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John Blashford-Snell 1957.
The son of a clergyman and former army padre, John Nicholas Blashford-Snell was born in Hereford on 22nd October 1936. His mother took in various injured and orphaned animals, including a monkey called Jacko, starting a lifelong interest in conservation in young John. A sickly, asthmatic child, he was later diagnosed as allergic to cats, of which his mother had 28. Educated at Victoria College, Jersey, he trained at Sandhurst and was commissioned into the Royal Engineers on 2nd August 1957.
After the usual appointments as a junior officer, Blashford-Snell was posted to Sandhurst and told to form an Adventurous Training (AT) Wing. The Sandhurst of the early 1960s was very different from the heavily laden courses of today. Cadets spent two years at the Academy and, with five weeks’ leave in the summer, there was time to plan and conduct ambitious AT exercises. Starting with UK-based enterprises, he soon became an expert in obtaining seats on RAF aircraft travelling to far-flung corners of the world, and expeditions to the Far East and Africa were common. The AT exercises planned and conducted by today’s cadets owe their genesis to his
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