Chant: Carried an injured comrade to safety for one mile over rough terrain.
A fine athlete who became an outstanding leader, Darren John Chant was born in Walthamstow, north east London in 1969 and joined the Grenadiers in 1986. He was the Army’s junior cross country champion while in training and skied for the 1st Battalion. Serving as a machine gunner during the Gulf War of 1991, he helped to save the crew of his Warrior armoured vehicle when it was struck by a rocket propelled grenade and set on fire by dousing the flames with jerry cans of water that he had dragged from nearby vehicles. He received field promotion to Lance Corporal.
After graduating at the battle course at Brecon, Wales on which he received a distinction in 1993, he commanded a team of the close observation platoon gathering intelligence on IRA activities in South Armagh. This was followed by two years as an instructor at the Guards Training Depot at Pirbright. Another distinction, this time on the platoon sergeants’ battle course at Brecon, saw him back in Northern Ireland for a while until, on promotion to colour sergeant, he went to Sandhurst as an instructor of the young officer intake.
He returned to 1st Grenadiers in 2004 to take part in the Kosovo operation and then, on further promotion to warrant officer class 2, as a company sergeant major of the battalion during its service in Bosnia as part of the NATO peace keeping force. Sandhurst called for him again in 2005 in the influential role of a company sergeant major. During this tour of duty, he also ran the academy football club and took the rugby club on a tour of New Zealand.
During an operational tour in Afghanistan in 2006, he was present when one guardsman was killed and Guardsman Scott Blaney seriously injured. Chant carried the injured man for more than a mile over rough ground at night to the nearest point where a casevac helicopter could land. Blaney’s life was saved although he had to have a leg amputated.
In 2008 Chant was promoted to warrant officer class 1 and appointed regimental sergeant major of 1st Grenadier Guards. As the battalion’s role model he pursued the highest standards of conduct and professionalism, his disciplinary demands were moderated with a wit of which even the commanding officer was an occasional good humoured target.
He is survived by his wife Nausheen and their unborn child, together with two sons and a daughter from a previous marriage.
Warrant Officer Darren Chant, RSM of 1st Grenadier Guards, was born on September 5 1969. He was killed in Afghanistan on November 3 2009 aged 40.
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