"To me, it feels like 80% of the job of an infantryman is exactly the same and probably exactly the same as it was in a Napoleonic era," he said. "You need to be fit. You need to be strong and robust. You need to be able to survive in the field. You need to be able to dig a hole."
Until he was 19 years old, Maik Taylor had never played a game in goal. Until he was 24, he had not been a professional footballer, but a lance corporal in the British Army. Until he was 27, when he appeared for their under-21 side as an overage player, he had never even set foot in Northern Ireland. Yet, when all was said and done, with assistance from the likes of Ray Clemence, Graeme Souness
The MOD has 26 years of experience integrating the trans minority into service; into an organisation where its people work, live and fight together. But in the same way that there was no evidence to justify the ban on LGBT+ volunteers in the 50s and 60s, there is no evidence to justify a regression in the rights, dignity, opportunity and working experience of the current serving trans minority.
The British soldier accused of murdering the Kenyan woman Agnes Wanjiru in 2012 has been named as Robert James Purkiss. Purkiss, 38, was named in court documents at the high court in Nairobi this week, where a court issued a warrant for his arrest. The high court judge Alexander Muteti issued the arrest warrant on Tuesday in Kenya, with the prosecution telling the court that Purkiss had been charged with a single count, of murder.
"All of a sudden, I realised I could truly be any way I wanted to be, and no one would bat an eye," shared Chappell Roan, reflecting on her experience at The Abbey.
