Mark Hale was born on 9 April 1967 in Bournemouth. He joined the Army in 1983, aged 16, as a Junior Leader and embarked on an exceptional career with the Devonshire and Dorset Regiment that took him on operations to Northern Ireland, Bosnia, Iraq and then, with 2nd Battalion The Rifles, to Afghanistan.
One of the outstanding soldiers of his generation, he found his calling in the Reconnaissance Platoon, where he spent much of his career.