John Almonds was born in Chesterfield, UK in 1940. His early years were spent in UK, Africa and the Far East. He was educated at a variety of schools including Alexandra School in Singapore, Colston's School Bristol, and Welbeck College. On leaving school he joined the British Army and completed his education at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst and later at the Royal Military College of Science, Shrivenham. At the latter he obtained a London University BSc honors degree in Electrical Engineering. He was commissioned into the Royal Corps of Signals in 1961.

He enjoyed a successful military career in service with Royal Signals, SAS and a number of higher command and staff appointments. As a Signals Officer he gained experience in telecommunications, electronic warfare, security and surveillance systems. He became a Chartered Engineer in 1981 and a Fellow of the IEE in 1985. He completed the Army Technical Staff Course and was selected to attend the Pakistan Army Command and Staff Course at Quetta, Baluchistan. With SAS he undertook operations in the Far East, Middle East and Europe. He pioneered several SAS techniques mainly in covert communications, and counter terrorism. He maintains close liaison with SAS as Honorary Colonel to one of their TA Units and as a board member of the SAS Association executive committee.

After successful command of a regiment in Germany he was promoted direct from Lieutenant Colonel to Brigadier at the early age of 43 in which rank he held the following senior command and staff appointments:

	Commandant Schools of Signals, Blandford
	Director Operational Requirements, MoD
	Director Army Information Strategy Study (The Almonds Study)
	Chief of Staff, British Forces Cyprus during the Gulf War
	Commander Catterick Garrison, Yorkshire (20,000 people)

He departed the Army and joined BT as their Director Security in 1993 from which he retired in 2000 to start his own security practice. He was a Board Member of NACOSS, Inspectorate of the Security Industry, and a founder member of the National Security Inspectorate and became a Fellow of the Security Institute in 2000. He remains an active member of the Risk and Security Management Forum, the International Security Management Association but has now relinquished chairmanship of the Selwyn House Committee, comprising the corporate security directors of 20 FTSE companies. He was a non-executive director of Reliance Security and an executive director of Euro Transit Clearing PLC.

During his earlier years he competed in several sports at National/Army level including athletics, skiing, orienteering and cross-country running and a variety of others at lesser levels. He retains an interest in these and a range of outdoor pursuits including mountaineering, canoeing and sailing. He held qualifications in parachuting, diving, survival and as an outward bound instructor. Current interests are handicrafts, computing and woodwork.