Home & Background
My Home
I live on the Fell between Helton and Bampton and am committed to ensuring local voices are heard in Westminster. I hold regular surgeries where you are welcome to meet me to discuss your concerns and let me help you address them.
My Background
I’ve grown up absorbed by the countryside. My family has a strong tradition of serving community and country.
My father was a soldier and civil servant. My mother is a teacher. My grandfather was a GP. My grandmother was a local councillor. My life has been dedicated to public service. I served in the Black Watch.
I served as the British governor of an Iraqi province with a population of three million. I served one of the poorest communities in Afghanistan where I founded a charity and raised £15 million for urban regeneration, a primary school and a healthcare clinic. I’ve only been able to achieve these things by learning from those I’ve had the privilege to serve. This is a lesson that became clearest to me when I walked across Afghanistan, alone and on foot in the winter of 2001. I stayed in more than five hundred village homes and shared the reality of their lives and needs.