Cecil Hill Darley
Major Cecil Hill Darley ( -1919)
Brother to Curtis Darley
1920 Obituary [1]
CECIL HILL DARLEY, after graduating at Liverpool University as a Bachelor of Engineering, was employed by Messrs. Holme and King, who had contracted to put up a large number of bridges in the neighbourhood of Coventry, for the L. & N. W. Railway.
After finishing this work he went to Canada early in 1914 and became an assistant engineer, constructing filter beds for the Montreal waterworks.
When war broke out he was amongst the first thirty volunteers for flying. These volunteers went to Toronto and at their own expense took their flying certificates on Lake Ontario.
In the summer of 1915, Cecil Darley was given a Commission in the R.N.A.S., and appointed to be a pilot of a B.E. 2 C. at Eastchurch, England.
In 1916 he was promoted and sent across to France. During his two and a half years there he made over 70 night raids, bombing enemy's posts and lines. For bringing his machine safely back after an eight-hour flight at sea, in a fog all night, he was awarded the D.S.C., and to this was added the Bar, for bravery and successful bombing in face of the enemy.
After the famous naval raid on Zeebrugge, it was necessary to blow up the lock gates across the canal at Zeebrugge. For this work Cecil Darley volunteered and successfully accomplished the job about midnight, 96th May, 1918. He flew a Handley-Page bombing machine, and amidst star shells and a hail of bullets he descended to 200 feet over the lock gates, and with the help of his gun layers, bombed the gates with excellent results, subsequent photos showing that the lock gates had been utterly wrecked. For this he was awarded the D.F.C. and promoted to Major.
In May, 1919, the Government chose Major C. H. Darley to take the new super Handley-Page (then the biggest machine in the world) over the Pyrenees to Madrid. Here, with his crew of six men, he stayed three weeks, giving demonstrations and flights to members of the Spanish Government. The Spanish King and Queen entrusted him with letters to the King and Queen of England, and on his arrival in London he delivered these in person.
In August, 1919, Major C. H. Darley was offered a permanent commission as Captain, and the following month the Air Ministry sent him, in command of the squadron of Vickers-Vimy machines, to fly from Bircham Newton to Cairo, Egypt. He took with him as navigator, his brother, Major C. Curtis Darley, R.A.F., and a mechanic. In two days they flew from Bircham Newton to the South of France, but the third day engine trouble and head winds delayed them and they could not reach Rome owing to darkness, so made a forced landing at the seaplane base at Lake Bracciano. The next morning he essayed to start over the heavy ground but the machine failed to rise and the tip of her wing caught the telegraph wires which crossed the ridge of rising ground. The machine turned over and the reserve petrol tank, immediately over the Pilot's head, burst into flames and rolled down the hill. Major Curtis Darley and the mechanic were thrown clear but Major C. H. Darley was pinned underneath. Major Curtis Darley went straight back into the petrol flames to save his brother, but was unable to free him, having lost his right hand in the war; again he got underneath the machine but was blinded and fearfully burnt in this second attempt to save his brother, and has lain in hospital ever since.
Major Cecil Darley was buried with full military honours in Rome. In addition to the Distinguished Service Cross and Distinguished Flying Cross already mentioned, Major Cecil Hill Darley had conferred on him, by the King of Spain, the Cross of Military Merit for his bravery in the cause of aviation.
He was elected a Student of the Liverpool Engineering Society on 22nd March, 1911, and was an Associate Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers.