Legionnaire: Five Years in the French Foreign Legion

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Murray's account is a series of diary entries which keeps the narrative fast paced and engaging. The epistolary structure makes every day in Murray's life for five years seem an thrilling day marked by firefights, torture, drunken debauchery and feats of daring adventure. Of course, some days are omitted because they contained nothing of note which consequently makes the narrative a pure, distillation of excitement. At 60 years of age, he completed the Marathon des Sables, a 242 km race across the Moroccan desert. At the age of 63, Murray became the oldest man to reach the South Pole unsupported. His wife, Jennifer, was the first woman to fly around the world in a helicopter. Next, he set his sights on business - he ran some of the most well-known companies in South East Asia and was one of Chris Patten's key allies during the handover of Hong Kong. Then, in his 60s and looking for a new challenge, he chanced upon the idea of polar adventure, and went on to become the oldest person to walk unsupported to the South Pole. But after all this, his greatest achievement, he says, is his marriage. Perhaps it's no surprise that his wife of 43 years, Jennifer, Adventurer and businessman Simon Murray. As a teenager, nursing a broken heart and determined to prove himself, he joined the French Foreign Legion. Fighting in the Algerian war, he risked his life many times over; combat was at close quarters and was very bloody.

Simon Murray (Author of Legionnaire) - Goodreads Books by Simon Murray (Author of Legionnaire) - Goodreads

It brings me both great joy and sadness that I’ve finished the book. It’s a great pastime, promise to transport your mind to some thrills and thoughts. Informative to the psychologies of soldiers, and one of the finest at that. From 1994 to 1998, Simon was the Executive Chairman of the Deutsche Bank Group in Asia. He then established his own company, General Enterprise Management Services Ltd (GEMS), a mid-sized investment group operating across Asia. [4] In addition to this Simon was a founder of Distacom which made a number of mobile telecoms investments including Madacom in Madagascar, Spice Telecom in India and Sunday Communications in Hong Kong. He has also invested in other mobile operations in New Zealand, San Marino, Papua New Guinea and elsewhere. There have been riots during the last few days which have resulted in some two hundred people being killed. Because of this, we are not en alerte. At the beginning of January there is to be a referendum which will be held in France as well as Algeria. The referendum is understood to be deGaulle asking for a free hand to negotiate with the F.L.N. for the establishment of the Algeria of tomorrow, which will be the first real step to independence, but perhaps on his own terms." A good book to read when you're feeling sorry for yourself, when you're feeling that your life is just too hard. When I read about the hardships, punishment, and outright sadism Simon Murray experienced in his five years in the French Foreign Legion, my life appears to be a mere picnic by comparison! But the Arabs are set on total independence, and the French colons are equally determined to retain all that they have here. The colons are extremists in every sense of the word; they do not understand compromise and they will go to extremes to keep what they believe to be theirs by birthright.

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Adventurer and businessman Simon Murray. As a teenager, nursing a broken heart and determined to prove himself, he joined the French Foreign Legion. Fighting in the Algerian war, he risked his life many times over; combat was at close quarters and was very bloody. Murray was the chairman of Glencore from 2011 to 2013. [4] He later became chairman of Gulf Keystone Petroleum from 2013 to 2015. [5] He has served on boards and held advisory positions with a number of other large companies, including Vodafone, Tommy Hilfiger Corporation, Vivendi Universal, Usinor SA, Hermes, General Electric (USA), China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), Macquarie Bank, N.M. Rothschild, and Bain (the consultancy company). [4] He continues to serve on the advisory board of Lightbridge Corporation (USA), and was on the Development Advisory Board of Imperial College, London. Murray is currently the Executive Chairman of GEMS, and a board director of Cheung Kong Holdings Ltd, Orient Overseas (International) Ltd, Wing Tai Properties Ltd, Arnhold Holdings Ltd, Richemont SA, Essar Energy plc, Omnicorp Ltd and IRC Ltd. I first became aware of Simon Murray when I watched on TV one night a special program about the French Foreign Legion in which he acted as the narrator. I was rather impressed with him, so when I came across this book (after having read the Douglas Porch history of the Legion in the early 1990s), I was eager to read it.

Legionnaire: Five Years in the French Foreign Legion - Goodreads Legionnaire: Five Years in the French Foreign Legion - Goodreads

There were many stories he did as the lowest rank that sound like fun adventures. Then when he has the determination, he goes to the leadership school and earns a promotion. This is definitely a book military members of all nationalities can understand and enjoy. He was in Algeria because it was a French colony that received its independence (I am not completely clear on the history here), but the ground Soldiers were good people. The military heads deserve any criticism for this, not the Soldiers. There was also a (very) brief coup over Algeria getting its independence, but that was a failed coup. Two years later, Algeria wins its independence. As part of the agreement with France, the French are allowed a limited tenure in some areas of the country (inclusive of the former naval base at Mers-el-Kebir) and oil rights in the Sahara for 5 years. The Legion has to abandon its traditional headquarters at Sidi-bel-Abbes and relocate much of its staff, equipment, and assets to the South of France. But Murray's unit and a few other units of the Legion are allowed to remain in Algeria on a temporary basis. France was then in flux, having barely survived an attempted coup d'etat. Consequently, given that the Legion no longer had any wars to fight on behalf of la patrie, there was some uncertainty as to whether it would be allowed to remain in existence. (Some Legion officers had sided with the coup leaders who came out of the French Army.) But thankfully the Legion had some farsighted officers in its ranks who helped to secure for it a new raison d'etre and favor with Paris through developing a variety of special skills and roles for itself. I was surprised by how much it felt like my time in the Army. I just retired after 21 years. He joined with daydreams of adventure and exotic travel, but reality soon revealed itself. There were 19 other young men that joined with him, but when he was at the transition center ready to getting out five years later, the others were no where to be seen. He could see other people who he was in with and they would be old friends. The ending was especially meaningful. When he was getting close to the time to get out, he did not know many of the new faces. He did not feel as much comradery ship because most of the people were new and he was being replaced as soon as he was gone.The seminal book by an Englishman who ran off to join the Legion, Murray served through a very difficult period on Legion history. De Gaulle, after having promised the pieds noir and the Legion that Algeria would always remain l'Algérie Française, reneged on his promise in 1959, and agreed to allow an Algerian referendum on freedom. Following the vote to separate from France, many pieds noir and some Legion regiments engaged in an attempted putsch, which failed. As a result of this, de Gaulle almost disestablished the Legion... but remembered how the 13e DBLE stood beside him through World War 2. Murray describes the daily life of a legionnaire in detail in a daily journal he kept. The moments of terror fighting the Fel in the Atlas Mountains, the beatings and brutality of the non-commissioned officers, the crushing boredom. Murray described it all... and made it sound like something that a young man should do.

Simon Murray (Author of Legionnaire) - Goodreads Simon Murray (Author of Legionnaire) - Goodreads

But the experiences also seem to have resulted in a camaraderie with comrades-in-arms that lasted far beyond the five years the author signed up for. And they appeared to have well-prepared him for life as a businessman in Asia, an adventurer, and an explorer (after 5 years of hell in the Legion, everything else must seem like a piece of cake!). After working a number of years with investment houses, he several times started his own investment companies, in partnership with impressive folks like the Rothschilds and Deutsche Bank, which he then sold for enormous sums of money. He was also instrumental in helping start the British telecom Orange, something he found amusing considering that during his five years in the Legion, he never made or received a single phone call.Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 2011-09-16 18:10:32 Boxid IA171001 Boxid_2 CH106101 Camera Canon EOS 5D Mark II City New York Donor Murray presented 'The Legion is My Country', a BBC Radio 4 documentary (produced by Alec Reid) celebrating the 150th anniversary of the founding of the French Foreign Legion. It was broadcast on 26 May 1981. Also in the 80s, Murray presented a documentary on the French Foreign Legion, where he explained the traditions and folklore that surround this elite force. [7] He also appeared and contributed on the documentary series Escape to the Legion [8] and Weaponology. [9] Personal life [ edit ] Ocr_converted abbyy-to-hocr 1.1.20 Ocr_module_version 0.0.17 Openlibrary OL8228375M Openlibrary_edition Just finished Legionnaire by Simon Murray. This is a memoir from his five years in the French Foreign Legion. The writings are from a diary he kept during his time. I really enjoyed this.