This is an extract from the book Chemical Warrior: Syria, Salisbury and Saving Lives at War by Hamish de Bretton-Gordon (Headline Publishing Group, 2020).
Hamish de Bretton-Gordon is a world leading expert in chemical, biological and nuclear (CBRN) weapons. He served twenty-three years in the British Army, including service as Commanding Officer of the UK CBRN Regiment and NATO's Rapid Reaction CBRN Battalion. His operational deployments included the First Gulf War, Cyprus, Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan and has been in Syria & Iraq frequently in the last ten years, setting up the CBRN Task Force in Syria and advising medical charities. This considerable experience in the field places Hamish as one of the world's leading and most current experts in chemical, biological and nuclear counter terrorism and humanitarian operations.Hamish is a commissioned reserve officer in the British Army's Staff Corp as senior advisor and mentor to the Ministry of Defence on CBRN. He is advising the Ukrainian government, NGOs and journalists ion CBRN defence. Today, Hamish gives advice to UK and US government agencies and is a senior Ministry of Defence advisor on CBRN and Syria, is frequently seen on global news channels providing expert commentary, and writes for UK, Middle East and US news journals and newspapers. He was a Visiting Fellow at Magdalene College Cambridge in 2020-2022 and his memoir, Chemical Warrior, was published in 2021.
