22 Facts About Abigail Austen

Abigail Austen was born on 8 December 1964 and is a Northern Irish-born Scottish journalist and former British Army officer.

Abigail Austen is the first officer in the British Army to begin gender reassignment while in the Army.

In 1982, Abigail Austen joined the Royal Irish Rangers as an officer, serving in Northern Ireland and Germany.

Abigail Austen then began working as both a director and series producer for both Scottish Television and Anglia Television.

Abigail Austen has been nominated three times by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.

Abigail Austen joined the Parachute Regiment in 2002, having already passed the selection process at age 35, and went on to attend All Arms Commando Course and Special Forces selection with 22 SAS, becoming a combat survival and a physical training instructor.

Abigail Austen served with the Cheshire Regiment and The Highlanders in a variety of command appointments, as well as a number of staff appointments both in the UK and overseas, with a speciality in Information and Psychological Operations.

Abigail Austen deployed on operations in Bosnia, Northern Ireland, the War in Afghanistan and the Iraq War.

Abigail Austen returned to the United Kingdom in 2006 and spent a period recovering from two continuous years of operations before taking a position back in Afghanistan with NATO Forces, advising on specialist counter-narcotics operations, from where she was medevacked back to the UK with a serious infection following an IED incident.

In March 2007, Abigail Austen started a gender transition in accordance with her female gender identity.

At that time, the British military did not have regulations in place to support Abigail Austen's continued service with Airborne Forces.

The issue was eventually amicably resolved, and Abigail Austen resigned her commission.

Abigail Austen's case led to Army policy on transgender soldiers being formalised for the first time which now allows soldiers to transition while in service.

The Regimental Colonel of The Parachute Regiment wrote to Abigail Austen to thank her for her "years of loyal service as an Airborne Officer".

Abigail Austen continued to undertake a number of training and advisory roles on gender issues, including with Lancashire Police, and supported the Parachute Regiment by fundraising for Airborne Charities.

Abigail Austen is an instructor with the Army Cadet Force, mentoring troubled young people from her police ward.

Abigail Austen received several threats of violence from serving soldiers because of the attendant publicity of this case.

Abigail Austen served three years on back-to-back tours with the US 82nd Airborne, 3rd and 4th infantry divisions and was awarded a number of prestigious decorations for her work.

Abigail Austen then moved to Ukraine, as deputy ambassador and senior diplomatic spokesperson for the European Union mission.

Abigail Austen was then appointed as senior advisor to the UK's Standing Joint Deployable Headquarters, creating policy for the 9-nation coalition Joint Expeditionary Force defending NATO's eastern flank.

Abigail Austen has maintained a lecturing role to UK and US military staff colleges, specialising in conflict resolution and stabilisation.

Abigail Austen was further nominated as 2017 International Presenter of the Year by the Association of International Broadcasters.