Lady Darling
(1819-1900)
20 December 1862

Volume 10, page 7, sitting number 12,395.

Identified in the Silvy daybooks as 'Lady Darling,' this is probably the third wife of the colonial governor Sir Charles Henry Darling (1809-1870).

Darling was born at Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia, the son of Major-General Henry Darling and nephew of General Sir Ralph Darling. He was educated at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst and served in the military in Barbados, the Windward Islands, and Jamaica with the 57th Foot. He started his colonial service while in Jamaica and became Lieutenant-Governor of St Lucia in 1847. He became Lieutenant-Governor of the Cape Colony in South Africa in 1851. In 1855 he was appointed Governor of Newfoundland.

Darling supported the British suggestions granting the French more fishing rights in the waters of Newfoundland between Cape St John and Cape Ray to the total disagreement of the Newfoundland government, which ultimately lead to the end of his term in office. He became governor and captain-chief of Jamaica in 1857, then governor of the state of Victoria in Australia from 1863 to 1866.

He married firstly on 2 May 1835 Anne Wilhelmina Dalzell (1813-1837). They had a son, who died in infancy. He married secondly at Christ Church, Barbados, on 14 December 1839, Mary Ann Nurse, who died of yellow fever in St Lucia on 6 November 1848. He married thirdly at Ilfracombe, North Devon on 10 December 1851, Elizabeth Isabella Caroline Salter. Born in or about 1819, she died in Marylebone on 10 December 1900 at the age of 81.