Editing Paddy Ashdown (section)

== Early life and career ==
Ashdown was the eldest of seven children: four brothers and two sisters.<ref name="Reuter-five-facts">{{cite news |url=http://uk.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUKL2179371320070621 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130201042327/http://uk.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUKL2179371320070621 |url-status=dead |archive-date=1 February 2013 |title=Five facts about Paddy Ashdown |work=Reuters |date=21 June 2007 |access-date=23 November 2007}}</ref> He was born in New Delhi, [[British Raj|British India]],<ref name="OHR-CV">{{cite web|url=http://www.ohr.int/ohr-info/hrs-dhrs/default.asp?content_id=28051|title=Curriculum Vitae: Paddy Ashdown|publisher=Office of the High Representative (OHR) and EU Special Representative (EUSR) in Bosnia and Herzegovina|date=27 May 2002|access-date=23 November 2007|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071110154937/http://www.ohr.int/ohr-info/hrs-dhrs/default.asp?content_id=28051|archive-date=10 November 2007}}</ref> on 27 February 1941<ref>{{cite book|title=A Dictionary of Political Biography|year=1998|publisher=Oxford University Press|page=20|chapter-url=https://www.questia.com/read/34683400/a-dictionary-of-political-biography|last=Kavanagh|first=Dennis|author-link=Dennis Kavanagh|chapter=Ashdown, Paddy|isbn=|access-date=7 September 2017|archive-date=21 September 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130921064758/http://www.questia.com/read/34683400/a-dictionary-of-political-biography|url-status=dead}}{{ISBN?}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Birthdays |newspaper=The Guardian |date=27 February 2014 |page=33}}{{link needed|date=October 2021}}</ref> to a family of soldiers and colonial administrators who spent their lives in India.<ref name="Action man bows out">{{cite news |title=Action man bows out |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/415405.stm |work=BBC News |date=9 August 1999 |access-date=23 November 2007}}</ref> His father was a [[lapsed Catholic]], and his mother a [[Protestant]]. His mother (née Hudson) was a nurse in the [[Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.burkespeerage.com/|title=Burke's Peerage – The Official Website|work=burkespeerage.com}}</ref>{{full citation needed|date=March 2021}} Ashdown's father, John William Richard Durham Ashdown (1909–1980), was a [[British Indian Army]] officer who served in the [[14th Punjab Regiment]] and the [[Royal Indian Army Service Corps]], and in 1944 attained the rank of temporary lieutenant colonel.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.unithistories.com/officers/IndianArmy_officers_A01.html|title=Officers of the Indian Army 1939–1945 – A|website=unithistories.com |access-date=2021-03-04}}</ref>{{efn|During the 1940 [[Dunkirk retreat]], John Ashdown ignored an order to abandon the men of the 32nd Animal Transport Company (Mule) under his command, instead leading them to the port and on to one of the last ships to leave, without losing a single man. Although [[court-martial]]led for disobeying orders, he was exonerated and rose to the rank of colonel by the war's end.<ref>{{cite news|first=Patrick|last= Wintour<!--, chief political correspondent--> |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2000/nov/08/patrickwintour|title=Ashdown tells how father stood by Indian troops|newspaper=The Guardian|date=8 November 2000|access-date=30 April 2010|location=London}}</ref>}}

Ashdown was primarily brought up in Northern Ireland, where his father bought a farm in 1945<ref name="OHR-CV" /> near [[Comber]], County Down.<ref name="indep-edu">{{cite news|url=http://news.independent.co.uk/people/profiles/article162427.ece|title=An education in the life of Lord Ashdown: 'I was bullied early on, but then I learnt to fight'|first=Jonathan |last=Sale|work=The Independent|date=18 October 2001|access-date=23 November 2007|location=London}}{{dead link|date=August 2021|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref> He was educated first at a local primary school, then as a weekly boarder at Garth House [[preparatory school (UK)|Preparatory School]] in [[Bangor, County Down|Bangor]]<ref name="indep-edu" /> and from age 11 at [[Bedford School]] in England, where his accent earned him the nickname "Paddy".<ref name="indep-edu" />

=== Royal Marines and Special Boat Section ===
After his father's business collapsed, Ashdown passed the naval scholarship examination to pay for his school fees,<ref name="TLCS">{{cite news|url=http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/book_extracts/article6077218.ece|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090518154138/http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/book_extracts/article6077218.ece|url-status=dead|archive-date=18 May 2009|title=Lover, commando, spy&nbsp;– the making of Paddy Ashdown|newspaper=The Sunday Times|date=12 April 2009|access-date=19 April 2009|location=London|first=Fiona|last=Hamilton}}</ref> but left before taking [[A-levels]] and joined the [[Royal Marines]] in 1959.<ref name="indep-edu" /> He served until 1972<ref name="OHR-CV" /> and retired with the rank of [[Captain (British Army and Royal Marines)|captain]]. He served in Borneo during the [[Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation]] and the [[Persian Gulf]],<ref name="Reuter-five-facts" /> before training as a [[Swimmer Canoeist]] in 1965, after which he joined the elite [[Special Boat Section]] (now named the Special Boat Service) and commanded a Section in the Far East.<ref name="OHR-CV" /> He then went to [[British Hong Kong|Hong Kong]] in 1967 to undertake a full-time [[interpreter]]'s course in Chinese,<ref name="TLCS" /> and returned to the UK in 1970 when he was given command of a Royal Marine company in [[Belfast]].<ref name="OHR-CV" />

=== Intelligence officer and diplomat ===
Ashdown left the Royal Marines to join the [[Secret Intelligence Service]] (SIS or MI6).<ref name="TLCS" /><ref name="Waugh-Standard">{{cite news|url=http://waugh.standard.co.uk/2010/05/paddy-ashdown-secret-agent.html|title=Paddy Ashdown. Secret Agent|first=Paul |last=Waugh|work=Evening Standard|date=4 May 2010|access-date=5 May 2010|quote=I actually served in the Secret Intelligence Service<!-- with him and I know him as a perfectly nice man-->. |url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100507124647/http://waugh.standard.co.uk/2010/05/paddy-ashdown-secret-agent.html|archive-date=7 May 2010}}</ref> As [[diplomatic cover]], he worked for the [[Foreign and Commonwealth Office]] as [[Diplomatic rank|first secretary]] to the [[Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom to the United Nations|United Kingdom mission to the United Nations]] in Geneva, Switzerland.<ref name="Roth-Guardian">{{cite news|url=http://politics.guardian.co.uk/profiles/story/0,,459350,00.html|title=Sir Paddy Ashdown|first=Andrew |last=Roth|work=The Guardian|date=19 March 2001|access-date=22 November 2007|location=London|author-link=Andrew Roth}}</ref> At the UN, Ashdown was responsible for relations with several UN organisations, involved in the negotiation of several international treaties, and some aspects of the [[Helsinki Accords]] in 1975.<ref name="LibDem-WhosWho">{{cite web|url=http://www.libdems.org.uk/party/people/ashdown-of-norton-sub-hamdon.0002.html|title=Who's Who: Lord Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon GCMG KBE|website=|publisher=Liberal Democrats |access-date=23 November 2007|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071018085654/http://libdems.org.uk/party/people/ashdown-of-norton-sub-hamdon.0002.html|archive-date=18 October 2007}}</ref>