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Richard Darlington
Richard R. Darlington was born on 9 January 1919. He was educated at Harrow, and came up to Gonville and Caius in 1938 to study the Geographical Tripos, though his studies were interrupted by the WWII, and he therefore took his BA degree in 1948. He was the commander of the Somaliland Protectorate’s contingent that fought in Burma during WWII.
Admiring the bravery and culture of the Somalis in Burma, Darlington decided to settle in Somaliland after the war and switched his career to education. He spent most of his working life in that country. He started his educational mission as the first headmaster of the Amoud Vocational Training School, VTC, where he stayed sometime before he was asked to run the then newly built Sheikh Secondary School, and is regarded as having turned them into some of the finest secondary schools in the region. He was awarded the MBE in 1956 and the OBE in 1962.
He was regarded with enormous affection by many Somalis, who gave him the nickname 'Gacmadheere'. He left Somaliland in 1971 for Wales, just two years after the coup d’état staged by Siad Barre, and died in April 2007.