cut
05-20-2004, 10:29 AM
from yesterday's Times
Iraq a risk too far for 'action man'
By Sean O'Neill
Veteran shot in Baghdad once guarded Beckhams
A FORMER Royal Marine murdered in Baghdad was a real-life action man with an insatiable taste for adventure, his friends said yesterday.
Brian Tilley, 47, served in the Falklands War and the first Gulf conflict, fought drug- traffickers in the Colombian jungles and worked as a bodyguard for, among others, David and Victoria Beckham.
To relax, he climbed the world’s highest mountains and the sea cliffs close to his home in Dorset. He was also a Himalayan guide.
Last Friday he died in a hail of bullets when a gunman reportedly walked into the house where he was staying and opened fire. Four Iraqis were also killed.
There is a mystery about how he came to be in the city’s al-Dawrah district, which is regarded as hostile to outsiders. Mr Tilley was thought to have been working with an Egyptian company on a communications project.
The reason for his murder is also likely to remain a mystery: the death of a solitary foreigner operating in the world of personal protection is not a top priority for the local police.
For Mr Tilley and other former servicemen with the know-how and nerve to succeed as bodyguards, the rewards are great, as are the risks.
British businesses are thought to be making more than £500 million a year and the bill for private security will rise sharply as coalition countries begin to withdraw troops.
Private security companies do not have to be licensed and no checks are made on employees, who include as many as 2,500 British former servicemen offering armed protection for government officials, charities and businessmen working in Iraq.
Armed security guards working for the London-based Control Risks Group protect British staff working with the Coalition Provisional Authority and ArmorGroup, based around the corner from Buckingham Palace, is protecting “British assets” such as Embassy buildings.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office said that it had paid £15 million up to the end of March, but would not put a figure on what it expects to spend on private security in the coming year. A spokesman said: “There is no reason why we shouldn’t employ private contractors as they are well qualified and are perfectly well equipped for the job.”
There are an estimated 40,000 private security staff and 7,000 British troops in Iraq. By the end of this year, US Defence Department officials expect there to be 125,000 private security personnel.
Mr Tilley was hugely respected by those he protected, including members of the media in Baghdad. They nicknamed him “Roadie” because of his rock’n’roll looks, long hair and tattoos. “He was a great man with a powerful presence,” one cameraman recalled. “When he walked into the room he carried a huge energy with him. He was like a massive drink of water.”
Last night the climbing world led the grieving over his death after the news was broken on an internet message board.
“A complete legend,” one subscriber wrote. “The big man will be sorely missed.”
Mr Tilley had posted a message on the same website last Thursday offering sympathy to the family of Damian Cook, another Dorset climber, who died last month in Mallorca. “My sincere condolences to all Damian’s family, a great guy, what a sad loss,” he wrote.
Pete Oxley, Mr Tilley’s climbing partner for 20 years, said he feared that his friend may have dropped his guard after being in the Iraqi capital for a long period. He had planned to leave last Wednesday, but missed his flight. “Despite his adventurous lifestyle, he was a very safe person, his military training taught him to calculate every risk and err on the side of survival,” Mr Oxley said. “He was a great survivor. He had lost a lot of friends over the years, but he seemed instinctively to know when to take the decision to retreat.”
Mr Oxley learnt of his friend’s death from Elaine Readenall, Mr Tilley’s girlfriend for 12 years. He said: “It was such a shock. He had said sometimes when he was setting off somewhere that there was a possibility he might not return. But he had been to Iraq so often, I thought it was well within his capabilities.”
Mr Tilley was brought up in Derby, the adopted son of working-class parents who are both dead. On leaving school he joined the Royal Marines. In 1976 he joined 45 Commando, based in Scotland, and later was admitted to the Special Boat Service. He served in the Falklands, Northern Ireland and the Gulf, in addition to numerous covert and special forces missions around the world.
In 1997 Mr Tilley was awarded the Queen’s Gallantry Medal for bravery during a covert mission. He left the service in 1998 as an SC2, equivalent to corporal rank.
In addition to his skills as a commando and a mountaineer, Mr Tilley was a qualified paramedic, having trained on the streets of Glasgow, a highly qualified diver and a submarine navigator.
Last night Mr Oxley said: “Brian always said he didn’t want to go too high, he didn’t want to be a desk man. He loved the action, he was a real-life action man.
“When he left the Marines he still fed off the buzz of going to unstable parts of the world where history was being made — he loved the adrenalin. He was regularly in Russia, protecting businessmen, and went all over Africa — Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Uganda.
“He spent one summer as a bodyguard on the yacht of a millionaire businessman — supposedly looking after them, but mostly teaching the whole family to dive.
“And he was part of Posh and Becks’s personal protection team when they went on holiday in the West Indies — he said he really enjoyed David Beckham’s company.” Mr Tilley was asked to protect the Beckhams and their children after reports that they were the targets of a kidnap plot in November 2002.
Mr Oxley said that he met Mr Tilly through their shared love of climbing and they were among the pioneers of sport climbing on the cliffs of the Isle of Portland, near Weymouth. He said: “We gelled immediately and spurred each other on to more and more adventurous climbs.
“Brian was a very warm-hearted man, it came across the moment you met him. There was a hard side, the tough SBS man, but he very rarely showed it to his climbing buddies.
“He was incredibly generous. He put no worth in material goods and used to say ‘All I need in the world is what is on my back — if I can’t carry it I don’t need it’.
“There was something of the loner about him. He just had to get away and take on challenges.”
Stan Watt, a former military colleague who also worked with Mr Tilley in the security business, said that his friend had been in Iraq regularly for the past 14 months guarding media teams and, most recently, telecommunications workers.
“At the time of his death he was hanging around waiting to get a flight out,” Mr Watt said. “He was a classic free spirit.”
Iraq a risk too far for 'action man'
By Sean O'Neill
Veteran shot in Baghdad once guarded Beckhams
A FORMER Royal Marine murdered in Baghdad was a real-life action man with an insatiable taste for adventure, his friends said yesterday.
Brian Tilley, 47, served in the Falklands War and the first Gulf conflict, fought drug- traffickers in the Colombian jungles and worked as a bodyguard for, among others, David and Victoria Beckham.
To relax, he climbed the world’s highest mountains and the sea cliffs close to his home in Dorset. He was also a Himalayan guide.
Last Friday he died in a hail of bullets when a gunman reportedly walked into the house where he was staying and opened fire. Four Iraqis were also killed.
There is a mystery about how he came to be in the city’s al-Dawrah district, which is regarded as hostile to outsiders. Mr Tilley was thought to have been working with an Egyptian company on a communications project.
The reason for his murder is also likely to remain a mystery: the death of a solitary foreigner operating in the world of personal protection is not a top priority for the local police.
For Mr Tilley and other former servicemen with the know-how and nerve to succeed as bodyguards, the rewards are great, as are the risks.
British businesses are thought to be making more than £500 million a year and the bill for private security will rise sharply as coalition countries begin to withdraw troops.
Private security companies do not have to be licensed and no checks are made on employees, who include as many as 2,500 British former servicemen offering armed protection for government officials, charities and businessmen working in Iraq.
Armed security guards working for the London-based Control Risks Group protect British staff working with the Coalition Provisional Authority and ArmorGroup, based around the corner from Buckingham Palace, is protecting “British assets” such as Embassy buildings.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office said that it had paid £15 million up to the end of March, but would not put a figure on what it expects to spend on private security in the coming year. A spokesman said: “There is no reason why we shouldn’t employ private contractors as they are well qualified and are perfectly well equipped for the job.”
There are an estimated 40,000 private security staff and 7,000 British troops in Iraq. By the end of this year, US Defence Department officials expect there to be 125,000 private security personnel.
Mr Tilley was hugely respected by those he protected, including members of the media in Baghdad. They nicknamed him “Roadie” because of his rock’n’roll looks, long hair and tattoos. “He was a great man with a powerful presence,” one cameraman recalled. “When he walked into the room he carried a huge energy with him. He was like a massive drink of water.”
Last night the climbing world led the grieving over his death after the news was broken on an internet message board.
“A complete legend,” one subscriber wrote. “The big man will be sorely missed.”
Mr Tilley had posted a message on the same website last Thursday offering sympathy to the family of Damian Cook, another Dorset climber, who died last month in Mallorca. “My sincere condolences to all Damian’s family, a great guy, what a sad loss,” he wrote.
Pete Oxley, Mr Tilley’s climbing partner for 20 years, said he feared that his friend may have dropped his guard after being in the Iraqi capital for a long period. He had planned to leave last Wednesday, but missed his flight. “Despite his adventurous lifestyle, he was a very safe person, his military training taught him to calculate every risk and err on the side of survival,” Mr Oxley said. “He was a great survivor. He had lost a lot of friends over the years, but he seemed instinctively to know when to take the decision to retreat.”
Mr Oxley learnt of his friend’s death from Elaine Readenall, Mr Tilley’s girlfriend for 12 years. He said: “It was such a shock. He had said sometimes when he was setting off somewhere that there was a possibility he might not return. But he had been to Iraq so often, I thought it was well within his capabilities.”
Mr Tilley was brought up in Derby, the adopted son of working-class parents who are both dead. On leaving school he joined the Royal Marines. In 1976 he joined 45 Commando, based in Scotland, and later was admitted to the Special Boat Service. He served in the Falklands, Northern Ireland and the Gulf, in addition to numerous covert and special forces missions around the world.
In 1997 Mr Tilley was awarded the Queen’s Gallantry Medal for bravery during a covert mission. He left the service in 1998 as an SC2, equivalent to corporal rank.
In addition to his skills as a commando and a mountaineer, Mr Tilley was a qualified paramedic, having trained on the streets of Glasgow, a highly qualified diver and a submarine navigator.
Last night Mr Oxley said: “Brian always said he didn’t want to go too high, he didn’t want to be a desk man. He loved the action, he was a real-life action man.
“When he left the Marines he still fed off the buzz of going to unstable parts of the world where history was being made — he loved the adrenalin. He was regularly in Russia, protecting businessmen, and went all over Africa — Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Uganda.
“He spent one summer as a bodyguard on the yacht of a millionaire businessman — supposedly looking after them, but mostly teaching the whole family to dive.
“And he was part of Posh and Becks’s personal protection team when they went on holiday in the West Indies — he said he really enjoyed David Beckham’s company.” Mr Tilley was asked to protect the Beckhams and their children after reports that they were the targets of a kidnap plot in November 2002.
Mr Oxley said that he met Mr Tilly through their shared love of climbing and they were among the pioneers of sport climbing on the cliffs of the Isle of Portland, near Weymouth. He said: “We gelled immediately and spurred each other on to more and more adventurous climbs.
“Brian was a very warm-hearted man, it came across the moment you met him. There was a hard side, the tough SBS man, but he very rarely showed it to his climbing buddies.
“He was incredibly generous. He put no worth in material goods and used to say ‘All I need in the world is what is on my back — if I can’t carry it I don’t need it’.
“There was something of the loner about him. He just had to get away and take on challenges.”
Stan Watt, a former military colleague who also worked with Mr Tilley in the security business, said that his friend had been in Iraq regularly for the past 14 months guarding media teams and, most recently, telecommunications workers.
“At the time of his death he was hanging around waiting to get a flight out,” Mr Watt said. “He was a classic free spirit.”