Saltus Summer Magazine 2013 Page 36

Col. Michael
Darling,

OBE

/ 1948

A regimented life

WHEN

Colonel Michael Darling crossed the

Atlantic from Bermuda to England in a 29-foot
yacht as a teenager in the 1940s, he did so for no
other reason than the fact "it was there to cross."

"I just liked the idea of saying I crossed the

Atlantic," says the 83-year-old, standing next to a
replica of the vessel which today has pride of place
in the hallway of his Warwick home. "I was sick as
a dog, and the journey took five weeks on rough
seas, but it was amazing. I remember I flew back to
Bermuda by plane with nothing with me but a box
of English raspberries for my mother."

The son of a former British Army officer who

came to Bermuda with his family from England in
1928, he is the middle of three siblings. Born in the
Woodlands building on campus in 1930, he has
strong connections to the School. "Our family was
living at Woodlands, which was typically the head-
master's residence, because the Head at the time,
Henry Cox, already had a house in Devonshire," he
explains. "So he rented it to us until we moved in
1931 when Bobbie Booker became Headmaster."

When the Second World War broke out,

English evacuees appeared in Bermuda--some-
thing Darling believes raised education standards.
"I was no longer at the top of the class," he smiles.
As the war began to wind down in 1944, many of
those young people began returning to England,
hitching rides aboard Royal Navy vessels. Darling
joined one such journey when he left for English
boarding school at age 13--a crossing which took
almost three weeks. Arriving at the Charterhouse
school in Godalming, Surrey, however, he was
greeted by an unimpressed housemaster.

"Once I explained who I was and where I was

from, he told me, `You can't come in--you haven't
passed your Common Entrance Exam!' I was
scared, but explained I had just crossed the Atlantic
on a British warship and I couldn't just go home.
So he made me take the exam right then and there.
I was so upset--but I still passed."

Darling spent holidays with relatives in Suffolk

and didn't return to Bermuda until the summer of
1947. He graduated from Charterhouse two years
later and attended Cambridge university ( Jesus
College) to study Agriculture. He returned to
Bermuda with his degree, but never intended to

stay on the Island. "I wanted to work as an agricul-
tural expert in Africa," he says. "But my father
became very sick, so I was catapulted into working
at Bluck's [china store], which my father owned,
and where I remained for the rest of my life."

He joined the Bermuda Rifles, which in 1965

amalgamated with the Bermuda Militia Artillery
(BMA) to form the Bermuda Regiment. He was
Commanding Officer from 197074, a troubled
decade when, in 1973, Governor Sir Richard
Sharples was assassinated and his aide-de-camp,
Captain Hugh Sayers, was murdered.

"It was the most worrying, frightening experience

of my life because we didn't know what we were up
against," he explains. "The Governor's ADC had
been here at the house for supper two days before
he was murdered, playing with our child. A lovely
thank-you letter arrived from him two or three
days after he was killed. I will never forget that."

Michael served as the Regiment's Honorary

Colonel for 20 years and chairman of the Defence
Board. He was founding director of the Bermuda
College and twice led the Bermuda National Trust.

--Helen Jardine

`I had just

crossed
the Atlantic
on a British
warship...
I couldn't
just go
home'

Michael Darling: Regiment CO during troubled times

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