Phil Gawne lives in the village of Surby in the south of the Isle of Man. He is a graduate of the University of Liverpool.
He is also a fluent speaker of Manx, the ancient language of the Isle of Man. He has done much to save this minority language in recent years; he once served as the Manx Language Development Officer of the Isle of Man Government.
He has spent time in jail on the Isle of Man for arson. He and others set fire to houses in the Isle of Man in protest of the mass immigration of the English to the Isle of Man, which in their view was destroying the Island's culture.