Lord Paddy Ashdown. Lib dem politician
Born in New Delhi in British India, to a family of soldiers and colonial administrators who spent their lives in India. His mother was a QA nurse. Ashdown's father, John William Richard Durham Ashdown, was an Indian Army officer in the 14th Punjab Regiment and the Indian Army Service Corps and in 1944 attained the rank of T/Lt.Col.
Paddy Ashdown joined the Royal Marines in 1959, serving until 1972, retiring with the rank of Captain. He served in Borneo during the Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation and the Persian Gulf before training as a Swimmer Canoeist in 1965, after which he joined the elite Special Boat Section (which became the Special Boat Service in the 1980s) and commanded a Section in the Far East. He then went to Hong Kong in 1967 to undertake a full-time interpreter's course in Chinese, and returned to Britain in 1970 when he was given command of a Commando Company in Belfast.
Ashdown left the Marines to join the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS or MI6).
Ashdown decided to enter politics due to living during the era of two general elections in one year and the Three-Day Week.
I emailed Lord Ashdown earlier this week in support of his comments regarding the failed Commons vote on Syria. He responded the same day from his home in Somerset. A true gent and a man who has walked the walk.
Incidentally, Airborne Aircrew described him as 'weak minded and weak willed'.