Simon Mann

Who they were

Simon Francis Mann was a British officer in the Special Air Service (SAS), and later a mercenary. He trained to be an officer at Sandhurst and was commissioned into the Scots Guards. He later became a member of the SAS, and on leaving the military, he co-founded Sandline International with fellow ex-Scots Guards colonel Tim Spicer in 1996. Sandline operated mostly in Angola and Sierra Leone,

Early life

Early life Simon Mann was born in Aldershot , Hampshire, on 26 June 1952. [ 1 ] His father, George , captained the England cricket team in the late 1940s and was an heir to a stake in the Watney Mann brewing empire that closed in 1979, having been acquired by Grand Metropolitan (which, in 1997, became Diageo plc on its merger with Guinness ). His mother, Margaret, was South African. [ 2 ] ^ Nossiter, Adam (22 May 2025). "Simon Mann, Mercenary Who Sought to Overthrow African Leader, Dies at 72" .

Path and career

Mann was commissioned into the Scots Guards after training at Sandhurst, then served in the Special Air Service (SAS). After leaving the military, he co-founded Sandline International in 1996 with fellow ex-Scots Guards colonel Tim Spicer, a private military company that undertook contracts in Angola and Sierra Leone.

A Sandline contract with Papua New Guinea's government in 1997 sparked public outcry and led to the resignation of the country's Prime Minister in what became known as the Sandline affair. Mann was later arrested in Zimbabwe in 2004 while allegedly planning a coup in Equatorial Guinea and served time in prison before his release.

Why this date

Simon Mann appears on our May 8 calendar for 2025 as a death entry.