in 2002. In 2003, General McColl was appointed Commandant of the Joint Services Command and Staff College in Watchfield. After a year he moved to Baghdad as the Deputy Commander of the Multi National Force Iraq. On return he was appointed Commander Regional Forces within Headquarters Land Command in Wilton. In early 2005 he took on the additional appointment of the Prime Minister’s Special Envoy to Afghanistan, which ended with the deployment of HQ ARRC in April 2006. His final serving appointment was as Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe which he relinquished in March 2011.
