Stanley “Pom” Lukyn, MC (Military Cross)

“An English hero whom his King honoured”

Captain, 1st Battalion, “The Queens” (Royal West Surrey)  Regiment, attached to the Royal Flying Corps

Pictured left, in uniform, and right the family home, Weir View House (where his father and grandfather once lived).

Died 10th April 1917, aged 22

Stanley’s parents were Herbert Edward and Edith Mary Lukyn.

Grave Reference: A. 23. 226.

Lukyn was awarded the Military Cross in The Great War. These medals were awarded to officers for acts of: “gallantry during active operations against the enemy”.

An example of a First World War Military Cross:

 

Here are some extracts from the London Gazette. The first confirms Lukyn as a 2nd Lieutenant as until then he had been on probation. The 2nd confirms him as an acting Captain while commanding a Company:

Stanley was then attached to the Royal Flying Corps. He had been learning to fly for 10 days and had been up in the air on several occasions before the fateful day. His instructor was flying the aircraft at 1,000 feet when due to mechanical failure he lost control and the aircraft spun out of control and nose dived into the ground. Stanley died of his injuries a few days later at the Royal Flying Corps Hospital in Marylebone, London.

Here are copies of 2 newspaper reports about the fatal accident and inquest:

In summary the Pilot, Harrison, an experienced and very capable flyer was himself badly injured but was able to give evidence at the inquest to testify as the conditions and handling of the aircraft. The inquiry registered an “Accidental death” and Sunbury lost another of its sons to the Great War.

Below, a contemporary photograph of what was the RFC Hospital in London and a typical hospital ward of the time:

Stanley was laid to rest in Sunbury New Cemetery.

GRAVE REGISTRATION DOCUMENTS – GRAVES REGISTRATION REPORTS (FINALS):

GRAVE REGISTRATION DOCUMENTS – REGISTERS:

Below, the headstone details. Note the contract for the Headstone was given to G.S. Keates of Hampton Hill, connected today with Sunbury’s own Lodge Brothers.

Below is a very poignant document, it details the wording his mother chose for his headstone and gives the family home as “Cedars View, Sunbury”.

Stanley died in April 1917, a month that saw the highest amount of RFC casualties of the war and became known as “Bloody April”.