Born in 1922 Edward served in the Canadian Merchant Navy, and was lost at sea when SS Thornliebank was torpedoed by a U-boat U-43 on 29th November 1941.
SS Thornliebank
Commemorative Plaque in St Mary’s East Worlington
A plaque on the wall of East church commemorates Edward DeLacy-Staunton, who died “serving in the Merchant Navy on 29th November 1941, aged 19”.
The plaque posed a mystery, as Edward wasn’t listed with the War Graves Commission and no one was aware of his connection with Worlington – until some judicious research revealed his story.
Electoral records covering the years 1924 to 1931, showed a Matilda Clarissa de Lacy Staunton, living at Coombe Cottage, East Worlington. However, by the time the 1939 Register was taken in September of that year, shortly after the outbreak of war, Matilda had died and the current resident of Coombe Cottage was Elizabeth C U Hammond. So it couldn’t have been Matilda who commissioned the plaque in the church, as Edward hadn’t been killed until 1941.
Digging a little deeper, it emerged that in 1920, John Hugh DeLacy Staunton, an officer in the Royal Fusiliers had married Muriel Lavinia Fitzgerald, who had travelled to Canada for the wedding. On the couple’s Canadian marriage certificate, John’s mother is recorded as Matilda DeLacy Staunton, nee Hammond.
Now we had a link to the lady who’d been living in Coombe Cottage in 1939 and Matilda’s probate record confirmed that Elizabeth Constance Uchaf Hammond was Matilda’s sister. It’s since been established that Elizabeth used her second Christian name and was known as Connie.
In 1922 Muriel and John DeLacy Staunton had their first son, Edward Hugh Harold, and in 1924 Edward’s younger brother, Neville Francois, was born. Ship manifest records tell us that in 1925, Muriel travelled from Canada to visit her family in Worlington, along with her young sons.
Edward’s tragic fate
Meanwhile, a discovery was made on The Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s listing of an Edward Hugh Harold Cope, an apprentice, aged 19, serving in the Canadian Merchant Navy on the SS Thornliebank and who’d died on 29th November 1941, the same date as stated on the plaque in East Worlington church.
It appears that on the death of her husband, Muriel returned to England from Canada and in 1939 married Matthew Fletcher Cope, explaining the name under which Edward was recorded with CWGC.
On that tragic day, Edward’s ship was hit by two torpedoes from a German U-boat, about 240 miles north-northwest of the Azores:
“ [it] blew up in a great explosion. The master, 69 crew members and ten gunners were lost. ”
When Edward was so tragically killed in 1941, it was his great aunt, Connie Hammond, resident of Coombe Cottage, East Worlington who arranged for the plaque to be erected in the church.
Connie died 6 years later, in 1947, aged 85. You’ll find her grave in East Worlington churchyard, near to the yew tree on the right-hand side of the path.