Phil Jones was born in Maldon, Essex.  He attended the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and was commissioned into The Royal Anglian Regiment in 1981.

His early years in the Army were spent at regimental duty with 3 R ANGLIAN in UK, Northern Ireland, Gibraltar, Belize, and Germany.  From 1983-1985 he was posted to the Infantry Junior Leaders’ Battalion as a training platoon commander.  He returned to 3 R ANGLIAN as the Anti-Tank Platoon Commander in Germany before being posted to 1 R ANGLIAN in Gibraltar as Adjutant.   

Following a residential tour as SO3 G3 Ops in HQ 8 Infantry Brigade in Northern Ireland, for which he was awarded a mention in despatch, he attended the Army Staff Course at Camberley in 1993.  He returned to 1 R ANGLIAN as a rifle company commander in 24 Airmobile Brigade, during which he was awarded an MBE for operations in Northern Ireland.  He remained within 24 Airmobile as the Brigade Chief of Staff until late 1995 when he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and posted to a NATO appointment as the Military Assistant to Commander in Chief Allied Forces Northwest Europe.  In 2000 he completed seven months as the Chief of Operations for the United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia.

At the end of 2000 he returned to Northern Ireland to take command of 1 R ANGLIAN.  Six months after assuming command the battalion redeployed to the mechanised role in England.  As the UK’s lead mechanised battle group, 1 R ANGLIAN deployed to Kabul from February - July 2002 for which he was awarded the Queen’s Commendation for Valuable Service.  He was promoted to Colonel in 2003, taking up the appointment of Director Plans in Combined Joint Task Force 180 (Afghanistan) where he led a large US planning branch working directly to Commander 18th Airborne Corps.  Following attendance on the UK Higher Command and Staff Course he became the Assistant Chief of Staff G5 Plans within HQ Allied Rapid Reaction Corps where he led the planning effort for a potential deployment to Iraq followed by an actual deployment of HQ ARRC to Kabul as HQ ISAF IX.

He was promoted to Brigadier and took command of 8 Infantry Brigade in Northern Ireland in November 2005.  The Brigade became non-operational in June 2006 as part of the reduction in commitment to Op BANNER following which he returned to Afghanistan for a 12 month tour as the Military Advisor to the United Nations Secretary General’s Special Representative.

He is married to Denise who is a Theatre Sister.  They have two children, Emily aged 19 who has just begun a degree course at Reading University, and Toby aged 16 who is at boarding school in England.  He rides horses, reads books and walk dogs in his spare time.