Tim joined the Regular Army in 1988 as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 17th/21st Lancers, then a Main Battle Tank Regiment based in Munster in West Germany.

He commanded a Sabre Troop of 3 tanks for a year and then the Reconnaissance Troop of 8 Scorpion light tanks for a further year. 

Following a short time in command of an infantry Platoon in Northern Ireland he was recalled to command a Troop of tanks during the 1991 Gulf War. After a period at Regimental duty on Salisbury Plain he moved to the Ministry of Defence (MOD) to be the Army's Spokesman in the MOD Press Office. 

A year and a half later he became the Officer Commanding the Mobile News Team (MNT) at United Kingdom Land Forces HQ at Wilton, a job which took him to Hungary, Canada, the Falklands, France, Pakistan, Egypt, Norway, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Jamaica, the US and to the Former Yugoslavia (11 times!) during a two year tour. 

The job of the MNT, now known as a Combat Camera Team (CCT), is to film and photograph the Army on operations and exercises and to get the product into the media to create good PR for the Army. Tim's final tour in the Regular Army was as a Major in a technical post.

In 1998 Tim left the Regular Army and started a civilian career recovering stolen construction plant and equipment and stolen art and antiquities.  At the same time he joined the TA and the Media Operations Group (Volunteers). 

Amongst the many and varied activities that he has done since joining the Group he has been the Group's Training Major, attended TA Staff College, taken part in numerous exercises in places as varied as Cyprus and Poland, been promoted, co-ordinated media play on national counter-terrorist exercises, attended the Coalition Public Affairs Course at the US Defense Information School at Ft George Meade, Maryland in the US and provided media awareness and training to Army and Defence units. 

During the 2003 Gulf War he volunteered to be mobilised for four months into a media operations post in the MOD which developed into a liaison role in the Chief of Defence Staff's Strategic Operations Team and ended with two months as HQ 3 (UK) Division's Media Operations officer, helping them to prepare for their deployment to Iraq. 

In 2007 Tim was mobilised again this time to be the Chief Media Operations for Multi-National Division (South East) in Basra prior to taking command of the Media Operations Group (Volunteers) in October 2007, a post that he will hold until October 2010.