Robin Plummer

Robin Plummer is an ex-hostage of the Libyan Hostage Situation of 1984.
Libyan Hostage Situation
On the eve of the murder of WPC Yvonne Fletcher and the siege of the Libyan Embassy in London and over the next four weeks six men were seized and taken hostage by a Revolutionary Committee of the Gaddafis Regime in what was after to be referred to as the Libyan Hostage Situation. The men in order of capture were: Doug Ledingham, George Bush, Michael Berdinner, Alan Russell, Malcolm Anderson and Robin Plummer. Robin was arrested on the 14th of May 1984 and was detained as a hostage for 9 months; the first 10 weeks of which were in solitary confinement. Doug Ledingham and George Bush were released and returned to Britain on 1 September 1984.
Over the following months friends, families and especially the wives and sister of the four remaining men lobbied Whitehall and former Prime Minister Margaret, now Baroness, Thatcher to become involved in negotiations to free the men. Special envoy Terry Waite went to Libya 10th Nov 1984 to begin talks with Gaddafi’s Regime while Kate Adie of the BBC and Brent Sadler of ITN worked to keep the hostage’s plight in the media. Tuesday 5th Feb 2011 a press conference in Tripoli was held announcing the four remaining hostages’ release. All four men left Libya the 7th February, 1985, and landed in Gatwick that night. Robin returned to England and settled back into family life.
Robin has travelled to or worked in over 50 countries and speaks six languages. He continues to work as a Management Consultant and Interim Director, specializing in Turnaround. He has written a book, A Brush With Madness detailing the Libyan Hostage Situation and speaks publicly and lectures on his experiences as a hostage.
Robin has not to date been back to Libya.
A Brush With Madness
The book A Brush With Madness is an eyewitness account written by Robin Plummer of his real life experience of the Libyan Hostage Situation of 1984; a period of history hidden from public eye, which can now be revealed through the demise of the dictatorship.
While in solitary confinement during the Libyan Hostage Situation, Robin read the poem "Lies" by Yevgeny Yevtushenko. The poem gave Robin the conviction to tell the world what really goes on in dictatorial regimes. He began the book with 5000 words in a week of January 1990 then quickly realised that he had to learn to write in a compelling way as opposed to the technical writing of an engineer. The book then took 20 years to finish.
Early life and career
Robin Plummer was born in North London, on 15 November 1950 the middle of three boys to Anne Plummer, nee Robertson (1914-1983) of Toronto, Canada and Geoffrey Plummer (1918-1992) of Wolverhampton. The Plummers moved to Hertfordshire in the late 50s. Robin went to Cheshunt Grammar School, Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire. He later went onto university at Newcastle Upon Tyne Polytechnic, now Northumbria University in 1975 where he studied Electrical and Electronic Engineering BSc (Hons). He came top of both his first and final years.
Robin worked for a number of companies, but most notably British Telecom International, where for a number of years he was at the cutting edge of the, then, new industry of Quality Management Systems, auditing distinguished suppliers of telecommunications equipment and software such as Ericsson. He spent 2 years as Senior Telecoms Engineer on the Libyan Coaxial Cable project in Libya before being taken Hostage by one of Colonel Gaddafi's Libyan Revolutionary Committees.
Personal life
Robin met Pat Firmin at their youth club and at the Wake Arms, Epping Forest when he was 20 and she just 17. They married three years later on 15th Oct 1974. They had three children one girl (Katy) and two boys (Ross and Christopher).
On the 17th April, 1978 Robin had a serious motorcycle accident where he had to be resuscitated on arrival at hospital. His injuries were severe with fracture dislocation of pelvis, compound fracture of left ulna, broken transverse process Lumbar 2 and a compound tibia and fibula with complications which has left his right leg shorter than his left. This interrupted his university studies forcing him to take a year off but he still came top of his final year and was offered an MSc in Advanced Experimental Physics, but the terms of his sponsorship would not allow him to take it up. The accident also forced him to cease his participation in rugby, long distance running and martial arts (judo, karate and aikido) until the full residual damage was known and understood. At which point he took up scuba diving and music, namely jazz saxophone, piano and guitar. He was later able to return to aikido and is now continuing to work on his first dan.
The stress of the Libyan Hostage Situation took its toll on Robin and Pat’s marriage and they divorced February 1994 nine years post their ordeal. Robin’s work in Quality Management training took him to the United States where he met and married Rachel Russell 8th Apr 1995, in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

Pat was diagnosed with Optic neuritis in 1978, generally regarded as a precursor to Multiple sclerosis. Her training as a registered nurse and through her own management Pat was able to stave off the worst effects of MS for many years but unfortunately lost her battle on the 31 Dec 1996. Robin and Rachel returned to Royston, Hertfordshire to care for Robin’s three children and were joined by the birth of a second daughter in 1998.

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