Military police volunteer leaves job and family behind for six months in Afghanistan

THE car journey to Catterick down the rain-soaked A1 would have been quiet on Tuesday. Any light conversation between Richard Anderson and his partner Maureen would have come and gone as quickly as the wipers cleared the windscreen. Each would be lost in their thoughts about the six months ahead.

Certainly they could not for a minute forget what was going to happen, especially as Richard was driving while dressed in his desert fatigues and boots, his pillarbox red beret on the back seat.

From today until October, Richard, a corporal with the Livingston-based 243 Provost Company, Royal Military Police (Volunteers), will be in Afghanistan, working in the hazardous Helmand Province training Afghan police in the basics of law and order – leaving behind his day job as a Lothian and Borders constable, his elderly parents at his home in Broxburn, and a worried Maureen.

Without doubt, it will be a dangerous time. Only five months ago, five British servicemen were murdered by an Afghan police officer in the same region. And last August, although in a different part of the country, a remote-controlled bomb killed 12 people in a police convoy.

Yet Richard has no doubts about travelling the 3,500 miles to work in a place where the energy-sapping heat can be as threatening as the enemy. A quick glance in the study of his Badger Meadows home proves why. The walls are lined with bravery awards and commendations from his time as a police officer both with the Metropolitan Police in London and Lothian and Borders. Then there are the photos of him in his TA uniform.

"If you take the Queen's shilling then you do what you're asked," he says. "It might sound cliched but it's what I believe. I signed up to the TA knowing that being sent to a war zone was a possibility and ever since I got my call-up papers last year I have been waiting for this day. I am a soldier as well as a policeman, and I'm prepared to go and do my professional duty. There have been so many men and women out there before me who have done fantastic work. They've set the benchmark.

"This is not conscription, I am a volunteer, and I volunteered knowing what I was doing.

"It was an unfortunate incident which left five British soldiers dead and their families devastated, but the contact between the army and the Afghans is so high, so constant, that you have to put it into some kind of perspective. I can only feel for the families. But we go out there because we believe that we are there to help."

Richard, 43, believes that serving his nation, be it as a police officer or a soldier, is in his blood. "My grandfather was a massive influence on me and he was a Company Sergeant Major in the Royal Scots. My great-grandfather was in both world wars – he served with the Canadians in the First World War, and he told me a great deal about them both. His father served in India with the British Army. It was always something I wanted to do, and when I was 17 I joined the TA.

"I had to come out of the TA because of my job for a time, but when the regulations changed I joined again four years ago, knowing full well that I could be sent to Afghanistan or even Iraq.

"It did go through my mind that joining again at 40 would mean I'd be surrounded by young men and women, but actually the unit has a lot of older volunteers and we bring a lot of experience with us. I'm one of eight going to Afghanistan.

"My grandfather was called up in 1939 and I was called up 70 years later in 2009. I have been preparing for some time."

Originally from Leith, Richard grew up in Broxburn, attending St Nicholas Primary and the long-gone Our Lady's High. "School wasn't really for me," he says. "Not then – although I did go on to spend years at night school and college. I started working as a mechanic but then I decided I wanted to be a prison officer so I had to get some qualifications.

"I worked in all the major jails and ultimately was trained to deal with hostage-taking and served on intervention teams. I suppose I have always wanted to be involved in trying to change things. That's one of the reasons the army and the police attracted me."

Richard served with the Scottish Prison Service for nine years. He says: "But I wanted to join the police. When we lived in Leith we weren't far from Gayfield Station and from the age of five that's what I wanted to do."

After training, he joined the Met. "They stationed me in the borough of Vauxhall, which included Lambeth and Brixton – it was a real challenge."

Unlike school, policing has definitely been for Richard, and he has picked up commendations for courage and bravery beyond the call of duty – including saving four children from a burning house just before it collapsed, and disarming numerous knife-wielding thugs intent on stabbing him or someone else.

He has seen much domestic conflict. He was on duty during the London riots in June 1999, and the May Day riot in 2000. "These situations are extremely difficult. Most of the violence is directed towards buildings and property such as cars, but things can change instantly.

"You have to be constantly alert, to be aware, but also to be able to use your common sense. Snap judgements have to be made, but reactions always have to be proportionate – that's something I hope to take with me."

Richard was also one of the first officers on the scene when a nail bomb exploded in Brixton in April 1999. "I still don't know how no-one was killed that day," he says. "It was a shocking thing to witness."

Later that year, he transferred to the Met's Territorial Support Group, which specialised in public order containment – including terrorism – but left London for Edinburgh just before the 11 September bombing of the World Trade Center in 2001.

"I wanted a fresh challenge, and to be nearer family again. I was stationed at St Leonard's initially then transferred to Corstorphine and South Queensferry. I like to think that I am a proactive police officer.

"I made my 100th arrest in August 2007 – someone wanted on a warrant – and I am proud of that. I am a constable and have never been off frontline duties and that's the way I like it."

As Richard talks, his partner Maureen Halloran, who lives in Dunfermline, listens intently. She, a business manager with Knockhill racing circuit, has experience of waving a loved one goodbye to be left wondering what danger they face.

"My son Billy joined the army when he was 16," she says. "But he was only ever sent to Ireland before he realised the army wasn't for him, but him being there did worry me.

"I know this is what Richard wants to do and he's very positive about it all . . . but you can't help have a worry at the back of your mind. I have had some emotional moments about it, but I've had time to get my head round it and I am proud of what he's doing.

"The six months will probably fly by and we're hoping he'll be back as my granddaughter Chloe turns three in October."

Is Richard excited then about going? "I have a high degree of anticipation for the challenge ahead," he says. "It's about winning hearts and minds. But I'm totally prepared. The kit is great and the training has been fantastic. I don't know how the heat will be till I get there, but this is a fantastic opportunity which has been given to me."

SHARING THEIR EXPERTISE

AROUND 400 soldiers from the Edinburgh-based 1st Battalion, The Royal Regiment of Scotland are now serving in Afghanistan. Their main task during their six-month tour of duty is training and mentoring the Afghan National Army.

As part of Operation Herrick the soldiers are split into small teams, working closely with Afghan soldiers. Their work includes taking them on patrols and teaching them tactics. It is also a two-way process, as they can share invaluable local knowledge. Afghan officers have already spent two weeks in Edinburgh training the British soldiers in the basics of Dari language and culture before the tour.