Obituary: Clive Fairweather, CBE, an SAS veteran who went on to become Scotland’s Chief Inspector of Prisons

Published on 15/10/2012 02:10

Born: 21 May, 1944, in Edinburgh. Died: 13 October, 2012, in Edinburgh, aged 68.

Clive Fairweather enjoyed a long and varied military career, joining the King’s Own Scottish Borderers (KOSB) as a private soldier, before rising to full colonel.

Fairweather, who died after a short illness, completed three tours with the Special Air Service (SAS) and was also security adviser to the Iranian and Jordanian royal households in 1970-71. He guarded Hitler’s deputy Rudolf Hess in Berlin’s notorious Spandau prison and was second-in-command of the SAS at the Iranian embassy siege in London in 1980. His last job in the military was at Edinburgh Castle, where he was security officer for the Edinburgh Military Tattoo.

From 1994 to 2002, Fairweather began a second career as Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Prisons in Scotland. He became a champion of prison reforms and an outspoken campaigner for a more compassionate approach to women offenders.

He was made a Commander of the British Empire in 2003 for his lifetime of public and national service. For the past seven years, he was chief fundraiser for the ex-service personnel charity Combat Stress.

Clive Fairweather was born in Edinburgh on 21 May, 1944. He attended various schools, including George Heriot’s, where then headmaster Dr William Joe asked him to “leave early for the sake of staff and pupils”.

His military career started when, as a schoolboy, he joined “C” Company 15 Parachute Regiment. Having developed a taste for military life, he attended RMA Sandhurst from 1962-1964. Highlights of his time at Sandhurst included being threatened with being back termed for “persistent” ill-discipline with the RMAS boxing club and concluded with him being banned from the Commissioning Ball because of an unfortunate incident involving a fellow cadet and a thunderflash.

Commissioned on 31 July, 1964, into the King’s Own Scottish Borderers, he began his service with the battalion when he was posted to “B” Company in Shorncliffe, Kent, in September 1964. An interesting historical footnote was provided when he attended Winston Churchill’s funeral as a guard.

In January 1965, he travelled with the battalion on a year-long Far East tour, starting in the New Territories in Hong Kong and later moving to the Jungle Warfare School in Johore Bahru in southern Malaysia. An early indication of what was going to be an eventful military life occurred on route when the aircraft he was travelling in caught fire and he and his platoon were diverted to Saigon.

From Malaysia, Fairweather’s next posting was to the 3rd Division in Sarawak, Borneo. In the spring of 1968, Fairweather’s career took a dramatic new direction when he volunteered for 22 SAS selection. He was one of only four men out of 42 candidates to make it through. He was later promoted to captain.

Throughout 1969 to 1971, he was involved in a number of operational tours with 22 SAS, including Sharjah, Northern Ireland, Iran, Oman, Dhofar and Jordan. He was injured in a booby trap bombing in Belfast in 1972, and investigated the capture and murder of Captain Robert Nairac by the IRA.

In November 1978, he was appointed as the Training Major of 21 SAS in Chelsea Barracks, London, but less than a year later he was appointed to second-in-command of 22 SAS, whose commanding officer at the time was Mike Rose.

His time at 22 SAS was most notable for the Iranian embassy siege in London. The action, code-named Operation Nimrod, brought the SAS to worldwide attention. It saw the successful rescue of 19 hostages, and the death of all but one of their six captors. One of the hostages was killed by the captors as the SAS stormed the embassy. The unit was praised by Baroness Thatcher, then prime minister, who met them later at their base in west London to thank them.

In June 1980, Fairweather married Ann Dexter, a union, which, he described as “one of the best things I ever did”.

On 19 May, 1982, the SAS lost 20 members when their Sea King helicopter lost power and plunged into the freezing South Atlantic after a freak collision with an albatross during the Falklands War, and it was Fairweather who had to arrange the repatriation and memorial services of the 20 dead men.

In late 1984, he was appointed Commanding Officer at the Scottish Infantry Depot in Glencorse, where he had to deal with the murder of three army colleagues shot by fellow soldier Andrew Walker.

Between 1987 and 1989, he was the Commanding Officer of 1 King’s Own Scottish Borderers. In March 1991, he was promoted to Colonel of the Scottish Division, where he played a key role in the Options for Change programme and the amalgamations within the Scottish Infantry that followed. He was offered promotion to brigadier as well as defence attache posts in 1993, but Fairweather turned them down.

In 1994 he decided to take early retirement from the army – and another career beckoned. From October 1994 to 2002, he began a second career as Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Prisons in Scotland where he was vocal in calling for prison reforms and was an outspoken campaigner for a more compassionate approach to women offenders.

Writing in Scotland on Sunday the day before he left his post, he concluded: “I have come full circle and having been for ‘locking them up and throwing away the keys’, I now believe that a much more profound shift is needed away from imprisonment. There should be a gradual transfer of resources towards failing primary schools in deprived areas and providing more opportunities for youth sport and youth organisations in the community. The time to address potential offending is when individuals are much, much younger.

“Separately, we need to expand the range of credible alternatives to custody and further embrace the like of drug-testing orders, drug courts, ‘electronic tagging’ where appropriate, or ‘thinking out of the box’ towards organisations such as the Airborne Initiative, which provides a last alternative to jail for 18 to 24-year-old offenders.”

His last posting was as chief fundraiser for Combat Stress, helping former service personnel severely damaged by their military experiences.

He was also trustee of charity Gardening Leave as well as president, chairman, secretary and treasurer of the Edinburgh Branch KOSB and a main board trustee of the KOSB Regiment.

He was also, for many years, the Honorary Colonel of the A&SH Cadet Battalion. In 2010, he was appointed a Fellow of the Royal Statistics Society for his pioneering use of statistical data during his time as Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Prisons for Scotland.

He also turned his hand to broadcasting, journalism and writing and was a regular commentator on a range of 
security and defence-related subjects across many newspapers in Scotland.

He held a passionate fascination for exploring, walking and running the old railways lines that existed in the Borders and he was an excellent game shot.

He was also a keen glider pilot, fell runner and pianist. He is survived by his son Nicholas, daughters Charlotte and Amelia and his former wife Ann.

CLAIRE GARDNER