Rhiwbina Living

most of the siege. No one knew we
were there. We camped down in
a surgeon's office and I remember
lying on the floor, fully kitted up,
looking at the primitive-looking
tools hanging up."
By the sixth day, the terrorists'
patience had worn thin. They
executed one of their hostages and
dumped his dead body on the steps
of the embassy. They told police
negotiators that they were going to
kill the rest of the hostages, one at a
time, over the next few hours.
"The police finally handed over
control to our guys and we all got
into our assault positions," says
Robin.
To distract the gunmen, the SAS
detonated a huge explosion to blow
out the skylight on the embassy
roof. As the world's media watched,
SAS troops then blew out one of the
windows at the front of the building.
"I entered on the ground floor at
the rear of the building. We could
hear the commotion going on when
the first blasts went off."
The deadly raid lasted just 17
minutes. Five terrorists were killed
and one was captured.
"We'd formed a human chain down
the staircase to get the hostages
out. We wanted to get them out
as quickly as we could and we
also wanted to get out of there
ourselves.
"Then suddenly, someone
shouted 'He's a terrorist!' and when
we looked, there was this guy
stumbling down the stairs with a
grenade in his hand.
"It was only as he came clear at the
bottom of the stairs that myself and
two other guys opened fire. There
was no warning shouted. He had a
grenade. We shot him."
The raid had brought the SAS into
the public domain for the first time.
"At that point, we were
the world's most famous
anonymous people."
The following year, Robin
married Heather and in
1982, during Operation
Sandy Wanderer, Robin
discovered a measles
epidemic in the Bedouin
population of Oman.
"We got some vaccines
to them and saved a lot of
lives, especially children."
Later that year, Robin was
heading to the Falkland
Islands for what seemed like a
suicide mission to destroy assets
of the Argentinian Air Force. It was
the first time since WW2 that the
SAS were involved in large-scale
conflict.
"I remember having to leave my
pregnant wife and not knowing if I
was coming back. That was hard."
By 1984, and with a growing family,
Robin decided to leave the Army.
"I bought myself out. I'd had
enough. By 1986, I was bodyguard
to Dodi Al-Fayed in London. I also
qualified Black Belt in Karate.
"I then moved on to become a
'contract soldier' in Sri Lanka. I was
only there a few months but I soon
realised I'd made a mistake. There
was a lot of genocide, torture and
media control going on, so I left."
In 1991, as the medical officer for
a gold mine in Guyana, Robin built
a medical facility from leftover
materials and as a Registered
Emergency Medical Technician, he
trained the staff there. In only four
months, he'd completed his task,
saving several lives along the way.
"Throughout the late 80s, I
was bodyguard to leaders and
politicians and by the early 1990s, I
was teaching karate professionally
in London. I set up my own karate
school there before retiring in 2012.
"I broke my neck so that wasn't
good. My son now runs the school
so we've kept it in the family."
Yearning to assuage his creative
streak, Robin completed an English
Literature with Creative Writing
degree at Surrey University in 2013.
"I was the only older man there so
it took the students a long time to
accept me."
Robin has since written a number
of books, and continues to write.
"It helped me through when I was
diagnosed with bladder cancer
in 2018. The treatment was grim
and although I never tried suicide,
I did consider it an option - that's
how low I felt." Robin now gives
inspirational talks about his life, and
recently raised £1,200 for charity at
a talk held at Abercwmboi RFC.
These days, he resides in the
South Wales mountains near where
he started his SAS training in the
late 1970s.
"It's so quiet where we live. I've
got time to reflect, to think, and
to write. You're never alone either
- the community is so helpful.
The mountains have been my
playground so I feel at home here."
www.robinhorsfall.co.uk
people
Jungle warfare training is designed
to push recruits' mental and physical
fortitude to the absolute limit
Watched by the world's media, the SAS storm the Iranian Embassy in May 1980
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