Alan Heppell Darling was the son of Company Secretary in the Shipyards, and older brother of Harry Alexander Darling, who also attended the school.

Alan joined the High School at the beginning of 1900, at the age of 10, and left in December 1904.

It is thought that he went on to the Durham School of Science before attending Armstrong College to follow a career in engineering, which led him to as apprenticeship at Smiths Dock, where his father was company secretary.

In early May, 1914, the assistant manager of the Bull Ring department of Smiths Dock was killed in a football accident, and Alan Darling was promoted to his post.

When war broke out he enlisted with the Quayside Battalion, but later transferred to Alexandra, Princess of Wales' Own Yorkshire Regiment as a 2nd Lieutenant.

He was killed in action on 10-Jul-1916 while under heavy fire at the Somme, fighting to regain a village from German occupation, and his grave is at the Becourt Military Cemetery in the Somme.