First officer of 15th Battalion CEF (48th Highlanders) to lose his life in the First World War.
Captain Robert Clifford Darling graduated from Royal Military College in 1907 and had been serving in the 48th Highlanders for seven years when, at 28 years of age, he attested into the 15th Battalion at Valcartier in 1914. He was assigned to Bn HQ as Adjutant along with his close friend and fellow RMC graduate, Captain Trumbull Warren.
In March of 1915 the 15th Battalion was going through the standard 4-in-4-out trench rotation exchanging front line trench positions with the 14th Battalion on the Rue de Petillon near Fromelles. On March 23rd, Captain Darling was returning to Bn HQ after having delivered a message to Capt Perry’s company on the front left of the line. While cutting across a section of open ground behind the trench lines, he was wounded seriously in the chest by a German sniper. Darling was rescued by Major E. Osborne, Captain R. Cory, Lt. W. Mavor and Private R. Adamson and soon thereafter evacuated to the UK. Despite being attended to by several famous surgeons like Dr. William Osler, his condition worsened and he died of his wounds at Miss Pollock’s Hospital in London on April 19th. His close friend Capt T Warren would be KIA at Ypres the next day on 20 April.
Captain Darling’s remains were returned to Canada and following a very large military funeral in Toronto, he was buried in Mount Pleasant Cemetery. He was one of a very small number of Canadians who died overseas during the war whose remains were returned to Canada for burial.
NOK: Brother of Lieutenant Colonel WCW Darling and Mrs. Annie M. Darling, of 2, Dale Avenue, Toronto, Ont.; husband of Phyllis A. Darling, of Toronto.
