Born in London in 1948, the late Christopher Joll was a graduate of Oxford University and RMA Sandhurst. He was commissioned into The Life Guards in 1968 and served four tours of duty in Northern Ireland before leaving the Army in 1975 to go into business.

Between then and 2000 he worked in the City and industry with companies including Lazard Brothers & Co, Alvis PLC, Georgeson & Co, Kleinwort Benson Securities and, finally, GCI Focus.

As deputy chairman of GCI Focus, he managed investor relations for over 100 IPOs and the PR for the development and marketing of The Gherkin, Paternoster Square, Central St Giles, Bow Bells House, Battersea Power Station and Chelsea Barracks.

Joll left GCI Focus to build a portfolio of non-executive directorships with pre-IPO and listed companies including The Silver Fund PLC, The Room Group of Companies, Getmapping PLC, MJ2 Ltd, The Packing Shop PLC and Bisichi Mining PLC, where he is the senior non-executive director.

During this time, he also turned his long-term hobby of writing and directing events for charities – including Jose Carreras & Friends (1991) at the Theatre Royal – into a business. Through this enterprise – MJ2 Events – has managed many events for charities. 

In addition to organising charitable events, Joll developed a reputation as an author. For a full list of his works, several of which are available as podcasts, see the author section.

In 2017, Joll was appointed the regimental historian of the Household Cavalry. For more on this, visit the regimental historian section.

He was also a lecturer for Noble Caledonia cruises. You can read more about this in the speaker section.

He was an adviser on military and historical matters to the auctioneers Cheffins and Sworders, wrote for Britain at War magazine and The Daily Telegraph, for which he also acted as an adviser on military and royal matters and an occasional broadcaster.

Christopher Joll died in April 2024 after battling cancer.