James Callaghan

Obituary for James Callaghan

James Callaghan (Cal) enlisted into the 1974 Army whilst living in Cyprus where his father, a former Suffolk, East Anglian and Royal Anglian Regiment soldier was posted. He went on to serve 23 years and 224 days retiring as a WO2.

Cal served with the 1st Battalion initially with C Company. In 1984 he moved to the Recce Platoon as a Cpl serving in Londonderry and was promoted to Sgt in 1985 as the Platoon Sergeant of 7 Platoon, B Company. On promotion to CSgt he moved to 5th Battalion Royal Anglian as a Permanent Staff Instructor. Promoted to WO2 in 1990 he eventually became the Recce platoon 2IC and in 1993 Support Coy CSM. For the Fermanagh tour 1995 he was the COP Platoon 2IC with his final tour of duty with 6th Battalion in Bury St Edmunds as an Senior Permanent Staff Instructor.

He was a renowned soldier of outstanding quality, an excellent training instructor, fit, articulate and with a natural bent to Recce and COP Platoon work. He was extremely fit representing the Battalion and Infantry in x-country before moving on to orienteering. His career saw him serve in served in Norway, Jamaica, Denmark, Germany, Belize, Cyprus, Canada and Gibraltar. He was never happier than whilst serving in Northern Ireland where he thrived in the operational environment. He completed a tour in Belfast in 1979, Fermanagh 1981 and 1991, Londonderry 1984-1987, South Armagh 1989 and East Tyrone 1994.

After leaving the Army in November 1997 Cal became the Group Training Manager with a design company. Within 6 month he was promoted to Area and then Group Sales Manager. In June 2003 Cal was bitten by the operational service bug again and he deployed to Iraq to work as a private contractor aiding the new Iraqi Government in the guarding and movement of logistical and IT equipment to help with rebuilding the infrastructure required after the war.

He moved on to be employed by the Saudi Arabian Embassy in London, working alongside Saudi Security Staff in the protection of a Saudi Prince and his family, diplomats and visitors to the Embassy in Mayfair. He later moved to the internal security team where he had various training roles. After a lifetime of being a trainer Cal decided to become Self Employed in 2005 in the field of Security Training, and set up JACAL Training Service Ltd. He soon built up a portfolio of clients within further Education Providers and was delivering a wide variety of Security Courses across London and the South East of England. He also subcontracted his services to other Security Training Providers and would travel around the UK delivering training for other providers.

Cal had a minor accident at home, while securing a fence post he fell and took a blow to the back of his head, within two weeks, he suffered a bleed on the brain which only became apparent after suffering multiple seizures at home. Recovery was a long and difficult period for Cal as he wasn’t accustomed to sitting around doing nothing. After six months recuperation he decided to scale back on the travelling to London and worked mainly in the local area and began to take a pace back, and it was during this period that retirement and relocation back to Londonderry took place. Cal had first fell in love with Londonderry when his father was posted here in 1969 and Cal attended secondary school not far from where we finally moved to in 2017.

Finally retired it did not come easy, but very soon he was making friends and acquaintances and was soon involved with the Local Pub’s Golf Association, Shooting Club and working with Trauma Counselling helping those affected by the ‘Troubles’ and was happy and content. He even finally agreed to some well-earned holidays and enjoyed the freedom and flexibility of Cruise Holidays around the Mediterranean and the Caribbean, and in June this year we went with 2 of his Grandchildren to the Norwegian Fjords.

Cal suffered a small fairly insignificant injury to his lower leg in October 2019, unfortunately he was not realise just how serious this would become, he developed cellulitis and was admitted to hospital for IV treatment on 11th November, the situation became rapidly serious as he developed sepsis which spread quickly and was unresponsive to the ‘top shelf’ of antibiotics and within 48 hours suffered major organ failure and was transferred to Intensive Care on life support, where he passed away on 15th November 2019.

Cal leaves his adoring wife Jacqui and children, James, Nicola and Thomas.