[6][4] Darbyshire was fluent in the Persian language and spent three spells in Iran, being first sent to the World War II Anglo-Soviet occupied country in late 1943, age 19, for a mission lasting until the middle of 1947.

[10] Aside from controlling the Rashidian network through Samuel Falle as intermediary, during the second spell in Iran he was directly in touch with Mohammad Reza Shah, "more on a social basis", and influencing him indirectly via figures like Ernest Perron.

[14] Among other things, he was involved in the kidnapping, torture, and assassination of General Mahmoud Afshartous, Mossadegh's chief of police,[15] and bribed the Shah's twin sister Princess Ashraf Pahlavi to play a key role in the coup and to eventually become a power behind his resulting dictatorship.

Darbyshire, on behalf of Prime Minister Winston Churchill, along with his American counterpart Stephen Meade who spoke for Secretary of State Foster Dulles, met with Princess Ashraf and persuaded her to return to Tehran and convince her brother to cooperate with their plan.

[16] Therefore he directed the British side of the coup by radio contact from Cyprus, controlling the street mobs, thugs, prostitutes and military officers who were paid off by the Rashidians.

[6] In 1968, Darbyshire was transferred to Whitehall where he worked as a SIS diplomat responsible for handling Iraqi defector, Lawrence De Souza[21] before moving to the British Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon taking the position of First Secretary.