NAM.2016-11-72-1

Oral history interview with Capt Daniel Wall by Kirsty Parsons for the Crown and Country project, recorded on 17 November 2016. Interview conducted at Montgomery House, Aldershot. Daniel Wall was born in 1981 in Pietermaritzburg, Natal, South Africa. His mother is South African and his father is British, born in Warrington. The family moved to Warrington for his father’s work. They spent four years there until his mother got homesick and the family moved back to South Africa in 1988, when Daniel was seven. Daniel finished school in 1998. He had wanted to join the army since he was a child, so he joined the Royal Natal Carbineers as a Reservist for two years. While he was with them there was a problem with pay, so he was basically working for free. After two years he decided he wanted to join the army full-time, so he moved to the UK and joined the British Army. The normal route would have been to apply to an overseas cell, get accepted and then pay for his own flights to the UK to do the selection process. Instead Daniel waited and his family managed to get enough money together to move to the UK on a more permanent basis. The day he landed in London he went to a recruitment office where he was told that since he was going to be living in Warrington, he should apply there instead. His application from Warrington took a while to get security clearance. He started Basic Training in January 2004. Daniel experienced less of a culture shock than he was expecting, though he found the climate difficult to get used to. He enjoyed the structure and regimented procedures of Basic Training and felt he was learning the whole time. Daniel joined the Royal Signals because he had a background in computers and he wanted to pick something that offered a fallback plan should he want or need to leave the Army. He joined as a Radio Systems Operator, but while he was in training they looked at his CV and saw he had a background in electronics and wanted him to go into an IT role, which he couldn’t do because of his low grades at school. So he switched to an Area Systems Operator with the aspiration of moving to the IT side of things. His first unit was 1 UK Armoured Division Signal Regiment (ADSR), 201 Signal Squadron which provided wheeled communications to Divisional Headquarters. On one of his first exercises, he was able to fix a computer fault and so was put forward to go to Bosnia and Kosovo as an IT specialist. Deployed to Bosnia in 2005 and Kosovo in 2006 as an IT Engineer. Whilst there his Squadron Commander asked if Daniel would like to go to Sandhurst to commission as an officer. Daniel asked to finish his tour before making his decision. Daniel did his Potential Officer Selection at Blandford and a development course at Winchester for three months, to broaden cultural awareness and in-depth analysis and thinking. Daniel was injured in his Junior term and put into Lucknow Platoon. He commissioned out in August 2009. He didn’t enjoy Sandhurst much. Deployed to Afghanistan for 6 months. Spent time in Camp Bastion and Kabul doing communication installation and project management. Daniel initially went out to make sure UK communication system worked within the main NATO network. He was then in charge of troops going out on the ground, replacing various bits of equipment in the servers to make sure they were meeting security protocols and parameters to maintain the UK side of the network. Talks about equipment. Ptarmigan - trunk network that provides backbone communication between high level command and medium level command. After Troop Commanders course, he worked with Falcon which he called “Ptarmigan on steroids” - higher security, more IT based work as opposed to operator based, more complex, more reliable. Military technology not moving as quickly as industry or commercial technology as the military can’t put something into use without extensive testing, as they are dealing with people’s lives and need tighter security. Worked with the Army Reserves in 37 Signal Regiment in Redditch, as an Regimental Ops Officer. Involved in the London Olympics 2012 and the G7 Summit held in Wales in 2012 providing force elements of operational deployment and communication to police. Gave him the opportunity to understand the motivations behind those who want to join the Reserves. Talks about food. Pay as you go system meant portion sizes were reduced and prices raised, but you still pay a lot less than anywhere else. Had to acclimatise to different preparation methods - less salt is used in the UK than in South Africa. Camp Bastion had two cookhouses and Daniel preferred the food in Bastion Two. Talks about recreation. Has played in inter-squadron hockey and cricket matches - been a member of the cricket team since 2004. Went out to play a cricket match, came back and bedroom was in the kitchen. The next weekend they moved his bedroom outside. The weekend after they moved it upstairs and Daniel refused to move it back. Deployed to Herford in Germany after his Phase 2 training. He played hockey for a civilian club called Arminia Bielefeld. He talks about his disappointment in the British Army pulling out of Germany, as he feels a lot of the soldiers who were based there learnt a lot about another country and culture and got them out of their family shell and forced their integration into their military family. Daniel feels there are not a lot of differences between the British and South African Armies. The Royal Natal Carbineers are associated with the Princess Wale’s Royal Regiment (PWRR) so they had the same training, uniform, etc. Does say that the South African Army is more laid back - there is less paperwork to deal with. The British Army surpassed Daniel’s expectations. He didn’t understand the structure before he joined, he only knew about the infantry. He also didn’t know about the opportunities for sport and adventure training. He feels Commonwealth soldiers make a significant contribution to the British Army as they have different upbringings, lifestyles, heritage and languages which are absolutely vital for making sure the British Army can go to any country and do the job. He feels Commonwealth soldiers diversify the pool of personnel and that a lack of diversity would impact on the Army’s effectiveness. Daniel thinks the British public are aware of the Gurkhas and Fijian soldiers, but not other nations as Commonwealth soldiers are usually integrated throughout the Army, rather than being separated into specific regiments. The South African public don’t mind its citizens fighting in the British Army but the government does. When in Germany Daniel received a letter from his Brigadier telling him the South African government were going to class all South Africans working in the British Army as mercenaries by law. This went through Parliament but has never been enforced; it doesn’t affect Daniel as he has a British passport. He feels the new ruling stating Commonwealth soldiers have to live in the UK for five years before they can apply to join the British Army is off-putting to Commonwealth citizens and will limit the pool of keen people who want to join.