Bill Mott (British Army soldier)
William Daran Gillduff Mott is a retired British Army soldier who was one of the army's most senior warrant officers between 2002 and 2015.
British service
Mott was brought up in Overpool, Cheshire, before enlisting into the 1st Battalion, Welsh Guards in April 1979. He saw operational tours in Northern Ireland and during the Falklands War in 1982. He served at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst as a colour sergeant, company sergeant major, and regimental sergeant major, before becoming garrison sergeant major at HQ Northern Ireland. He became GSM HQ London District in late 2002 and oversaw his first Trooping the Colour parade as GSM in June 2003. He was subsequently in charge of organising, choreographing and overseeing all major state ceremonial occasions. From 2003 he was also a pivotal figure in organising the repatriation ceremonies for British soldiers killed in action during operations in the Iraq War and the War in Afghanistan.In February 2014, Mott publicly warned that cuts to the British defence budget were threatening to undermine the future spectacle of state ceremonial events in the United Kingdom.
He retired from the army in June 2015 following Trooping the Colour, during which the Welsh Guards marked the centennial year of their foundation.