William Oliver Fortesque Darling

Forename(s):
William Oliver Fortesque

Surname:
Darling

Initial(s):
W O F

Service Number:
Officer

Rank:
Lieutenant

Regiment:
Royal Irish Rifles, 3rd (Reserve) Battalion attached to 1st Battalion

Died:
16/10/1915

Aged:
23

Buried:
Y' Farm Military Cemetery, Bois-Grenier

Service History:
Entered the Mercantile Marine Service in 1910. Served under Messrs. Westcott & Laurence from November 1913, but returned home on the outbreak of war to volunteer for Imperial Service.

Gazetted 2nd Lieutenant, Royal Irish Rifles 14th (Service) Battalion (Young Citizens), 16 September 1914. Transferred to the 3rd (Reserve) Battalion in April 1915. Went to France in August, attached to the 1st Battalion, & promoted Lieutenant in the same month.

Darling was killed in action whilst on patrol on 16 October following.

One of his superior officers wrote:

'Your nephew had done excellent work whilst serving with the Division, & was a most promising officer. You have every reason to be proud of his gallantry & devotion to duty. I personally regret his loss both as an officer & a comrade.'
(Source: 'UK, De Ruvigny's Roll of Honour, 1914-18'; Part 2; Page 92)

Background:
Born on 11 September 1892, at Carham, Northumberland, the eldest son of the late Rev. William Oliver Darling, Rector of Killesk, Duncannon, County Waterford, Eire, by his wife, Edith, second daughter of George Newman Dunn, M.D., of Kinsale, County Cork, & brother of 2nd Lieutenant Claud Henry Wish Darling.

Educated at Braidlea, Stoke Bishop, Bristol; Haileybury College, Hertfordshire, where he was a member of the Officer Training Corps; & on the Medway, one of the Mercantile Marine Training vessels under Lord Brassey's scheme.
(Source: 'UK, De Ruvigny's Roll of Honour, 1914-18'; Part 2; Page 92)

Local Memorial:
Alnwick, 'Alnwick & County Gazette Almanack, 1918'