Digby Tatham-Warter

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Digby Tatham-Warter
Second World War
Mau Mau Uprising
AwardsDistinguished Service Order
Other workSafari operator

Second World War and was famed for wearing a bowler hat and carrying an umbrella into battle.[1]

Early life

Digby was born in

First World War with the Artists Rifles; he was gassed in the trenches and died when Digby was 11.[2] Digby was educated at Wellington College, Berkshire. In 1935 he was accepted into the Royal Military College, Sandhurst.[3]

Early military career

Digby passed out of Sandhurst on 21 January 1937 and was commissioned as a

pig sticking.[2][4][5]

Second World War

When the

the Ritz.[2]

A Company was then chosen by the battalion's

bugle calls that had been used during the Napoleonic Wars for communication in case the radios failed. He also took an umbrella with his kit as a means of identification because he had trouble remembering passwords and felt that anyone who saw him with it would think that "only a bloody fool of an Englishman" would carry an umbrella into battle.[6]

A Company was dropped away from the target of

bayonet charge against them wearing a bowler hat. He later disabled a German armoured car with his umbrella, incapacitating the driver by shoving the umbrella through the car's observational slit and poking the driver in the eye.[1]

Digby then noticed the chaplain pinned down by enemy fire while trying to cross the street to get to injured soldiers. Digby got to him and said "Don't worry about the bullets, I've got an umbrella". He then escorted the chaplain across the street under his umbrella. When he returned to the front line, one of his fellow officers said about his umbrella that "that thing won't do you any good", to which Digby replied "Oh my goodness Pat, but what if it rains?"[7] Digby was later injured by shrapnel, which also cut open the rear of his trousers but continued to fight until A Company had run out of ammunition. Despite the radios being unreliable as Digby had predicted and the bugle calls being used most in the battle, the message "out of ammo, God save The King" was radioed out before Digby was captured.[8]

Because of his injury, Digby was sent to St Elizabeth's Hospital but escaped out of a window with his second-in-command, Captain Tony Frank, when the German nurses had left them alone. After creating an escape compass from buttons on his uniform, Digby and Frank headed towards Mariendaal. Upon arriving, they were hidden by a Dutch woman who spoke no English, before being put in contact with her neighbour. He disguised them as painters and moved them to Derk Wildeboer's house. Wildeboer was a local leader of the

Jack Grayburn's posthumously receiving a promotion to captain and being awarded the Victoria Cross.[9]

Later life

After the war ended, Digby served in British-controlled

British High Commissioner to "look after Tatham-Warter".[2]

Personal life

Tatham-Warter married in 1949 Jane Boyd, daughter of Captain Roderick Bulteel Boyd (farmer in Nanyuki, Kenya)[10] and granddaughter of Arthur George Egerton, 5th Earl of Wilton,[11][12] and they had three daughters and several grandchildren. Their daughter Belinda Rose Tatham-Warter (b. 1954) married in Nanyuki German aristocrat Friedrich von Oldenburg, great-grandson of Frederick Augustus II, last ruling Grand Duke of Oldenburg.[13] Digby died in Nanyuki on 21 March 1993.[7]

In popular culture

Tatham-Warter served as the inspiration for the character of Major Harry Carlyle, who likewise carried an umbrella into battle, in the 1977 film A Bridge Too Far. The role was played by Christopher Good. Although Tatham-Warter survived the Second World War, Carlyle is depicted as being a casualty of the Battle of Arnhem.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f "Major Digby Tatham-Warter". Pegasus Archive. 17 September 1944. Retrieved 28 April 2014.
  2. ^ a b c d e f "Histories: Digby Tatham-Warter (1917–1993): The Tatham Family of County Durham". Saxon Lodge. Retrieved 28 April 2014.
  3. ^ "Allison Digby Tatham-Warter b. 26 May 1917 Atcham d. 21 Mar 1993 Nanyuki, Kenya: The Tatham Family of County Durham". Saxon Lodge. Retrieved 28 April 2014.
  4. ^ October 1937 Indian Army List
  5. ^ London Gazette 26 April 1938
  6. ^ "'The Major' Hugh Caruthers Massy (1914–1987)". Turtle Bunbury. Retrieved 30 April 2014.
  7. ^
    ISBN 978-1780337258
    .
  8. ISBN 978-1409085812
    .
  9. ^ "The Victoria Cross". The Parachute Regiment. Archived from the original on 30 July 2021. Retrieved 8 January 2021.
  10. ^ The Official Gazette of the Colony and Protectorate of Kenya, Vol. XL, N° 59, Serial N° B 41, p. 81, 6 Dec 1938.
  11. ^ Jane Boyd, Mrs. Tatham-Warter, #324198, thepeerage.com, Sept 2018.
  12. ^ « Europeans In East Africa », Name: BOYD, Roderick Bulteel, europeansineastafrica.co.uk, 2020.
  13. ^ Almanach de Gotha, 187th edition, ed. John Kennedy, Almanach de Gotha Ltd, 2004, pp. 282–3

External links

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