Hugh McManners is an English musician and a writer: he is a guitarist and songwriter, an author, and a campaigner for medical research to help war veterans.

Music

McManners writes contemporary rock and folk songs and is currently working with producer Jez Coad on an album to be released in 2021. He performs solo with acoustic guitar, and with hi
Linden Tree Band
He has previous experience with various bands including as singer and guitarist for The BashBand, The Bashband Official Site
www.bashband.co.uk, and HM Band www.hm-band.com (accessed 7 September 2007) Hugh was bass guitarist for the Leicester heavy rock ban
Medusa
in the 1970s, and the Coventry-based reggae band Cabstars.

Life

He was born into an academic family in Oxford, the son of historian The Rev. Professor John McManners, and was brought up in Australia. He was educated at Sydney Church of England Grammar School, Shore, Oadby Beauchamp Upper School,

Magdalen College School, Oxford Magdalen College School (MCS) is a public school (English independent day school) in Oxford, England, for boys aged seven to eighteen and for girls in the sixth form. It was founded by William Waynflete about 1480 as part of Magdalen College ...

, and the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.Speaker Spotlight – Hugh McManners
at www.mctevent.co.uk, (accessed 7 September 2007) He read Geography at St Edmund Hall,

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

from 1975 to 1978. McManners was bass guitarist in the Leicester heavy rock band Medusa, before serving eighteen years in the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

. The majority of his time serving with

3 Commando Brigade 3 Commando Brigade (3 Cdo Bde), previously called the 3rd Special Service Brigade, is a commando formation of the British Armed Forces. It is composed of the Royal Marine Commandos, alongside commando qualified sailors, soldiers and airmen from ...

. He was commissioned into the

Royal Artillery The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery (RA) and colloquially known as "The Gunners", is one of two regiments that make up the artillery arm of the British Army. The Royal Regiment of Artillery comprises t ...

in 1973 and was promoted Lieutenant in 1974, Captain in 1979,.London Gazette
/ref> and Major in 1985. He spent five years with 148 (Meiktila) Commando Forward Observation Battery, as a

commando Royal Marines from 40 Commando on patrol in the Sangin">40_Commando.html" ;"title="Royal Marines from 40 Commando">Royal Marines from 40 Commando on patrol in the Sangin area of Afghanistan are pictured A commando is a combatant, or operativ ...

paratrooper A paratrooper is a military parachutist—someone trained to parachute into a military operation, and usually functioning as part of an airborne force. Military parachutists (troops) and parachutes were first used on a large scale during Worl ...

, and an army diving supervisor; he ran the British Army's

jungle warfare Jungle warfare is a term used to cover the special techniques needed for military units to survive and fight in jungle terrain. It has been the topic of extensive study by military strategists, and was an important part of the planning for bo ...

training school in

Belize Belize (; bzj, Bileez) is a Caribbean and Central American country on the northeastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a wate ...

. During the Falklands War in 1982 he fought with his five-man naval gunfire forward observation team, with the

Special Boat Service The Special Boat Service (SBS) is the special forces unit of the United Kingdom's Royal Navy. The SBS can trace its origins back to the Second World War when the Army Special Boat Section was formed in 1940. After the Second World War, the Roya ...

and worked with the SAS, Throughout the war, McManners team was formally assigned to the SBS, and he was awarded a

Mention in Despatches To be mentioned in dispatches (or despatches, MiD) describes a member of the armed forces whose name appears in an official report written by a superior officer and sent to the high command, in which their gallant or meritorious action in the face ...

. He wrote about this in his first boo
Falklands Commando
McManners then passed the year-long Army Staff College course at Camberley. He was promoted Major in 1985, and spent two years working at the Ministry of Defence in London. He has served at

Fort Ord Fort Ord is a former United States Army post on Monterey Bay of the Pacific Ocean coast in California, which closed in 1994 due to Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) action. Most of the fort's land now makes up the Fort Ord National Monument, ...

California with the US Army's 2nd Infantry Division (Light), on

counter terrorist Counterterrorism (also spelled counter-terrorism), also known as anti-terrorism, incorporates the practices, military tactics, techniques, and strategies that governments, law enforcement, business, and intelligence agencies use to combat or el ...

duties in Armagh,

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

, and with the United Nations in Cyprus during the Turkish invasion of 1974. After commanding 17 Corunna Field Battery , he retired from the Army in 1989. McManners was the Defence Correspondent of The Sunday Times (UK), The Sunday Times newspaper for five years, Hugh McManners biography
at www.dorlingkindersley-uk.co.uk, (accessed 7 September 2007) and also contributed to other major UK newspapers including

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the ...

and

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...

also writing an article in

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...

regarding the controversial shoot to kill policy. Hugh McManners: The truth about our 'shoot-to-kill' policy
at www.independent.co.uk, (accessed 7 September 2007) He has co-produced a list of television documentaries and series on military subjects. He co-presented the BBC2 '' Bare Necessities''

survival Survival, or the act of surviving, is the propensity of something to continue existing, particularly when this is done despite conditions that might kill or destroy it. The concept can be applied to humans and other living things (or, hypotheti ...

series and the Radio 4 series ''The Psychology of War''. He is the author of many military books including the ''Scars of War'', and several Dorling Kindersley titles, including the ''Outdoor Training Manual'' and the ''Commando Survival Guide''. In 2011, with neuroscientist Morten Kringelbach, he founde
The Scars of War Foundation
at the University of Oxford's

The Queen's College, Oxford The Queen's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford, England. The college was founded in 1341 by Robert de Eglesfield in honour of Philippa of Hainault. It is distinguished by its predominantly neoclassical architecture, ...

. McManners' research into the psychological effects of military combat on participants, joined forces with Kringelbach's neuroimaging studies into how the brain functions. This led to a five-year project to compare the brains of combat veterans of similar experiences with and without combat-related PTSD (post traumatic press disorder). The Scars of War Foundation is developing further research into the cognitive neuroscience of combat veterans in conjunction with Prof Yair Bar-Haim of Psychological Sciences and Sagol School of Neuroscience, Tel Aviv University. McManners has recently moved back to Leicester. He writes songs, some of which reflect on his past as a soldier and his concerns and experiences with battle trauma. He performs on his own as a singer-songwriter, and with hi
Linden Tree Band
He has two sons.

Works

* Falklands Commando * Crowning the Dragon * The Scars of War * Commando Survival Guide * Outdoor survival guide * The Backpackers Manual * Commando – Winning the Green Beret * Top Guns * The Complete Wilderness Training Manual * Dorling Kindersley Children's Outdoor Adventure book series * Ultimate Special Forces: The Insider's Guide to the Most Deadly Commandos * Forgotten Voices of the Falklands: The Real Story of the Falklands War * Gulf War One – Real voices from the Front Line (to be published in Nov 2010 by Ebury)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McManners, Hugh British television producers British television presenters Alumni of St Edmund Hall, Oxford The Sunday Times people Royal Artillery officers British Army personnel of the Falklands War Living people 1952 births Graduates of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst British military personnel of The Troubles (Northern Ireland)