Episode 1 - Robert Ely - Veteran
In this episode James sits down with 70-year-old Robert Ely who joined the British Army in 1967 as a musician with the Band of the Royal Corps of Signals. In 1979, he was appointed Bandmaster of the 2nd Battalion of the Parachute Regiment and served with them until 1986 when he was discharged for his sexual orientation. Robert later founded ‘Rank Outsiders’ – a self-help group of ex-service personnel who had lost their careers through similar circumstances, and in 1991 he went on to give evidence in Parliament to the ‘Armed Forces Select Committee’ which eventually led to the complete lifting of the ban on LGBT serving personnel in the year 2000. Robert talks about growing up in a time when it was illegal to be gay in the UK, the way he felt when he was unceremoniously dismissed from his dream career, and how even though he came close to losing everything - he never stopped fighting for change.