Daffydd "Dav" Rhys: Mid-Thirties

 Daf comes from the Valleys, the Rhonndda to be precise, and Rugby saved his life. His father was a hard-drinking wife-beater who couldn't hold a job down between benders and took it out on his family. Daf grew up as a shy boy who tried to avoid trouble. He put weight on without thinking, but when he was asked about it later, he believed that if he got big enough, his dad would be afraid of him.

 That didn't work of course, and when his lard-arse got to comp, he was the victim of even more bullying. One night, Mr Keen, his PE teacher, found him crying behind the gym and, as teachers of his era did, he decided to teach the boy how to look after himself rather than dealing with the bullies.

 Daf had always avoided physical exercise, preferring to hid behind books, but Mr Keen proved to be a lot more perceptive that his tracksuit and whistle outer had suggested and worked on his self-esteem through developing his rugby skill and introducing him to martial arts.

 Between the ages of eleven and thirteen, Daf lost about four stone of fat and added muscle to his bulky frame. He became a first-pick for his school and then the county before making the under-sixteen Welsh Squad.

 Daf gained in confidence and the bullying ended in school. Things got better at home when his father finally drank himself to death and as he got closer to the full Welsh Squad, he became noticed by the affluent men that ran the WRU, also known as the Cruccach.

 His O Levels and A Levels were enough to get him into a decent university, but his rugby was good enough to get him into Oxford.OK, it was the Teacher Training College, but it was still Oxford and he soon gained a Blue in Rugby and later a Double-Blue in Boxing.

 When he graduated as a Primary School teacher, he was encouraged to move to London to join the London Welsh team. At the time, rugby was still an amateur sport and he still needed to support himself by teaching. His old rugger pals from Oxford took sinecures in the City and many of them became Ruperts in the Territorial Army, in particular, the Honourable Artillery Company. is chums encouraged Daf to sign up for the regiment and join their rugby team.

 Daf did so, and whilst he was physically capable of making one of the Recce Troops but he was kept too busy to complete the training courses. Instead, he joined the motor pool of Sicily Troop.

 Sicily Troop was tasked with keeping the Stay Behind Troops of the regiment supplied on their missions and when the BAOR rolled over the Polish Border, Daf followed in his Land Rover as it defended the logistic train of the regiment. When NATO was finally driven back, Daf and the regiment stayed behind to provide behind the lines observation for as long as they could.

 Daf was put in charge of a hidden supply dump and found himself stuck in an abandoned bunker filled with gear. When he lost contact with the last of the Stay Behind units, he contacted a local partisan unit and offered his supplies to them. He worked with them until they met up with the 5th on its foray into Poland at the end of the war. The top brass of the division didn't really know what to do with the guy but as he knew the land reasonably well and had experience in convoy protection, the shuffled him off into the division's gun trucks.

 Daf is reserved as he's learn that people want him around for what he can do, not what he knows. Even when he knew better than the others around him, he was content to let the more confident lead. He's a competent truck driver and mechanic and has a decent array of navigation and survival skills. his greatest strength is his willingness to support others but this can lead him to be le proactive than his experience should make him.

 Just about the only thing that gets him wound up is a bully, especially one who pushes kids around.