One lovely day a few weeks ago I went along South Bank to get my lunch. Along the way I ran into Danny Taberham. Danny was sitting alone along the river, so I went and sat with him and asked him if he had a story that he would be willing to tell for Federation Story. When I first asked him, Danny thought that he was uninteresting, however chatting for a while he told me this story….

Battle of Hastings was the last time the Norman’s were successful in the invasion of England.

The battle took place in 1066 with King Harold II and William the Conqueror. The Norman’s give their name to the French city, Normandy. However, the group was made up of Viking raiders and pirates from Denmark, Norway and Iceland. Danny Taberham traveled to Australia from England for the first time ten years ago as a backpacker and immediately fell in love with the country. Once he returned to England he became interested in seeing where his family background was from. Seeing as Danny’s last name is so unusual he thought it would be very easy to trace his family tree.

In the process he realised that his family was the only family known to have his surname.

Danny’s uncle started looking up the family tree and found out that many years ago his family was part of the Battle of Hastings. Danny’s great great great uncle was in the battle as one of the drummers. Danny was interested to know how he became the drummer of a band, and it is inspiring to think that his family members fought for England.