Stephen Wall joined the Diplomatic Service in 1968 and worked closely with five British Foreign Secretaries. He was Foreign Policy Adviser to Prime Minister John Major and EU adviser to Prime Minister Tony Blair.

He was British Ambassador to Portugal from 1993 to 1995, Permanent Representative to the European Union from 1995 to 2000 and Head of the European Secretariat in the Cabinet Office from 2000 to 2004. From 2004 to 2005 he was the Principal Adviser to the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster.

Taking up the baton from Alan Milward, he was appointed by the Prime Minister in 2007 to write Volumes II and III of the British Government’s official history of Britain’s relations with her EU partners. His Official History of the United Kingdom and the European Community Volume II, 1963-1975 was published in 2012. His book: A Stranger in Europe: Britain and the EU from Thatcher to Blair, was published in 2008. He is now writing the final volume of the Official History of Britain's relations with the European Union, covering the period 1975-1991.

Sir Stephen is Chair of the Council of University College, London, Chair of the Federal Trust, Chair of Trustees at Cumberland Lodge, Vice-Chair of Business for New Europe, Member of the Council of Wilton Park, Member of the Board of Trustees of the Thomson Foundation, Trustee of the Franco-British Council and Honorary Fellow of Selwyn College Cambridge. He is also on the Council of the European Council on Foreign Relations and holds a Doctor of Laws honoris causa from the University of Birmingham.

Policy Foreign Policy, Ambassador, Europe,