Jamie Darlington

Jamie was born in Moseley, Birmingham, the son of Rosaleen Helen (née Darlington) and Gregory Walters, a teacher. He is also the youngest grandchild of Rear Admiral Sir Charles Darlington. His maternal grandmother is Irish and his paternal grandmother was German, whilst both his grandfathers were English. As a boy, he grew up with the family 1901 Aveling and Porter 10 ton road roller, and developed a love of steam. At the age of sixteen, he began volunteering at Tyseley Locomotive Works and later the Severn Valley Railway, where he was first introduced to World War II reenactment. Jamie was educated at Hall Green Secondary School where he first decided to become an actor in amateur drama productions. Upon leaving, he briefly considered attending the Birmingham School of Acting but decided against it as a "waste of time, I'll never be any good", a decision he regrets to this day. At the age of nineteen, he left Birmingham to move to Derby and began to work for Tesco, where he spent the next several years followed by a short stint with Nestlé. It was whilst working for Nestlé that he was approached by friend and director Alex Birch, asking for his assistance with a project later to be known as The 13th. In June 2014, after beginning principle filming on The 13th, he withdrew from the rat-race of uninspiring jobs and began making acting his career. In November 2012, Jamie began working with Birch as a technical consultant, advising on the story, uniforms and equipment. Together they expanded the story of the 13th (Lancashire) Parachute Battalion from a short twenty minute film to a full feature length project. Birch offered the role of Lieutenant Ellis Dean to Darlington in February 2013, alongside actors Mark Moraghan as Major John Cramphorn and Matthew Walker as Private Ken Lang, Birch's grandfather. In September 2013, Jamie was invited to film on Dominic Burns' latest project, Allies, where he put his knowledge to good use assisting the costume department and providing historical consultation during the film and providing some minor stunt work. In June 2014, he was given a minor character that reoccurred in parts of the film alongside one of the film's main protagonists played by Chris Reilly. Only weeks later, he was cast in the independent social drama Zeibekiko alongside Mairi Houston and Julios Catachanas. Like The 13th, the film was only intended to be completed as a short project, however the amount of footage shot caused director James Slater to change his mind and make the film also feature length. Jamie has since gone on to work on a number of television shows and has been cast in 60 Days of Honesty, due for release in 2015. Jamie has an older brother and sister and is a Stoke City F.C. fan. He is still a regular on the re-enacting scene, when his schedule allows. Whilst the British side of World War 2 is his main area of interest, he is also involved in other periods of living history such as Medieval, Napoleonic and American Civil War.