Lieutenant-Colonel Kenneth Darling
12th (Yorkshire) Parachute Battalion

K.T.’s a wonderful person. A great soldiering personality and a man who won’t stand for any nonsense at all from anyone no matter who he is. I always got on extremely well with him. You always knew exactly where you stood and exactly what he wanted doing. In the very early days I always thought he had the necessary personality to rise to the top.

(CSM McCabe-Dallas quoted in Sunday Mercury, 5 May 1963, 11)

Born on 17 September 1909 in British India, Kenneth Thomas Darling was educated at Eton College and RMC, Sandhurst, after which he took a commission with the Royal Fusiliers in 1929. From 1930 to 1938, he served with the 1st Battalion in India. In 1940, he attended staff college at Camberley, becoming brigade major with the 1st London Brigade, 1st London Division. He next served as a general staff officer at the War Office until 1942.

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