I googled up the Jack Russell and Faccombe, and came across this article about Tim Landon - the owner of Faccombe, who died last Friday aged 64.

Up until a week ago the rest of the article about Landon's time in Oman, and his being involved in the coup that made Qaboos bin Sa'id the Sultan over his father back in 1970 would have passed me by practically unnoticed.

However, I just happen to be reading "Atlantis of the Sands - the search for the lost city of Ubar" by Ranulph Fiennes at the moment, which goes into some detail about exactly those events.

Bizarre.
--
simon