Tim Spicer

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Tim Spicer is a former Lieutenant-Colonel in the Scots Guards and CEO of the private military contractor (PMC) Aegis Defence Services. He is a veteran of the Falklands War and served with the British Army in Northern Ireland. He is a former employee of Sandline International, a PMC which closed in April 2004.

When employed by Sandline, Lt Col Spicer was involved in military operations in Sierra Leone, which included importing weapons in apparent violation of the UN arms embargo. Sandline was also involved in attempts to prop up the government of Prime Minister Chan in Papua New Guinea. This is known as the so-called Sandline affair in the United Kingdom. There was speculation that the British and the US governments may have lent tacit approval to Sandline's activities. Sandline also had ties to the South African PMC Executive Outcomes.

Lt Col Spicer was involved in a controversial incident while serving in Northern Ireland in 1992. British Soldiers of the Scots Guards under Spicer's command, shot and killed an unarmed Catholic civilian named Peter McBride on the streets of West Belfast that year. Despite substantial evidence that the teenage McBride was unarmed and not a threat, Spicer stood by his soldiers even after they were indicted. According to British news reports the Provisional IRA placed a bounty on Spicer's head and he was promptly removed from Northern Ireland by British Army command to save him from possible assassination.

Lt Col Spicer is Chief Executive of Aegis Defence Services, a PMC based in London. The Chairman is Field-Marshal Lord Inge, former Chief of the Defence Staff and the Board of Directors include: General Sir Roger Wheeler, former Chief of the General Staff, and Sir John Birch, former British ambassador to the UN.

It is rumoured that Spicer continues to have common interests with Northbridge Services Group, widely believed to be the successor organisation to the South African PMC Executive Outcomes.

Spicer was featured in The Guardian of May 20, 2006. The newspaper article, entitled The enforcer, said:

"Spicer is effectively in charge of the second largest military force in Iraq – some 20,000 private soldiers. Just don't call him a mercenary."

Lt Col Spicer has published his biography, An Unorthodox Soldier ISBN 1-84018-349-7.