Dan Jarvis-Cedar Herald Index

Daniel Owen Woolgar Jarvis (born 30 November 1972) is a British politician and former Army officer who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Barnsley Central since 2011. A member of the Labour and Co-operative parties, he was Mayor of South Yorkshire, formerly Sheffield City Region, from 2018 to 2022. Jarvis served as a member of the Parachute Regiment from 1997 to 2011.

Early life

Daniel Owen Woolgar Jarvis was born in Nottingham on 30 November 1972, the son of a lecturer at a teacher-training college and a probation officer, both Labour Party members. He attended Lady Bay Primary School and then went on to study at Rushcliffe School.

Dan Jarvis

He studied international politics at what was then the University of Wales, Aberystwyth. He graduated in 1996, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in international politics and strategic studies. He graduated with an MA in conflict, security and development from King's College, London, in 2011.

Dan Jarvis

Military career

Jarvis was commissioned from the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst on 9 August 1997 into the 1st Battalion, Parachute Regiment. He was promoted to captain on 10 October 2001 and to major on 31 July 2003. In the later part of his army career he was stationed at HQ Land Forces in Wilton and lived in Salisbury.

Dan Jarvis

In 1999 Jarvis was a platoon commander with the 3rd Battalion, Parachute Regiment in Kosovo and was with Gen. Sir Mike Jackson during the Pristina Airport incident when Jackson refused the suggestion of his American NATO superior to confront Russian forces. Jarvis later described Jackson's comment to Wesley Clark that he was "not going to start World War Three for you" as a "very surreal moment in my life". Jarvis then served as Jackson's personal staff officer. In 2000 he was deployed to Sierra Leone in the aftermath of Operation Barras to help the army learn the lessons of the kidnap of a group of troops by an armed rebel group.

Jarvis served in Iraq during Operation Telic and in Afghanistan during Operation Herrick. He was deployed to Afghanistan twice, first as a member of the team making the first reconnaissance trips to Helmand Province in 2005 to 2006, in preparation for a decision on whether to commit British troops there. The second deployment was a six-month tour as a company commander with the Special Forces Support Group, leading a company of 100 troops. He was also deployed to Northern Ireland.

He resigned his commission on 3 March 2011. In the 2011 Queen's Birthday Honours he was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (Military division).

Early political career

Although his military service had precluded political activity, Jarvis had joined the Labour Party at the age of 18 while at university. Shortly before the 2010 general election, Jarvis was shortlisted for the Labour Party selection in the South Wales seat of Islwyn. He picked up support from one local would-be candidate who had not made the shortlist, but he was not selected.

Jarvis was selected as the Labour candidate for Barnsley Central on 27 January 2011, following the resignation of Eric Illsley who stood down after being convicted of fraud for his part in the United Kingdom parliamentary expenses scandal. An eliminating ballot was held and at the penultimate stage Jarvis was tied with local councillor Linda Burgess, each several votes behind Richard Burgon. London Regional Director, Ken Clark, put two pieces of paper into the hat of Phil Dilks, the Press Officer: one that read "Loser" and one "Winner". Burgess, in going first, picked out the paper reading "Loser", and Jarvis won. In the final stage he picked up most of Burgess' votes, and won selection. He became the first Labour candidate for the Barnsley Central seat since 1938 who was not born in Yorkshire.

On his selection, he resigned his commission in order to stand in the by-election; he gave his campaign the codename 'Operation Honey Badger', referring to a famously fierce animal and signifying his determination to fight for the people of Barnsley. Jarvis found that his Nottingham origins put off some Barnsley voters, who remembered the fact that Nottinghamshire miners did not join the 1984–85 miners' strike, although he had been 12 at the time.