The Rhodesian Soldier

About Me

Personal

I was born in Bulawayo, Rhodesia, in 1955, the youngest of four boys, and attended Henry Low Primary School followed by Hamilton High. I completed my secondary education at Thornhill High in Gwelo.

I joined the Ministry of Internal Affairs (Intaf) as a Cadet District Officer  in 1975, stationed at Karoi. A year later, I underwent compulsory basic military training at the Intaf training facility at Chikurubi in Salisbury, as  a member of Internal Affairs National Service 4 (IANS4) call-up. For most of the duration of my national service, I was based at Fort Harrison in the Zambezi Valley, Sipolilo, followed by a few months in the Intaf intelligence section in Mt Darwin. 

From 1977 to 1979, I read for the  Internal Affairs' sponsored Bachelor of Administration (Honours) Degree course at the University of Rhodesia. Upon graduating, I was again posted to Mount Darwin as a District Officer, being the Returning Officer for Rushinga during the Zimbabwe elections, and working through the period of the cease fire and the return of ZANLA insurgents. 

In 1980 I left Intaf and joined a commercial marketing firm in Salisbury. In 1983 I was head-hunted by FAVCO, where I became Managing Director. 

In 1999, with my British-born wife Tracey and two children, we left Zimbabwe for England. My son, Andries, a BSc Biology and Masters in Bioinformatics graduate,  is currently reading for his DPhil in Clinical Medicine at the University of Oxford. My daughter Ashleigh practices medicine here in England while undergoing specialist training in gynaecology and obstetrics.​​

​I currently work from home.