Chris Saul's Blog

Sunday January 11, 2009

Colonel David Smiley

I highly recommend reading this obituary of Colonel David Smiley.

What a career. Some highlights from the Telegraph's article -

"Over the years Smiley was to break more than 80 bones, mainly as a result of sport; on two occasions he broke his skull, once in a steeplechase and once when he dived at night into an almost-empty swimming pool in Thailand.

After the war, he held the record for the most falls in one season on the Cresta Run in St Moritz; bizarrely, he represented Kenya (where he owned a farm) in the Commonwealth Winter Games of 1960.

After war broke out, the Blues sailed for Palestine, where one of Smiley's first jobs, as a lieutenant, was to shoot his troop of 40 horses when it became clear they were of no use in modern combat."

For more info on his activities in Oman and what is now the UAE, these two articles are interesting.

After reading all this, I don't feel like I've achieved much in my life.