Profumo’s ‘black sheep’ relative is ready to fight the Turks in Syria
Aid worker Jamie Janson says his First World War flying ace grandfather is an inspiration for his actions
AS THE great-nephew of John Profumo, it is hard to imagine what one could do to become the black sheep of the family.
But Jamie Janson, the grandson of the Countess of Sutherland, claims that he has become just that as he prepares to fight the Turkish army in Syria.
He is one of dozens of Westerners who volunteered with the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) to fight the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) in the terror group’s capital Raqqa, and is now heading to the battle in Afrin where Turkish troops have begun rolling in.
To date no British citizen has been convicted for fighting against Isil, but the authorities have repeatedly said that they will take action, and the law is unclear on what would happen if they engaged in a battle with a UN member state. Mr Janson, 42, who hopes to arrive in the town near the Turkish border in the coming days with a 20-strong battalion which includes two other Britons, said that they all “think a lot” about the potential consequences.
He informed his family that he was fighting in northern Syria by sending them a picture of himself holding a Kalashnikov, which Martin Janson, his father, said left him “horrified”.
Mr Janson Jnr, speaking by phone from the countryside north of Raqqa, told The Telegraph: “I feel guilty about how much I have put my family through. Being out here will be a great worry for them. I have been the black sheep son for a long time. My father and I often disagree about politics, about lifestyle choices, but I’m lucky to have them support me still.”
Despite their differences, his father said: “I feel very proud of him. I admire him for doing it.”
When asked what motivates his son, Mr Janson Snr told the BBC’S Today programme: “Protecting the underdog, ready to help people, starving people, but he wants to do something for others, most of all.”
Mr Janson has spent much of his adult life volunteering and had recently worked in refugee camps in Calais and Greece before joining an aid agency near Mosul, in northern Iraq, but became increasingly frustrated and decided to take up arms.
Life in war-torn Syria is a long way from his Highland family seat of Dunrobin Castle in Sutherland. One of the largest estates in Scotland, it was run by his grandparents, Elizabeth Sutherland and Charles Janson, the journalist and former prisoner of war who published the Soviet Analyst newsletter, which foretold the collapse of the Soviet Union.
His mother’s parents are Harold Balfour, 1st Baron Balfour of Inchrye, a First World War flying ace, and Mary Profumo, sister of John Profumo, the Tory MP whose brief relationship with Christine Keeler became known as the Profumo affair.
Mr Janson told The Telegraph: “I’ve been with the YPG for about seven months. I was in Raqqa for the last few weeks of the battle. Making the transition from aid worker to fighter was a very, very difficult one for me. Going from volunteering into a situation where you’re holding a gun… didn’t come naturally.”
He said that Lord Balfour, his grandfather, who wrote about his war experiences in a number of books, was a particular “inspiration”.
“My grandfather told me about his time in the war when I was growing up. His experience wasn’t a direct inspiration for becoming a fighter as such, but it has been playing on my mind while I’ve been here, what he went through, the sacrifices he made for his country.”
“It has been a difficult decision to go to Afrin… Fighting Isil is obviously a different ballgame to taking on Britain’s Nato ally. I’m well aware that I could face prosecution if and when I return home.” But he said that he is “deeply ashamed” of Britain’s role in the Middle East and could not stand by and watch as Turkey “destroyed the dream” that the Syrian Kurds had of creating an autonomous state. “We cannot leave our friends when they are most in need of our help,” he said.
Turkey and allied Syrian rebels earlier this week launched an offensive on Afrin, controlled by the YPG militia. While the group has worked closely with the US against Isil in Syria, Ankara views it as a terror organisation.
‘Fighting Isil is obviously a different ballgame to taking on Britain’s Nato ally. I’m well aware that I could face prosecution’