Frank Gardner, English captain and journalist
Francis Rolleston Gardner (born 31 July 1961) is a British journalist and author. He is currently the BBC's Security Correspondent. His parents were both diplomats and his early life was spent in The Hague before being educated at Saint Ronan's School, and Marlborough College. He was commissioned into the British Army Reserves as a second lieutenant joining the 4th Volunteer Battalion, the Royal Green Jackets in September 1984. After a career working in various jobs in the Middle East, including nine years as an investment banker, Gardner joined BBC World as a producer and reporter in 1995. He became the BBC's first full-time Gulf correspondent in 1997, before being appointed BBC Middle East correspondent in 1999. After the 11 September attacks on New York, Gardner specialised in covering stories related to the War on Terror.
On 6 June 2004, while reporting from Al-Suwaidi, a district of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Gardner was shot six times and seriously injured in an attack by al-Qaida gunmen. One of Gardner's spinal nerves was hit in the attack and he was left partially paralysed in the legs. After 14 surgical operations, seven months in hospital and several months of rehabilitation, he returned to reporting for the BBC in mid-2005, using a wheelchair or a frame. In the 2005 Birthday Honours, Gardner was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to journalism.
Outside journalism Gardner, in November 2011, was elected honorary president of the Ski Club of Great Britain. He is a Patron of Disability Snowsport UK (DSUK). In 2019 he was elected President of the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO). He has written two non-fiction works as well as a series of novels featuring the fictional SBS officer-turned MI6 operative Luke Carlton.