Australian Naval History on 5 September 1926

LCDR F. C. Darley, RN, was killed while leading a boarding party to recapture a British river steamer, seized by Chinese pirates at Wanhsien. Darley distinguished himself in HMAS AUSTRALIA, (cruiser), in May 1917, when he rendered safe a damaged 30 cm shell, jammed in an hydraulic hoist. He cleared the hoist of personnel and removed the fuse of the shell with a crowbar and a spanner. On the night before his death LCDR Darley wrote in a letter to his mother:- ‘I pray to God that I shall do nothing that may bring discredit on the White Ensign’.