Dan Snow's History Hit - One Family: 200 Years of Continuous Military Service

Episode Date: May 3, 2020

Paul John Darran joined the army 1980. He was ninth generation of his family to do so. The story begins with his ancestor John Carberry joined the Tyrone militia in Ireland in 1795. He later transferred to the regular army and fought in the Peninsula with Wellington. he was killed during the notorious siege of Badajoz in 1812. Since then the family has served in every major British imperial conflict. One of them has been in uniform in nearly every single decade for 200 years. They have served from New Zealand to India and the Western Front. Waterloo, Kabul, Transvaal, Gallipoli, Ypres, Dunkirk, Palestine. Thanks so much to Paul for getting in touch and agreeing to come on the podcast.This is their story.For ad free versions of our entire podcast archive and hundreds of hours of history documentaries, interviews and films, including our new in depth documentary about some of the greatest speeches ever made in the House of Commons, please signup to www.HistoryHit.TV We have got a flash sale on at the moment for the next few days: Use code 'pod3' at checkout for your first month free and the following THREE months for just £/$1 per month.

Hi everybody, welcome to Dan Snow's History. Have I got a treat for you everybody? Yes, I do. On the 7th of July 1795, Private John Carberry joined the 2nd Royal Tyrone Militia. He then joined the 40th Regiment of Foot in the early 19th century. This was the start of a family association with Britain's military that remains to the present day. association with Britain's military that remains to the present day. For generations following, we think it might be a world record. Please get in touch with us on Twitter or Facebook or anywhere you want. And let me know if you think your family has had over 200 years of continuous military service, as you'll hear in this remarkable podcast with his descendant, this remarkable podcast with his descendant, Paul Darren, who himself served in the 1980s.

There are few conflicts and virtually not a decade in the intervening 200 years when a member of this remarkable family were not serving king or queen and country. I'm very grateful to Paul Darren for getting in touch with me and bringing this podcast to my attention. If you guys have got an amazing story, don't forget, get in touch on Twitter. I'm always on the lookout for new podcast topics. And this is one that came to me and I'm absolutely thrilled that it did. Paul's family are going for a Guinness Book of Records entry. They're talking to the National Army Museum in London about some kind of recognition there as well. It really is, as you'll hear, completely extraordinary. Lots of the conflicts that Paul's family have been involved in

feature in documentaries on History Hit TV. We've got a digital history channel. You go to History Hit TV. Now we've had a deal on to get people through the lockdown. It looks like it might be extended. So if you now use the code, we've got an even better deal now. If you use the code POD3, P-O-D-3, this offer will be available for the next few days. You'll get a month for free. And then your first three months, just one pound, euro or dollar. So this is now four months for just three pound, euros or dollars in all. I mean, which is going to take us to the end of the lockdown, I think, I hope.

So please, please head over to History Hit TV and use the code POD3. Enjoy this podcast about Paul's illustrious family. And please get in touch if you think you've got an even longer record of service. Thank you very much for coming on the podcast. Thank you. Now, you've got, I mean, tell me, do you think your family are a record? How many generations back have you traced?

There's eight. I'm the ninth. So it's continuously. So that's every decade from 1794 up to me. We're missing in the 1990s, but apart from that, every decade, every 10 years from 1794, my ancestors have been in uniform continuously. Wow. So it's not only an unbroken chain of ancestors, but it's actually in terms of military service as well. That's extraordinary. Yeah, military service. Yeah. So it's eight monarchs continuously so we've gone from george iii all the way down to elizabeth ii let's go all the way back so who's the first one

that you've managed to trace uh well it's two-sided dan because you've got soldiers married are daughters of soldiers so the earliest is 1794 that's my fourth great-grandfather great-great-grandfather he was in the Tyrone militia he came he comes from the town of clogger in the county of Tyrone in Northern Ireland and he joined the the second Tyrone militia in 1794 now in 1798 there was the Irish Rebellion so he then was involved at the Battle of Villagreal and then with the Napoleonic Wars in 1808 February the 7th of February 1808 they were called upon to enlist into the regular regiments of the British Army, and he went into the 40th Regiment of Thought. And what was his name? Let's give him a name. His name's John Carberry, yeah, Private John Carberry.

And so where did he serve on the peninsula? He went across with Wellington, which is Wellesley then, in 1808. He was at the Battle of... All the battles from up to 1812 so that was Vermeer and Talavera and then he was killed on the 19th of March um he was defending um he was a Grenadier so you know he was one of the tallest lads and he was defending the earthworks around and the French the French attacked and he was killed in that action and then he had a son his son followed on from there on that's in february

actually all right so that's the siege of badiho that okay that was a brutal bloody siege okay so the next so the next generation tell me about them so his son uh joined in on a 20 we believe on his Waterloo records it says the 1st of January 1809 but we've got his ascensation of the 24th of February which we believe is his birthday on 21st 24 February 1812 he was he joined in clogger again went to a hole from hole he went down to portsmouth went across and he was in the battle of victoria 1813 uh the battle of san sebastian he was wounded at the battle of san sebastian the storm in the san sebastian he spent 109 days in the regimental hospital uh it kept him out of the next few battles and he was at the

capture of bayonne on the 14th of april 1814 he then came back to england was discharged because of the wounds we believe uh but then he re-enlisted when Napoleon came back for his hundred days he enlisted into the 40th the second battalion transferred to the first battalion went over with Major Hayland and was at Waterloo he then went where he then went from there occupation of Paris Glasgow Glasgow, Marielle's first son, Ireland and then on in August of 1823 he sailed on HMS Castle Forbes, a guard on a combat ship to New South Wales. he then went on HMS Cumberland to Tasmania. And he was in Tasmania from 1825 to 1829 when the regiment was then moved to India. He was in India.

He died of disease in 1835 just outside Bombay. Right, so he saw a huge amount of action. So the next one the next one is well the next one is is is the he had he had a few children he's he had a son which is my great great uncle and he followed it he joined the army at 13 in the same regiment and 44th regiment of in india in puna in india um the year later on the 22nd of November, he then went into as a man soldier, as a private. He was at the capture of Karachi, the first Afghan war, Battle of Maharaja Poor, and he went all the way to, came back, went to India and he died of disease in Ireland in Dublin Richmond barracks in 18

he was a sergeant sergeant John Carberry in 1849 now his daughter now John Carberry was at Waterloo his daughter married my third great-grandfather and that's where the lions joined so my third great grandfather was joseph darren the same name as me um and his father was uh joining the marines in uh this 90th of december 1811 he was a whitesmith by trade uh in january 1812 he was on board hms Prince of Wales the second-rate 98 gun and was with they sell to the Mediterranean with HMS Caledonia HMS Boyne and Edward Pellew he was at Boatmahen and then they were they stormed the fortress of cassis in 1813 and he was in a capture of geneva he came back he was on the ship for two and a half years two years six months uh came back on shore and with the reduction of the army in 1814 he stayed because he was a whitesmith he stayed behind and was made

became the armorer of the first division royal mar Marines. He taught his son that trade, and his son, in 1840, joined the 40th Regiment of Foot. OK, so his son joined his grandfather's regiment. No, no, so his son is Joseph Darren. So you've got, this is where it's confusing, so you've got Marianne Carberry, the Carberry's that came down from Waterloo, they were in India, they were in the 40th as well.

Yes. So his son, their son joined the same regiment that her dad had been in. Yeah. So keeping it on the family. All right. So tell me about what's the son called now? So the son's called Joseph Darren. So you've got Marine Sergeant Joseph Darren, who was the first of the Royal Marines that stormed the fortress of Cassis, he taught his son to be an armourer because it was his only son. His other two children had died. So as the armourer of the 1st Division on the 16th of May 1840 he's sent to India on HMS Dartmouth. He arrives in September he's then with my great uncle so you've got Joseph Darren and John Carberry both sergeants one armour sergeant one sergeant they go into Afghanistan first Afghan war about the Maharajah port so the daughter of John Carberry marries Joseph Darren in India in Morocco in 1843 and they stay so that generation comes down so they joined the

two two families joined together the car breeze and the damage joined together by marriage from there they go to they come back to there they go to, they come back to England, they go to Ireland in 1847. In 1852 Joseph, Darren and Marianne Carberry with their children go to sail on HMS Vulcan to New South Wales, no no Victoria actually, to Victoria in with the new with the discovery of with the new discovery of the gold in Ballarat and he's in charge of he's literally in charge of quartering the troops and then he's put in charge of building in charge of public works of building Victoria barracks so the 40th built decouple a D D block of Victoria barracks and he was actually in charge of maybe because he was an armorer maybe because he used to forge I don't know

why but he was actually put in it's actually in the Victoria Gazette he's put into in charge of building Victoria barracks. In 1860, they moved to New Zealand for the Second Maori War, and he's in the Second Maori War, and 1862 he leaves. Now, he had a son, which is my second great-grandfather, and he joins a completely different regiment. Okay, he's branching out now. So he branches out. So he goes into the 30s camps.

He's in militia before that he's in for some reason he's down in he's down in somerset and he's um he joins the uh somerset light infantry militia in the 1870s and then in the 1880s 1887 he goes into the third east kent and he's stationed down in uh canterbury and they he doesn't go overseas he's been overseas with his father all of his life but he doesn't go overseas he's a sergeant and he he literally trains he's in e-company uh the third east kent so um that's my second great-grandfather and he's the only one that stays even though he traveled the world with his father he's the only one that didn't see any action or didn't see any service okay so he's he's a one-off he's an outlier he's yeah yeah he served but he and he did quite well he went up in the ranks really fast but he stayed at home but he had a son which is my great-grandfather

and my great-grandfather first joins the furries kent's in 1889 he joins his dad's regiment but transfers to the newly formed army service corps which was formed in he joins in march 89 i think they would they would only only because they the Army Service Corps was changed from the Waggoners to, and it was actually formed into what is now, what was then the Army Service Corps. He was good with horses for some reason. I don't know if it's all related to the Forge, Blacksmiths, horses, I don't know. forge, blacksmiths, horses, I don't know. But he then goes into the Army Service Corps, and in 1900, he goes to South Africa on SS Persia

with the Army Service Corps, and he's attached as a driver, because they're shorter drivers, he's attached to the 13th Royal Field Artillery, and he fights the actions in South Africa which is a battle of Lands Neck he's with Buller he traveled he's with Buller most of the time all the way up to um up to Lands Neck and then um when the 13th Field Regiment get posted to India he goes back to the army service Corps and he stays there to February 1902

and then he stays, stays in the regular Army. Do you know SS Persia? I've got a feeling that was a very famous ship that was sunk during the First World War wasn't it? I think it was, yeah I think you're right Dan, when I was

going through the embarkation returns and stuff and I was looking at the ship, I believe it was. Yeah, I do believe so. There's some mad story around the woman who's on the front of the Rolls-Royce was either on it or was saved from it or died on it. Anyway, I'll have to look that one up. So he comes back in one piece from the Boer War. He does indeed, yeah.

He gets his second good conduct stripe there um he does really well and then in 1915 uh in 1914 when the war starts in 1915 he's attached to the royal naval division a 279 company uh army service corps attached to the Royal Naval Division and they sail on SS Minitonka to Egypt from there he goes on to Gallipoli he's 42 when he's on Gallipoli he gets his first good conduct strike as well he's on he's on Gallipoli he then comes back after Gallipoli, he's back in Egypt and he's transferred to the 53rd Welsh Division and then he's attached to the Camel Brigade for a while, for four months and then from there he goes back to the 53rd Division and he's attached to the first of the first Royal Welsh Field Ambulance as a

driver. He goes in the driver and yeah he goes into Palestine campaign so he goes all the way through the Palestine campaign of 1917 and then he gets malaria in 1918 in October 1918 he's actually in a field hospital in in Jerusalem and then he comes back in 1919 he's back he leaves the army in uh august the 26th of august 1919 um and retires he must have i think he did something in the second world war because he has he has another medal uh he has the uh the defense medal for some reason we don't we don't know what that's for though we're really trying to find out what that's for. Oh, if you find out, let me know. That's an extraordinary career. Boer War, First World War and Second World War.

Well, anyone let me know. Tweet me or send me an email if anyone can find anyone who's served in all three, has medals from all three conflicts. That's extraordinary. Yeah, yeah. Well, we've got everything. we've actually got all the documentation all the photographs we've got a hundred of these postcards that go back hundreds of years and not under the years 100 years before 1900 we don't know where it's just a whole stack of these postcards nothing written on them and they're all from we've got some from akabar you know some from egypt some from all over the place and they're all originals so Arthur Joseph Darren a's that's my great-grandfather so he had three sons so the first son is my great uncle and he's Arthur Richard and he joins kanji sachems kanji zin 99909 as a boy and he serves he's two years in kan Ganges and enough 12 years in as an

able seaman all the way through and he's at the battle of docker bank and at the end of the war he's actually I've got photographs in because he goes to the Mediterranean and the ship he's on HMS Humber is blockading Aqaba after Aqaba has been captured of course and then as a photograph he sees his father and there's a photo of both of them together so his father's in the army and his son's in the Navy and they have a photograph together. After that he's sent to the Baltic Sea at the Russian Revolution so there's stories that we've got that they rescued a

part of the Russian royal family they took it off I think he's in Latvia they took them off on the ship so that's my great-uncle then you've got my grandfather the fathers the fathers of the fathers they don't stop their children joining the army so my grandfather who joined the army in 15 lied about his age said he was 17 joined just a he joined a territorial regiment which is uh the sixth battalion the middle sex so when he gets to 16 he enlists into the first battalion royal welsh fusiliers because my grand my grandmother is welsh uh my great-grandmother is welsh so he joins the firstst Battalion Royal Welsh and then he goes to Ireland, Malta

comes back and then he's in they're attached to the 7th Division and he's at the 1st Battle of Eap and he's wounded and captured at Eap sent to a prison camp had an awful time the camp they sent him to first

they were forced into coal mines and they were a regular army so they were being a bit stubborn and they refused to go in. So they were kept in the cold, literally made to stand in the freezing cold. And then someone told them it was warmer underground. So that's the story that we've got. So he was down a mine and then there was one German guard who was picking on another soldier. And he defended him and he got his face bashed in. Half of his face was scarred by the German guard beating. He came back on the 2nd of December 1918. Stayed into the Royal Welsh Fusiliers until 23 and then transfers to, he joins the TA in 24, the 6th Battalion Essex, stays with the 6th Battalion Essex

all the way through the interwar years up to 38 and then called to full-time military service and he's the 6th battalion the Essex becomes a searchlight regiment so he's with that and then there's an incident in 1940 he gets burnt on his records it gets burnt really bad we don't know why he's up in Norfolk but he gets burnt extremely badly and then he's put in hospital when he comes out he's transferred to the 4th but he gets burned extremely badly and then he's put in hospital when he comes out he's transferred to the fourth um light aircraft and he stays there all the way through the war so he leaves

he joins in 1911 and he leaves um in june 1945 and then there's my my other my youngest boy, the great uncle, he's got one of the most interesting. He joins the Navy, Ganges, 1918, February 1918. And he goes all the way through. And then in the early 20s, he goes to HMS Dolphin and becomes on submarines. So he's on the L-16, the H-49, the L-16, the L-18. He's on the Repulse on the World Tour of 1923. And then the Second World War comes. He's on Brilliant at Dunkirk, HMS Brilliant, which we've got photographs of him on there. And then in 42, he's put on HMS Poppy. And he's at PQ 17 and then he's at Normandy with the Royal Navy there

Uncle Charlie, Charlie Dameron and he leaves in 45 ends up working for Shell goes to America lives in his older years he died in 2000 down 98 years of age. They all lived to an old age. There's not one of them that dies young. They all lived to a very long age. Land a Viking longship on island shores, scramble over the dunes of ancient Egypt and avoid the Poisoner's Cup in Renaissance Florence. Each week on Echoes of History,

we uncover the epic stories that inspire Assassin's Creed. We're stepping into feudal Japan in our special series, Chasing Shadows, where samurai warlords and shinobi spies teach us the tactics and skills needed not only to survive, but to conquer. Whether you're preparing for Assassin's Creed Shadows or fascinated by history and great stories, listen to Echoes of History, a Ubisoft podcast brought to you by History Hits. There are new episodes every week. All right, let's get to your dad. So it's my uncle, it's not my dad.

It's my uncle, because my mum, my father left when I was two, so I'm the son of, I'm the grandson of Frederick George Darren, which is the one who served in, I've got my grandfather's name, my mum's name. My father left when I was two years of age and we didn't see him and I was brought up see all these stories I was I was taught by the women of the family not the men I was taught by the women it was the women that told me I was eight years of age and my aunt was ill and she had to stay in the house and I used

to have to take shopping around for her every day after school and she'd give me a slice of Swiss roll and she would, there was photographs on the wall of my grandpa's house, she would tell me all these stories about India, about the Boer War and that's how I first started learning about all this and it was after I went into the army at 17 when I came out they she died a year later um she was really she was more ill than I knew I was only a kid so I didn't know but uh the story stuck with me and it was because of that that when I came out the army I decided to research the whole of the family so wait we got that but the your so your uncle's they were after the war were they no no my my we could say I suppose

it's the end near the end of the war my uncle Arthur Joseph Darren he went in in April 45 they were sent to Egypt he was with the 51st training regiment RA he was on self-propelled guns and then he was sent to the meds in end of 45 to guard which is ironic really to guard africa corps um prison of war so his father was a prison of war to the germans and he and and and his son was guarding german prison of war um and then he was his job was to transport they were transporting them to um through palestine to to what is Tel Aviv and then across to Cyprus to build the camp scene out because you got the Jewish referee refugees coming from from they built the camps on Cyprus and he was actually in in Israel when it was created he actually in 1947 he was actually there when it was so he did he

was a sergeant as well and he came out and in my other uncle he didn't have a very interesting he was a corporal he's a Batman through an officer and he spent three years only and then my cousin my cousin he their son my cousin joined the army in 1966 and he was just stationed at salisbury came out in 71 and i joined in 80 the 4th of november 1980 because of the influence of the family and then i went to germany i was in canada um mainly cold war they call it now don't they so't they? And I didn't have a very exciting career. But I did six years. I came out, then I went on reserve.

And then I went back again in 2012 as an instructor in London District. And I taught until 16. I have diabetes now, Dan, so i couldn't uh and i was getting older and yeah that happens to all of us buddy and i've got to ask what is is there another generation behind you um there could be yeah um we have a uh a nephew a boy he he came down to because you know who do you think you are did the magazine i took him to the photo shoot. He's joining cadets. He's coming of age in December of 12, and he's itching to join cadets. He's really itching.

So he knows the family, and he's the only one to actually. My son has Crohn's disease, so there's no way he can join, and he's studying at Brighton University. And my daughter works for the courts. So there is always one member that pops up that's itching to do it. You know, we hear a lot about the effect of combat, of service. It can lead to mental health problems. It can lead to, but it also can lead to positive mental health outcomes.

In your family, when people were talking about it, did all these people, were they all glad that they'd served or did some of them regret it, some of them bad experiences? No, no, no. Looking through the records, I found, actually, I found with my third great-grandfather, when he came. Looking through the records, I found actually, I found with my third great grandfather, when he came out of, after the Maori war, on his records, it says he has palpitations of the art from long service. But, and he has, they said he has heart problems,

but he lived to 1899. So I don't, me and my cousins would go, we don't, we believed he had post-traumatic stress disorder. You know, he was at the Battle of Maharajpur. That was a frontal attack. He was in Afghan, the first Afghan war. They marched miles. They never had the transport that they have today, you know, and he lived to 1899. Now, if he had an heart disease in the 1860s, I don't believe he would have lived all the way to 1899. We

believe that he had some form of post-traumatic stress disorder with the palpitations, exhaustion literally. And the same with my grandfather. My grandfather was the most kindest individual. He never ate his children, but I think he, my nan bought some black bread one day in the 1930s and she had it on the table and he threw it through the window. He'd never been angry. He didn't eat his children. He wasn't violent to his children, but he wouldn't eat black bread because as a prisoner of war he was given porridge made of grass coffee made of acorns and black bread and he he just couldn't it just i don't know if it brought back memories or what but that was the only time he actually got aggressive in that but there are this this you know um we're fully aware of, you know, I've sat down. My cousin's putting a book together with this. He's a grammar school boy. His literacy is absolutely fabulous.

So I've been doing the research, and we've been going down to Kew quite a lot and being the British Library to the Orient or Indian Office and getting all the documents together and putting it together. So each generation will tell the next ones that it's worth doing? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, absolutely, yeah. There's so much... When we're told stories, we're told stories in a way of...

You know, my greatest grandfather grandfather the one that was a marine couldn't read or write it was the army that it was the royal marines that taught his son to read it was the royal marines that gave him a pension before pensions were even uh out into civilians you know the education system in the army all all my grandfathers going back went to school army school and and their children were educated so there's the downside of of the wars you know the suffering that goes but it's also the other side of it is is the army looked after our family and educated the children every single one nearly nearly every single birth in my family is an army chaplain return they're all baptized in by army chaplains within the regimental records

when you go online and you look up our names carbrys and darrens there's just rows of children born of army chaplain returns all around the world we have to know if so when people say to me where does your family come from dan they say what county do they come from or what part of britain it's really hard to answer because they were born in tasmania they were born in india they were born all over the place they wasn't in one county that we can't we haven't got a fixed borough for way we are not an east end we're Enders, and we're not Northerners, we're not Welsh, and we're not Scottish. We are, we just have moved around so much

that we're just British, really. We are British. We have no, you know, someone said to me, you know, as a joke once, your family don't have a coat of arms, you just have battle honours, just as a joke once, your family don't have a coat of arms, you just have battle honours, just as a crack. You know, we was in one regiment from 1808 until 1862. That's a long time.

Well, when the book comes out, let me know, and I'll make sure all the people on the podcast hear of it. And thank you for sharing that extraordinary story. And if there's anyone listening to this that thinks they can match that i will definitely have them on the podcast that is that is that is remarkable and uh and yeah let us know what that little nephew of yours decides to do well he's he's itching he's a bit scared he when he is a bit scared it's a bit like um i was i was a bit scared you know it's a bit like the opening scene of the four feathers you know when you walking up the stood the young lad's walking up the stairs and there's all these ancestors behind him and it's like am i gonna am i gonna be good enough sort

of thing uh and he said that to me already actually you know i'm uh you know i'm a bit but um once you get in there, once you get into it, once you just follow orders and do as you're told and keep your kit clean and stuff, it's not that hard, really. It's a good crack. It's a good laugh. It's a good laugh.

So thank you very much for coming on the podcast, Paul. Thank you. Thank you, Dan. Thank you. hi everyone it's me Dan Snow just a quick request it's so annoying and I hate it when other podcasts do this but now I'm doing it I hate myself please please go on to iTunes wherever you get your podcasts and give us a five-star rating and a review it really helps basically boosts up the chart which is good and then more people listen, which is nice. So if you could do that, I'd be very grateful.

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