On 12 June 1999, the troop led the 30,000-strong NATO peacekeeping force from the North Macedonia border towards Pristina International Airport.
Initially assigned to carry out reconnaissance of the North Macedonia– Yugoslavia border, Blunt's troop worked ahead of the front lines, locating and targeting Serbian forces for the NATO bombing campaign. In 1999, Blunt volunteered to join a Blues and Royals squadron deploying with NATO to Kosovo. Blunt was trained in British Army Training Unit Suffield in Alberta, Canada, where his regiment was posted for six months in 1998 to act as the opposing army in combat training exercises. The Life Guards, part of the Household Cavalry Regiment, were primarily based in Combermere Barracks.
He trained at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, in intake 963, and was commissioned into the Life Guards, a reconnaissance regiment. Having been sponsored through university on an army bursary, Blunt was committed to serve a minimum of four years in the armed forces. He also developed a keen interest in motorbikes around this time. Like his father, Blunt is a pilot and gained his fixed-winged private pilot licence at age 16. In March 2022 he was the subject of 'James Blunt: From A to Z', broadcast by Burst Radio, Bristol University's radio station. He then went up to the University of Bristol, where he read aerospace manufacturing engineering and sociology, graduating in 1996 with a BSc (Hons). He was educated at Elstree School in Woolhampton and then Harrow School, Middlesex, gaining A-levels in physics, chemistry, and economics. He also spent time in Cley-next-the-Sea, where his father owned the Cley Windmill. īlunt grew up primarily in St Mary Bourne, Hampshire, but moved every two years according to his father's military postings around England ( Middle Wallop, Netheravon, and York) as well as Cyprus ( Nicosia) and Germany ( Soest). The family has a long history of military service, dating back to the 10th-century arrival of their Danish ancestors in England. His mother started up a ski chalet company in the French Alpine resort of Méribel, while his father was a cavalry officer in the 13th/18th Royal Hussars and then a helicopter pilot, becoming Colonel of the Army Air Corps. He has received several awards, including two Brit Awards-winning Best British Male in 2006-two MTV Video Music Awards, and two Ivor Novello Awards, as well as receiving five Grammy Award nominations and an Honorary Doctorate of Music in 2016 from the University of Bristol.īlunt was born James Hillier Blount on 22 February 1974 at Tidworth Camp military hospital in Hampshire, the first of three children born to Jane Ann Farran ( née Amos) and Colonel Charles Blount.
Blunt has sold over 20 million records worldwide. Back to Bedlam was the best-selling album of the 2000s in the UK, and is one of the best-selling albums in UK chart history. "You're Beautiful" was number one in the UK, the US and a dozen other countries. After he left the military, he rose to fame in 2004 with the release of his debut album Back to Bedlam, achieving worldwide fame with the singles " You're Beautiful" and " Goodbye My Lover".īlunt's first album has sold over 11 million copies worldwide, topping the UK Albums Chart and peaking at number two in the US. A former reconnaissance officer in the Life Guards regiment of the British Army, he served under NATO during the 1999 Kosovo War. James Blunt (born James Hillier Blount 22 February 1974) is a British singer, songwriter, and musician.
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