Publisher's Synopsis
After an early life spent in Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) the author moved to the United Kingdom at the age of three. He joined the British Army as an Army Scholar and was selected for training at RMA Sandhurst joining below the minimum age. His first posting after RMA Sandhurst was an operational tour with 2nd Bn Scots Guards in Belfast at the age of eighteen. He subsequently served as Signal Officer, Exchange Officer with 3rd Battalion Royal Australian Regiment and was an instructor at the Signal Wing School of Infantry. The latter posting was arranged after he was deselected to be the Adjutant of the 2nd Battalion Scots Guards and he consequently missed their involvement in the Falklands War. He then served as a young Company Commander in Cyprus. After attending Staff College and a tour as Company Commander with 1st Battalion Scots Guards as part of the British Army of the Rhine, he served as the primary staff officer in Berlin from 1989. His responsibilities included East-West access issues and the wind down of the British Sector following the fall of the Berlin Wall and German Unification. He was responsible for liaison with the incoming German Army and the writing of the initial Berlin withdrawal plans. He set up the Raleigh International organisation on behalf of the German Government. He then moved to Edinburgh and organised the Scots Guards 350th Anniversary Celebrations in the presence of HM The Queen; planning and supervising all details of the parade and lunch for 5000 people.
He was promoted Lieutenant Colonel in 1995 into the post of Brigade Major Household Division with responsibility for all State Ceremonial in London. He was awarded the OBE in 1999, following his appointment as Commandant Military Corrective Training Centre and Governor HMYOI Colchester, a trial to determine whether the military approach to custody could reduce the re-offending rate in a selected group of civilian young offenders (dubbed The Boot Camp by the media). Latterly he spent 3 years at the Regular Commissions Board and was one of the Board members responsible for the selection of Prince Harry to be an Army officer. He then served as KFOR Liaison Officer to the Kosovo Protection Corps, shortly before the Commander's elevation to Prime Minister of Kosovo and he continued to deal closely with the Prime Minister and his new Commander as they prepared for transition towards the independence of Kosovo. His final appointment in the Army was Commander Defence Training Estate in the North of England with responsibility for defence estate rationalisation, training and conservation issues.
