had taught Tony Blair ten years earlier. After school, Fergus travelled throughout Europe and the Middle East before joi
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FERGUS SMITH Author Biography
Biography Fergus Smith was born in Kenya in 1969. His family had first settled there in the 1920s and remained after independence in 1964 to support the developing state through its post-colonial period. “I was brought up with the Kenya of Elsbeth Huxley and Karen Blixen. The romance of it never left me, even after I went there for myself and found a state struggling, like all states, with the tensions within its own population.” The family moved to the United Kingdom in 1973, settling in Leeds at a time of great political and economic change. It was in the Scouts that he was awarded his first leadership role, something that would prove to be a theme of his life. “At six years old I had two dreams: to lead men in war and then to write about the experience.” In 1981 the family moved again, but he was sent to boarding school in Edinburgh. Here he developed a love of sport and letters, both of which he was taught by the Headmaster, David McMurray, the same man who had taught Tony Blair ten years earlier. After school, Fergus travelled throughout Europe and the Middle East before joining the army on a potential officer programme. He left when he discovered that he had been accepted by Queen’s University Belfast to study Philosophy and Psychology. “I knew I would join the army, but I wanted to understand the complexities of Northern Ireland as a civilian first, so I could be a better officer.” After Sandhurst Fergus was commissioned into The Parachute Regiment and served, among other places, in Kenya, Belize, Brunei, France, Germany, Norway, and America. His operational service included Northern Ireland, Sierra Leone, and Kosovo. His last appointment was Regimental Adjutant at the new Regimental Headquarters in Colchester.
Publication © Fergus Smith
FERGUS SMITH Author Biography
“Being part of great institutions – a school, a club, a regiment, a company – was always important for me. Not because it was aggrandising, but because it was humbling.” After leaving the army Fergus studied for a Masters in Business Administration at the Open University. It was here that he met his future wife, Joanne, and in 2004 they travelled round the world before returning to the UK to get married. Once again living in Yorkshire, he became a leadership coach, then a trainer, before being taken up by one of the ‘big four’ consulting companies. He specialised in Culture Change and took the company to a market leading position in this field. “The culture of an organisation flows from the leadership. There is no way round this: to develop their culture, an organisation’s board must look at how they operate.” He left in 2008 to start his own consulting business and write when he could. He completed a Masters in Creative Writing at Lancaster in 2015 and is planning to do a PhD in the near future. He lives in Leeds, is a keen outdoorsman, sailor, photographer, and student of Lee style taichi. He has been a business mentor for the Prince’s Trust, a personal coach for those transitioning out of the military, and the trustee of a charity. He still consults on all aspects of organisational transformation. “I think my writing reflects my passions: the role of the soldier in society, the relationship between the state and the individual, identity, and the process of personal change. I would also like to pursue George Orwell’s vision of scoping political writing as an art form.”
Fergus Smith
Author, In the Shadow of the Mountain & Sunrise in the Valley. Available now at www.headsailbooks.com
Publication © Fergus Smith
