TOMMY CLUB FOUNDING PATRONS ASH ALEXANDER-COOPER
In a regular military career spanning 22 years, former operations specialist and Tommy Club Founding Patron Ash AlexanderCooper OBE became one of the most experienced British Army Officers of his generation.
Former operations specialist Ash Alexander-Cooper a Founding Patron of the Tommy Club.
Having joined the Gurkhas in 1995, Ash went on to spend almost seven years deployed operationally in Northern Ireland, the Balkans, the Middle East and Central Asia. His love of the military, what it has to offer individuals and what it can teach wider society and future generations is clear to see. This attitude is brilliantly reflected in the office of his Hampshire home - which coincidentally is situated on a former Gurkha barracks. The room displays an array of military memorabilia items, each of which holds a story and a deep history. Included is a signed photo of George VI who visited the Gurkha base in 1949, a watercolour 1755 of Gurkhas (then Gorkhas) in Dehradun, India, a signed photo of Queen Elizabeth II who visited the same base in 1990, and a specially engraved lump of lapis lazuli given 12
TOM M Y C LU B NEWS I SPRING 2021
to him as a gift from his Afghan partners as a thank you for his four years of service in the country. And such items have played a central role in Ash’s own military history. The former Colonel’s familial connections to the military are deeply rooted – albeit not well known. Ash’s grandfather, Flt Lt EC ‘Eddie’ Preedy, was a navigator of Lancaster Bombers and a wide range of other aircraft during the Second World War. He signed up some time in the early 1940s before joining 617 Squadron - the legendary Dam Busters - after the ‘bouncing bomb’ mission, otherwise known as Operation Chastise. Whilst not much of his grandfather’s military history is known to him, Ash nevertheless carried a piece of it with him during his own service years Eddie’s original St Christopher pendant. The Patron Saint of travelling, St Christopher is a symbol of protection for service
Flt Lt EC ‘Eddie’ Preedy.
He didn’t really talk about it. It wasn’t until I was well into my military service, and he was dying with cancer that we actually started having quite detailed conversations about service, the military. and leadership.
