Philip Holmes

Lt Col (retd) Philip Holmes was born in Kilrea, County Derry, Northern Ireland. After graduating as a dentist from Queen's University, Belfast, he joined the British Army for a three-year short service commission. At age 22 he hoped this would offer a mere extension to the carefree existence of the dental student and postponement of entering High Street dental practice. In the end, his military service lasted for 17 years....

In fact, Army life only came to an early end because of the tragic death of his first wife, Esther Benjamins. Esther, a newly appointed Judge, took her own life in January 1999, unable to cope with her childlessness. Philip's response to her suicide note, in the midst of the obvious trauma, was to resign from the Army and set up a children's charity in her memory. He decided that, given the British Army's long connection with Nepal through the Brigade of Gurkhas, he would support the most needy Nepalese children. The only catch was that he had never been to Asia before, let alone Nepal. This was a leap of faith if ever there was one, but Philip's direction was clear in his mind - even if the final destination remained rather vague.

So began a very spiritual journey, one that to Philip's amazement, was liberally peppered with synchronicities. Indeed, he would not have believed the happenings that he documents in Gates of Bronze if he had not witnessed these first hand. Sometimes these were very signficant but most of the time they served to confirm for him that the path he was following was the right one, however tortuous it became. He had to keep going, all would be well.

Philip's first work involved the rescue of innocent children from prisons inside Nepal - children who had been jailed alongside parents in the absence of anyone being available, or willing, to look after them. This work received prominent media coverage around the world and that essentially launched his charity. Philip also believes that the adverse publicity contributed to the Nepal government outlawing the imprisoning of dependent children in November 2001.

In 2004 Philip relocated with his second wife, Beverley, to live in Nepal for two years to head up a new anti-child trafficking programme. Once more he failed to predict tenure of appointment, for that two years became eight. The programme aimed to end the trafficking of Nepalese children into violent and abusive Indian circuses where they were held as "performers". Philip and his team conducted dangerous raids on the circuses, rescuing and repatriating children and providing the necessary aftercare. Concurrently, Philip's team rounded up the traffickers and put them in prison. By 2011 they had effectively closed down the trafficking and the seal of sustainability was put on the programme when the the Indian Supreme Court ruled that children could no longer be used as circus performers. This closure of a child trafficking route was unprecedented in that part of south Asia.

In late 2011 Philip turned his attention towards rescuing trafficked Nepalese children from a freaky religious college in south India that was being operated by the self-styled “India’s Billy Graham”, Dr PP Job. Dr Job had been working hand in glove with Nepal’s biggest child trafficker, DB Phadera, to procure his students. The college was funded by radical (but naïve) Protestant evangelists from around the world. Closing down this operation (which he did) would prove to be even more of a challenge than the circuses. For the first time Philip had an armed guard on his home in Kathmandu.

Twenty years down the line over 1,000 children have been rescued in Esther's name - children who even now as young adults call Philip "Philip Daddy". But Philip is looking ahead to the next 20 years of challenge as he embarks upon tackling the burgeoning issue of child rape in Nepal.

Philip now lives in Devon, southwest England, where he is also father to two adopted Nepalese children, Alisha and Joe, and to two rather crazy Romanian rescue dogs, Momo and Bear.