Sir Stephen Wall (born January 1947) is a retired British diplomat who served as Britain's ambassador to

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

and Permanent Representative to the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

Biography

Wall, who was educated at

Douai School Douai School was a public ( fee-charging boarding) school run by the Douai Abbey Benedictine community at Woolhampton, England, until it closed in 1999. History 1615–1818 The monastic community was founded in Paris in 1615 and moved ...

and

Selwyn College, Cambridge Selwyn College, Cambridge is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1882 by the Selwyn Memorial Committee in memory of George Selwyn (bishop of Lichfield), Georg ...

, entered the

Diplomatic Service Diplomatic service is the body of diplomats and foreign policy officers maintained by the government of a country to communicate with the governments of other countries. Diplomatic personnel obtain diplomatic immunity when they are accredited to o ...

in 1968. His early postings included the United Nations,

Addis Ababa Addis Ababa (; ,) is the capital city of Ethiopia, as well as the regional state of Oromia. With an estimated population of 2,739,551 inhabitants as of the 2007 census, it is the largest city in the country and the List of cities in Africa b ...

and Paris. On his return to London in 1974, he worked in the

Foreign Office Foreign may refer to: Government * Foreign policy, how a country interacts with other countries * Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in many countries ** Foreign Office, a department of the UK government ** Foreign office and foreign minister * United ...

News Department and was later seconded to the press office of

James Callaghan Leonard James Callaghan, Baron Callaghan of Cardiff ( ; 27 March 191226 March 2005) was a British statesman and Labour Party (UK), Labour Party politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1976 to 1979 and Leader of the L ...

, who was then

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

. He subsequently served as Assistant Private Secretary to

David Owen David Anthony Llewellyn Owen, Baron Owen, (born 2 July 1938) is a British politician and physician who served as Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs as a Labour Party MP under James Callaghan from 1977 to 1979, and later ...

, the Foreign Secretary and

Lord Carrington Peter Alexander Rupert Carington, 6th Baron Carrington, Baron Carington of Upton (6 June 1919 – 9July 2018), was a British Conservative Party politician and hereditary peer who served as Defence Secretary from 1970 to 1974, Foreign Secreta ...

, David Owen's successor. Wall spent four years at the

British Embassy, Washington, D.C. The British Embassy, Washington D.C. (alternatively in the US, Embassy of the United Kingdom, Washington, D.C.) is the British sovereign's diplomatic mission to the United States of America, representing the interests of the United Kingdom and B ...

from 1979 to 1983, when he returned to the Foreign Office. From 1983 to 1988 he served as Assistant Head, and later Head, of the Foreign Office's European Community Department (Internal.) He was Private Secretary to the Foreign Secretary from 1988 to 1991, serving under

Geoffrey Howe Richard Edward Geoffrey Howe, Baron Howe of Aberavon, (20 December 1926 – 9 October 2015), known from 1970 to 1992 as Sir Geoffrey Howe, was a British politician who served as Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1989 to ...

John Major Sir John Major (born 29 March 1943) is a British retired politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 1990 to 1997. Following his defeat to Ton ...

and

Douglas Hurd Douglas Richard Hurd, Baron Hurd of Westwell, (born 8 March 1930) is a British Conservative Party (UK), Conservative Party politician who served in the governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major from 1979 to 1995. A career diplomat and ...

. He was Private Secretary to Prime Minister John Major from 1991 to 1993, responsible for foreign policy and defence issues. Wall was sent as Ambassador to Portugal in 1993, and he remained there until 1995, when he was named as Britain's Permanent Representative to the European Union. He returned to London in 2000 to takes charge of the

Cabinet Office The Cabinet Office is a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for supporting the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, prime minister and Cabinet ...

's European Secretariat as European adviser to Prime Minister Tony Blair. He remained in that post until 2004. He was named as principal adviser to

Cormac Murphy-O'Connor Cormac Murphy-O'Connor (24 August 1932 – 1 September 2017) was a British Catholic prelate who served as Archbishop of Westminster from 2000 to 2009. He was also president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales. He was made ...

, the

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

Archbishop of Westminster The archbishop of Westminster heads the Roman Catholic Diocese of Westminster, in England. The incumbent is the metropolitan of the Province of Westminster, chief metropolitan of England and Wales and, as a matter of custom, is elected presid ...

in June 2004, and he served until June 2005. From 2009 to 2019 Sir Stephen Wall was chairman of

Cumberland Lodge Cumberland Lodge is a 17th-century Grade II listed country house in Windsor Great Park 3.5 miles south of Windsor Castle. Since 1947 it has been occupied by the charitable foundation known as Cumberland Lodge, an educational charity and social ...

, an educational charity initiating fresh debate on the burning questions facing society. From 2005 to 2014, he was a Council Member at UCL and was Council Chair from 2008 to 2014. He was chair of the pro-EU 'Federal Trust' from 2010 to 2020. From 2009 to 2014 he was co-chair of the Belgo-British Conference. He was (2014–2021) a Board member (and later chair) of The Kaleidoscope Trust – a charity campaigning for LGBT rights overseas. He has worked as an Official Historian at the Cabinet Office, writing the Official History of Britain's relationship with the rest of the European Union.

Personal life

Wall was married with one son. In 2014, Stephen Wall came out publicly as homosexual. He divorced in 2014. In 2019, he married Dr Edward Sumner, who died in 2021. He was Equalities Champion at UCL for LGBT+ issues. He said that reading

Richard Dawkins Richard Dawkins (born 26 March 1941) is a British evolutionary biology, evolutionary biologist, zoologist, science communicator and author. He is an Oxford fellow, emeritus fellow of New College, Oxford, and was Simonyi Professor for the Publ ...

' ''

The God Delusion ''The God Delusion'' is a 2006 book by British evolutionary biologist and ethologist Richard Dawkins. In ''The God Delusion'', Dawkins contends that a supernatural creator, God, almost certainly does not exist, and that belief in a personal ...

'' led him to abandon Catholicism.

Bibliography

*''A Stranger in Europe: Britain and the EU from Thatcher to Blair'' (OUP 2008) * "The Official History of Britain and the European Community, Volume II: From Rejection to Referendum,1963 – 1975" (Routledge 2012); and Volume III: 'The Tiger Unleashed,1975 – 1985" ( Routledge 2018) *Reluctant European: Britain and the European Union from 1945 to Brexit (OUP, 2020) *Two novels of LGBT romance, published under a pseudonym.

Offices held

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wall, Stephen 1947 births Living people British Roman Catholics Knights Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George Lieutenants of the Royal Victorian Order People educated at Douai School Alumni of Selwyn College, Cambridge Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Portugal Permanent representatives of the United Kingdom to the European Union Recipients of the Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana, 3rd Class Principal Private Secretaries to the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Members of HM Diplomatic Service European Union and European integration scholars British gay men Gay diplomats 21st-century British diplomats 21st-century British LGBTQ people 20th-century British diplomats 20th-century British LGBTQ people