Strengths and Career Achievements
After education at the Sorbonne and Oxford, he was commissioned into the Coldstream Guards where he served in Germany and the Middle East. After serving in the Special Air Service (SAS) and the Parachute Brigade, he was appointed commander of the 22nd SAS regiment in 1979. He commanded the Regiment during the Iranian Embassy siege of 1980 and the Falklands War of 1982 (where he negotiated the Argentine surrender).
He went on to command the 39th Infantry Brigade in Northern Ireland. He was then successively Director Special Forces, Commander North-East District and 3rd Infantry Division, Commander of the Staff College Camberley, Commander of the UK Field Army, and Commander of UK Land Forces. In January 1994 he took command of the UN Protection Force in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Since his retirement from the military he has pursued a wide variety of interests in history, academia and business. He has written and lectured extensively on peacekeeping and leadership to audiences around the world. He is a guest lecturer on Strategy Execution at Manchester Business School.
He has published books about his experiences in Bosnia (Fighting for Peace, 1998) and parallels between the American War of Independence and the 2003 war in Iraq (Washington’s War, 2007). He is a former director of Control Risks Group and is currently a director of Eurocontrol Technics.