Tom McClean is a veteran of both the Parachute Regiment and the SAS and is a survival expert who lived on the island of Rockall from 26 May to 4 July 1985 to affirm Britain's claim to it. Having been abandoned as a baby, McClean started life as an orphan . He spent much of his teenage years working on a farm until he was bored and enlisted in the British Army. After Blyth and Ridgeway rowed the Atlantic in 1966, McClean announced to both that he was going to complete this alone.