[3] His elder brother Ashley Bramall was a barrister, Labour politician and Leader of the Inner London Education Authority.

[11] Appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 1965 New Year Honours,[13] and promoted to lieutenant colonel on 25 January 1965,[14] he was appointed Commanding Officer of the 2nd Green Jackets, The King's Royal Rifle Corps: the Battalion was deployed to Borneo during the Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation in the first half of 1966 where his actions earned him a mention in despatches.

[27] In this role he strongly supported the plan in May 1982 to land troops at San Carlos Water and then advance rapidly from those positions at the early stages of the Falklands War.

[29] In this capacity he developed the concept of the "Fifth Pillar" pulling together the activities of defence attachés to form a structure for intervention in smaller countries.

[37][38] Bramall spoke out in the House of Lords against the involvement of the United Kingdom in the Second Iraq War warning that "unlike naked aggression, terrorism cannot be defeated by massive military means" but by "competent protection and positive diplomacy".

[41] He died at the age of 95 on 12 November 2019, at his home in Crondall, Hampshire[42][43][44] Bramall was one of several senior establishment figures targeted by convicted perjurer Carl Beech: following fabricated complaints made by Beech officers of the Metropolitan Police searched Bramall's home near Farnham on 4 March 2015 as part of the Operation Midland child sexual abuse investigation.

[51] On 1 September 2017, it was reported that the Metropolitan Police had paid substantial compensation to Bramall for having raided his home "after accepting that the searches had been unjustified and should never have taken place.

[54] Bramall said of the ordeal: "I can honestly say however I was never as badly wounded in all my time in the military as I have been by the allegations made by [Beech] that formed the basis of Operation Midland.