Mike Murtagh was born in Swansea in 1953 joining the Royal Air Force as a commissioned officer serving both at home and overseas, learning Russian along the way and serving in the military intelligence across 16 years of service.
After leaving the RAF, Mike went on to work as a Security Officer on a Foreign Office contract for the new British Embassy in Moscow and became a member of the Diplomatic Service serving for 10 years in the UK and India before retiring to Lincoln in 2009.