Ralph Darling enlisted at the age of fourteen as a private in his father's regiment, and served in the ranks for at least two years, on garrison duty in the West Indies.
On 13 October 1817, the 46-year-old general married the 19-year-old Eliza Dumaresq (born Macau 10 November 1798, died 3 September 1868), a deeply religious young woman whose father had been a colonel in the army and a squire in Shropshire.