I was born in Bulawayo in 1955 in the then Southern Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe. After completing my primary school education at Henry Low in Bulawayo, I attended the neighbouring Hamilton High School, a boys-only establishment, where I remained until the start of Form IV. At this time my dad was transferred to Gwelo (now Gweru), where I successfully sat for my ‘O’, ‘M’ and ‘A’ level certificates of education at co-ed Thornhill High School. Leaving school at the end of 1974, I joined the Ministry of Internal Affairs (Intaf) in January 1975.

I was stationed at Karoi, Urungwe District, as a Cadet District Officer. In broad terms, the work largely comprised the administration of virtually every aspect of the lives of the country’s rural-based tribespeople. A year later, I reported to Chikurubi in Salisbury (now Harare) as a member of the Internal Affairs National Service 4 (Intake 150) call-up, to undergo three months intensive basic military training. I was then posted to Sipolilo, where I was based at Fort Harrison on the Angwa River in the Zambezi Valley. In November 1976, I was transferred to Mount Darwin, where he served in that large station’s intelligence section.

In January 1977, I undertook the Ministry of Internal Affairs’ sponsored university degree programme, graduating from the University of Rhodesia at the end of 1979 with a Bachelor of Administration (Honours) Degree. During university vacations, I was stationed in Sipolilo and Gwelo. After graduating, I was posted to Mount Darwin as a District Officer, being the Returning Officer for Rushinga during the Zimbabwe independence elections in 1980, and working through the period of transition from our counterinsurgency war ceasefire and return of the ZANLA guerrillas to assembly points in the district.

At this time my British-born wife, Tracey, and I got married in Salisbury, and shortly thereafter I left the civil service. In 1984, I was head hunted by a fresh produce marketing cooperative in Harare, where I became managing director. Out of concern for the provision of tertiary educational and future career opportunities for our two children, Andries and Ashleigh, in 1999 we settled in the UK. Today they are both doctors: Andries a DPhil in Clinical Medicine from the University of Oxford, and Ashleigh in gynaecology and obstetrics.

Here in the UK the seed was planted that would develop into my full-blown passion for military history.

In keeping with my proud Danish ancestry, I am using a Viking logo for the website, courtesy of Illustrator 21.