THE REDCOAT

INTRODUCTION

A PERSONAL INTRODUCTION 

I will take a few moments to introduce you to Sir Graham Finch. A very dear and close friend of mine, who I have had the distinct pleasure of knowing these past 25 years. A very complex...yet comfortable, easy to know individual. Very cordial and sincere with everyone he knows and meets. British...thru and thru! His is a truly amazing story which is guaranteed to send a shiver or two down your spine! So, let us begin his "journey" into the past.                                                                                                                                           BILL CARAWAN

A JOURNEY IN TIME

Sir Graham Finch (6/4/56) (London) is a British businessman very successful in Investment and Real Estate. He has also been a very generous philanthropist, who was recently knighted for his many years of community service. Along with everything else he is also a fairly well-known historian and published poet.

As a member of a family with a well-respected centuries old "brewing name" and with also not too distant Royalty ties, Sir Graham gave up what many considered a "privileged" future in exchange for "earned" success. This involved attending Oxford University (1974-78) and pursuing his own personal goals with modest loans from his Dad, which out of gratitude were repaid in double.

Shortly after graduating Oxford he decided to fulfill what he considered his military obligation. Right at the end of that service (1978-82) he was a well decorated member of the British Special Forces during the short but intense war with Argentina known as the Falkland War. (4/2/82 - 6/14/82)

When he left the service in August of 1982 he moved to London, purchased a loft apartment and began pursuing his career in Investment and Real Estate. Success came almost immediately.

He and his wife Shannon O'Brien (12/15/56) (Dublin) were very close friends throughout University. They met again in 1984 after both had established careers, and they began dating. They then married a couple years later (10/2/86) and have been married over thirty years. There are no children, which was by mutual agreement even though they both love children. Instead, they both over the years have given much time and money to orphanages in and around London.

Shannon is a very well-known and accomplished artist who specializes in commissioned portraits, which includes numerous celebrity portraits. She has a very unique technique of light and shadow which she attributes to her Irish heritage.

She paints under the registry of Shannon - "the Irish Artist" - O'Brien Studio which has become internationally known. Her beautiful Irish landscapes are also in very high demand.

Sir Graham and Shannon have a very close relationship and are intensely supportive of each other. Recently they posed to have their pictures taken together professionally for a press release in connection with an award they had received. The photographer stated that in the thirty four years of his career, they were without a doubt the "handsomest couple" he had ever photographed.

Sir Graham has always been fascinated with, and has always wanted to write an epic poem about, the battles of Lexington and Concord. These two engagements led to the siege of Boston, which ended with the British evacuating Boston. These events in turn led to the American War of Independence as the British know it, or the Revolutionary War as Americans know it.

At the time we join Sir Graham's story (4/18/92) he is sitting on the run-way at Heathrow Airport waiting for his plane to taxi for take-off on his first trip to Boston. The purpose is to visit the two battlefields and do research for his poem. Pulling out his itinerary for the trip he affirms that he will be arriving in Boston early that afternoon, take a taxi from Logan to Back Bay Hilton, check in and spend a restful evening. All next day (4/19) he is going to spend at Boston Public Library doing research, while reenactments are taking place in Lexington and Concord which always draw large crowds. Then early to bed, early to rise, a good breakfast, and after a leased car is delivered at 9:00 a.m. he will be driving to Lexington to begin a full day at the battlefields, with lunch in Concord. Next morning (4/21) flying home to London. A quick trip, but he knows he will be returning.

Still waiting for take-off, he can't help but chuckle to himself as he remembers how he had a favorite red blazer that he loved to wear throughout High School and University, which caused some friends to tease him as "the redcoat."

As they taxi for lift-off he removes from his leather satchel a journal he bought for the trip, and on the front cover prints the title "A JOURNEY IN TIME" which has just come to thought. He can't begin to imagine how accurate that title will be!