Kenneth Darlaston Yearsley

Born in the early 1890s, Kenneth Darlaston Yearsley served in the British Army's Royal Engineers during the First World War. Records linked to the Imperial War Museum's Lives of the First World War project identify him as an officer who became a prisoner of war during the defence of Kut-al-Amarah, an ordeal that clearly shaped the books later associated with his name.

Yearsley is best known as the author of Four-Fifty Miles to Freedom, a wartime memoir centered on escape and endurance. Modern listings and book records connect him with writing that reflects firsthand experience rather than distant commentary, which helps give his work its immediacy and sense of lived history.

Although detailed biographical information appears to be limited in the sources readily available online, the outline that does emerge is memorable: a Royal Engineers officer, a prisoner of war, and a writer who turned survival into narrative. For listeners interested in personal accounts of the First World War, his books promise both adventure and authenticity.