Darling, GRACE

Darling, GRACE, a name famous in the annals of heroism, was the daughter of William Darling (1795-1860), lighthouse-keeper on Longstone, one of the Farne Islands, and was born at Bamborough, 24th November 1815. On the morning of the 7th September 1838, the Forfarshire, bound from Hull to Dundee, with sixty-three persons on board, struck the Harker's Rock, among the Farne Islands, and in fifteen minutes forty-three persons were drowned. The vessel was seen by Grace Darling from the lighthouse at a quarter to five lying broken on the rocks. Darling and his daughter agreed that if they could get to her, some of the shipwrecked crew would be able to assist them in getting back. By wonderful strength and skill, they brought their boat to where the sufferers (nine in number) crouched. The solitary woman and four men were safely taken to the Longstone; two of the men returned with Darling, and succeeded in bringing the remainder off by nine o'clock A.M. Such an undertaking, so daring in itself, and so successfully carried out, filled every one with the warmest admiration. The lighthouse at Longstone, solitary and unknown no more, was visited by many of the wealthy and the great. Presents, testimonials, and money were heaped at the feet of Grace Darling; but she did not long survive her change of circumstances. She died of consumption, after a year's illness, on 20th October 1842. See Grace Darling, by E. Hope (1876), and the Journal of William Darling (1886).