Career
He was active in a variety of environmental protests including that in Fairmile, Devon, against the expansion of the A30 road. He became a nationally known figure after spending a week in a complex series of tunnels dug in the path of a new extension to the A30 road in Fairmile, Devon, resisting attempts at eviction by police. Peter Faulding a confined space rescue specialist from Specialist Group International who removed the protesters from the Newbury Bypass tunnels was called in to safely remove Swampy and a number of other protesters locked on deep inside the network of tunnels.
Several people took part in the protest, but Swampy was the last one evicted.
The magistrate passing sentence on him was David Cameron"s mother. Swampy"s subsequent fame included an appearance on the British Broadcasting Corporation comedy current affairs quiz Have I Got News for You, on 18 April 1997, when he briefly became the show"s youngest ever panelist.
In 1997, he took part in another tunnel protest intended to prevent the building of a second runway at Manchester Airport, and has also been involved with the Trident nuclear submarine protest camp at Faslane, Scotland. In 2007 the Sunday Mirror newspaper reported that he was taking part in the climate change protests at Heathrow Airport.
Swampy"s presence on the protesters" site was dependent on his keeping a low profile, so his celebrity status would not detract from the protest.
As of 2013, he was still living in a commune in Wales with his family, working for the Forestry Commission and running marathons and half marathons. Swampy was parodied in a Judge Dredd comic featuring "Spawny" who impeded the construction of a "Spaceport" in the same manner as the real-life eco-warrior. The story ends with the construction continuing unimpeded, with Spawny apparently being sealed alive under the concrete foundation, a reference to a public comment by Conservative minister John Watts that he would like Swampy to be "buried in concrete".
