Lt Col Seymour Blyth was educated at Haileybury College, Hertford where he was awarded an Army Scholarship to the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. He was commissioned into the Royal Anglian Regiment in 1973.

His early career was spent at Regimental duty with the 3rd Battalion, the Pompadours, where he served in Germany, Cyprus, Colchester, Belize, and on operations in Londonderry, Northern Ireland. During this period he was also a training platoon commander at Depot the Queen’s Division, Bassingbourne, and Adjutant of 7 R ANGLIAN.

He then completed an SO3 G2 Intelligence Staff appointment in West Berlin where he specialized in East Berlin prior to unification. He returned to the Pompadours in Minden where he commanded a Mechanized Infantry Company, which included a tour in Belfast and training in BATUS. He was fortunate to also command a Mechanized Infantry Company with 2 QUEENS in Minden for an additional year.

Lt Col Blyth was subsequently posted to the Joint Force Operations Staff where he was responsible for the planning and co-ordination of major Tri-Service exercises outside NATO. During the first Gulf War he was AMA to General Sir Peter de la Billiere in his outer office in Riyadh. He escorted the brand new Prime Minister John Major throughout the Gulf region for three days on his first visit to the military on succeeding Margaret Thatcher, which gave a fascinating insight into his evolving relationships with the three Services.

After a tour at senior Regimental duty he was seconded to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and became the UNPROFOR operational military advisor to the United Nations Secretariat in New York over a particularly complex period in the Former Yugoslavia where he reported directly to Kofi Annan in the Department for Peace Keeping Operations. This was followed by two years as Chief of Staff of a major joint Army/RAF Headquarters in Rheindahlen, Germany.

From Germany he moved in 1997 to the Army Personnel Centre in Glasgow to work with the Military Secretary where he was responsible for the detailed career management of the Queen’s Division officers. After a lengthy selection process he became the Army nominee to be Equerry to HRH The Prince of Wales, although the job eventually went to the Royal Navy on that cycle. On promotion to Lt Col he became a student at the NATO Defence College in Rome, before heading north to Verona to be employed as the SO1 J7 Exercises in JHQ South where he planned and conducted major NATO and Partnership for Peace exercises throughout Western and Eastern Europe.

In November 2003, and after four years in Italy, he was posted to HQ DETS(A) in Upavon, as the SO1 Personal Development Policy where he managed a team in the research and development of new learning policies in support of senior strategic Government initiatives. He moved to the Ministry of Defence in 2006 and ran five handpicked Combined Services and Civil Service Defence Presentation teams across the United Kingdom. For his last tour he remained in London and was the military lead for the Royal Navy, Army and Royal Air Force as the SO1 Internal Communications within the Directorate for Media and Communications in Whitehall.

Lt Col Blyth was a keen sportsman and was an Army athlete and had a full Army rugby trial. He enjoyed tennis, squash, golf, skiing, all aquatic activities, and parachuting in his early days. He was a member of the Royal Geographical Society and his last expedition was to Burma in 2006.

On retirement in 2009 he became a consultant both in England and at SHAPE, Belgium, where he was the International lead Project Manager for enhancing NATO’s security posture by introducing a secure, cost effective, single identity management system (ID Card) for all military, civilian staff and families throughout NATO. This required considerable diplomatic skill in order to include designing the Card in accordance with all NATO nations, plus their specific financial, procurement and production requirements.

His last job was as the Managing Consultant, and a member of the Management Team, with an international crisis management organization, where he ran the London office with consultancy geared towards Crisis Communications and Crisis Management.

Lt Col Blyth was diagnosed with Prostate Cancer in 2008, which gradually curtailed his activities and he was unable to work full time from early 2014. He was however on the Committee of the Bob Champion Cancer Trust and helped to organize an annual tennis tournament in Battersea Park which has raised considerable sums towards Prostate Cancer research. He also briefly worked in sporting event management with Formula One, which included organizing charity cricket matches between the Lord’s Taverners against F1 teams, plus working in the Grand Prix Race Week, and attendance at the Monaco Grand Prix.

For the past ten years Seymour lived in Wiltshire with his wife Deborah and their two children, Kiki and Alexander