Abigail "Abi" Austen, (born Ian Hamilton; 8 December 1964)[1] is a Northern Irish-born Scottish journalist and former British Army officer.
Austen was born in Belfast and grew up in Stonehaven, 15 miles (24 km) south of Aberdeen, in the North East of Scotland.
Educated at Robert Gordon's College, Aberdeen, she had a generally unhappy and dislocated childhood, including a spell at boarding school, where she was abused.
She was an outwardly popular and charismatic child but after suffering years of sexual abuse made worse by her gender dysphoria, she decided to join the British Army to camouflage her real personality.
In 1984, eighteen months after joining up, she left the army and retrained as a video journalist and cameraman, before taking a position at Scottish Television in Glasgow that same year.
Although other people in the Royal Navy and Air Force have successfully transitioned in the service, as the first officer and first paratrooper, Austen's background caused considerable surprise to the Army, particularly in the light of constant media attention.
At that time, the British military did not have regulations in place to support Austen's continued service with Airborne Forces.
She served three years on back-to-back tours with the US 82nd Airborne, 3rd and 4th infantry divisions and was awarded a number of prestigious decorations for her work.
Following her experiences in Kandahar, she wrote the book Lord Roberts' Valet (ISBN 1517204836) and began a career strand as producer and presenter of her own television documentaries.
In 2017, she made several media appearances countering US President Trump's direction on banning transgender individuals from service with the US military.