Bob Stewart ( British Army officer ) Colonel Robert Alexander " Bob " Stewart , DSO ( born 7 July 1949 ) is a former British Army officer , former United Nations commander in Bosnia , commentator , author , public speaker and Conservative Party politician . He has been the Member of Parliament ( MP ) for the Beckenham constituency in South - East London since the 2010 general election . Education . Stewart was educated at Chigwell School , an independent boarding school in Chigwell in the Epping Forest area of Essex , followed by the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst near Camberley in Surrey . He spent part of his childhood in Cyprus . Early life . Born to a father serving in the military , Stewart was selected for officer training at the age of seventeen , and after two years of training at RMA Sandhurst was commissioned into the Cheshire Regiment as a second lieutenant on 25 July 1969 . He was promoted to lieutenant on 25 January 1971 . In 1974 he undertook an in - service Bachelor ' s degree in International Politics at the University of Wales , Aberystwyth , graduating with first class honours . He was promoted captain on 25 July 1975 . He guarded Rudolf Hess in Spandau Prison , Berlin . Career in Northern Ireland . From 1977 served in Northern Ireland both as intelligence officer and , after attending Staff College , Camberley and promotion to major on 30 September 1981 , company commander of A Company 1 CHESHIRE , with an intermediate period spent at RMA Sandhurst as an instructor . During his career in Ulster he was the Incident Commander at the Droppin Well bombing in Ballykelly which killed seventeen people . Stewart heard the explosion and arrived at the scene two or three minutes later . Six of the dead soldiers were from his company , including his clerk and storeman . He received a personal commendation from the General commanding in Northern Ireland for his actions on the day . Bosnia . He went on to a series of appointments over the coming years . He served in the Ministry of Defence , and was second in command of an infantry battalion . He was promoted lieutenant - colonel on 31 December 1987 , and served as a military attaché to the NATO military committee in Brussels . In March 1991 he assumed command of 1st Battalion , Cheshire Regiment , and as commanding officer returned to Northern Ireland for a further two operational tours and then became the first British Commander of United Nations forces in Bosnia from September 1992 to May 1993 . It was as commanding officer in Bosnia , as part of Operation Grapple , that he earned the nickname " Bosnia Bob " and became something of a media personality . During his time in Bosnia he discovered the Ahmići massacre in which 103 people were killed . He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order on 12 June 1993 on his return to the United Kingdom . He was promoted colonel on 31 December 1993 , and went on to take up the position of Chief of Policy at Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe , before officially retiring from the army on 1 February 1996 . There was some scandal in 1993 when it was revealed that while in Bosnia , Stewart had left his wife and two children following an affair with a Swiss woman 16 years his junior working in the UN mission there . Career after the army . In 1997 Stewart took three weeks ' leave from the public relations company Hill & Knowlton to help his friend Martin Bell who was standing for Parliament in Tatton as an Independent candidate . Stewart was alongside Bell when they were confronted by the sitting Conservative Member of Parliament for the constituency , Neil Hamilton and his wife Christine on Knutsford Common . Bell , who was opposing Hamilton as a result of accusations that Hamilton had accepted money for promoting causes in Parliament , gave Stewart the credit for defining his criticism of Hamilton as having already admitted to " conduct unbecoming " . Since leaving the army Stewart has become a well - known commentator upon military and political affairs , frequently commenting upon the defence policy of the British Government and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq . Recently , he has condemned the treatment of injured soldiers , accusing the MOD of acting with " the speed of a striking sloth . " and also accused the government of repeatedly refusing the requests of army commanders for more troops and more helicopters in Afghanistan . Political career . On 28 July 2009 , it was revealed that he had been approved to put himself forward for selection to constituency associations as a PPC for the Conservative Party . As the former commander of the Cheshire Regiment he was linked to the safe Conservative East Cheshire seats of Macclesfield and Congleton , however the final shortlists for Macclesfield and for Congleton from Conservative Central Office did not contain his name . In autumn 2009 he was shortlisted for Beckenham , one of the safest Conservative seats in the country , and on 6 December it was announced that he had been selected as Conservative candidate there , winning an overall majority on the second ballot . At the 2010 general election on 6 May , Stewart was elected as the MP for Beckenham .