 Once he was a civilian, Mitchell assumed a prominent public role in a “Save the Argylls” campaign to stop the abolition of the regiment.He published a memoir entitled "Having Been a Soldier", undertook some freelance journalism and briefly took a job as management trainee with Beaverbrook Newspapers.However, he had become a popular public figure from his time in Aden, and turned this to his advantage when he started a new career in politics.