Brigadier David J Venn OBE DSM MID

David Venn was born on the 28 December 1941 and joined the Army as 23743410 Pte DJ Venn, Parachute Regiment on the 20  December 1959. When he went to Sandhurst he had every intention of coming back to the Regiment and following in his Dad’s footsteps who had been in 9 PARA (The Eastern and Home Counties) wartime battalion and later SAS. Sandhurst had other ideas.

David had linguistic skills which the Intelligence Corps were very keen to get hold of because they were beginning to build their regular cadre of officers at this time, just like the Parachute Regiment. David spoke German, Russian and French at this time. David reflected at the time that:

“My Dad, who was an original member of 9 PARA, 10th Essex, always referred back to the Essex Regiment's roots. To him they were always 44th Foot (the Pompadours) . 44th held fast at Quatre Bras before Napoleon got anywhere near the ridge at Mont St Jean and they had the Pompadours in their regimental history, because, in the French Service, they had guarded Madame de Pompadour, Maîtresse en Titre of the French King.”

A verbal battle ensued in which David struck a deal with the Corps that they would introduce an infantry attachment, and he wanted PARA. He got his wish and after commissioning into the Corps on the 22 December 1961 and after P Company and his parachute course at RAF Abingdon, he joined C Company 2 PARA in Bahrain to command Rodney Platoon. At that time, C Company 2 PARA, in remembrance of the original Bruneval Raid, did not have numbered platoons in the company, but Nelson, Rodney and Drake. At the time, Pat Conn commanded Nelson, David Herberts Drake, and Rodney was vacant after Oliver Reynolds came to the end of his secondment and returned to the SCLI. It was here that he completed his first Omex patrol of Jebel Akhdar and got his taste of Arabic which he picked up rapidly, and Rodders and Nellie became the usual conversational terms used between the platoon commanders.

Life in Bahrain was busy for 2 PARA Group with plenty of parachuting because we had our detachment of Beverley aircraft at RAF Muharraq where we kept a company group at short notice for airborne deployment anywhere in the Gulf or wider Middle East supported by our own detachment of Hunter FGA aircraft. The continuation parachute training was a very early reveille, fly out to Juweiza DZ near the fishing village of Dubai in the Trucial States as it was at the time. It was not all Hamala Camp building, training at Jebel Ali, operations be it OMEX or anti-piracy patrols with the Royal Navy, at times we occasionally had to clean kit and get smart to put on a Quarter Guard and Guard of Honour for visiting dignitaries. Have a look at a smart Nellie and Rodders below, despite the sweat marks!

David’s next escapade after his Special-to-Arm training was to get himself Commando-qualified to command the RM Intelligence Platoon of 3 Cdo Bde, and during this time he managed to learn Malay, Indonesian and Thai. By January 1971 he was on secondment to Sultan’s Armed Forces (SAF) as the Ops Officer his Arabic was pretty good as well. David reflected about this time in a chat to Nellie…

“…in Dhofar throughout . As you know, my personal involvement included coordination of all the air assets at Battle of Marbat (Mirbat) on the 19 July 1972. 100 blokes in a multi-national force, with its own Airforce and Navy which rose to 6 battalions , with Iranians and Jordanians chipping in as well! The only badged Paras in my time were Simon Hill and, of course, John Graham. Arthur Brocklehurst was by then on contract , as was Richard O'Shea and Richard Pirie turned up as a
Hereford Squadron Commander . Obviously, there were Airborne types in the Brit Army Training Team. As you know, I was not the real thing. I only coordinated the entire air response, strike, troop lift and casevac for the battle of Marbat as well as of Habrut. Amazing what you can teach a Greenfly [nickname for a member of the British Army Intelligence Corps]…”

David had an exciting time in SAF from 1971-72, having been awarded the Distinguished Service Medal by the Sultan of Oman, he then passed Staff College at Camberley and then was promoted Major in time to take up the position of GSO2 Intelligence HQ British Forces Cyprus from 1974 where he collected an MiD for his efforts and also managed to learn Turkish. Then he was destined for Northern Ireland. He served as the SO1 Research at HQNI from 1980-1982 and which was followed as the Commanding Officer and SO1 Research of the Force Research Unit (NI) (FRU) from 1982-1983. After that, a slightly more relaxing year in Germany as the CO Int and Security Group Germany before moving to Brussels as COL GS IMS Brussels followed by a year as D of D TS (EX) ACDS (NATO/ UK) and then promoted Brigadier in 1989 to take over his final job as the Chief of Staff, HQ Northern Ireland. It was in this last post that the Deputy Garrison Commander and Commanding Officer of HQ NI, Nellie, met up with Rodders once more…oh and along the way he picked up an OBE as well.
David was a great guy who then went on to have a successful career in the Private Security arena as a Kidnap and Ransom specialist. Nellie will miss Rodders.

Brigadier (Retd) David John (Late Intelligence Corps) died peacefully at home aged 82 on 24 February 2024. Beloved husband of Meta and brother of Diane (Wilkinson). Funeral was held Tuesday 19 March at the Parish Church of St Breward. 

The profile photo was taken when the then 2nd Lt David J Venn was part of the Guard of Honour for a visiting RAF Air Marshall in Hamala Camp, Bahrain 1963.