Lieutenant Lionel Duncan Stanbury

He was born on 26 August 1885 to his parents Emma and John who lived in Worcester Park, Surrey. He attended Kings College School, Wimbledon, where he was active in the school’s Officer Training Corps.

On the outbreak of war at nineteen years of age he joined the army on 16 September 1914 signing on at Westminster and immediately applied for a commission. He was small of stature, being only 5 feet 5½ inches tall and weighing only about 10 stone. The bespectacled young man with fair hair and blue eyes was soon accepted. He went to France in early February 1916.

Lieutenant Lionel Duncan Stanbury

He was considered to possess excellent leadership qualities and was specially commended for his efforts in leading the men who saved the machine gun crews on 6 July in Shelter Wood. The next day he himself was dead. According to one eye-witness he was hit in the left leg by a fragmenting shell and his leg was virtually severed below the knee. He was on the parapet of the German held Quadrangle Support Trench at the time and Sergeant J K Smith dragged him back about twenty five yards to a shell hole where a stretcher bearer of the 9th Duke of Wellingtons Regiment bandaged him up.

Second-Lieutenant J Michell crawled out with Sergeant Smith and another man to where Sergeant Smith indicated he had left Lieutenant Stanbury before concluding that his fellow officer had either been hit by another shell or buried in a shell hole.

The telegram arrived at his home on 13 July and then began a long wait for his distraught parents. His personal effects were returned, the inventory was as follows:

Correspondence

One pair puttees

One holdall

One air cushion in a case

One shirt

One towel

Razor blades

Statements were taken from all the men involved in the incident and Second-Lieutenant Michell was awarded the Military Cross. Over the proceeding months enquiries were made through the American Diplomatic Service in Germany for any news of Lieutenant Stanbury, in case he had been taken prisoner.

Every few months his case was reviewed and his file passed through the appropriate departments but always arrived back with a negative response. Finally late in March 1917 a decision was taken to officially presume him to be dead. The war office wrote to his father asking for confirmation that he himself had no other information.

On 24 March 1917 John Stanbury replied on writing paper edged in black.

In answer to yours of the 20th Inst. I beg to inform you that I have not received any information as to the fate of my Dear Boy, Lieutenant L. D. Stanbury.

I have the honour to be

your obedient servant

J. Stanbury

The official letter of condolence was sent on 3 April 1917. Under article 497 every bereaved relative received a payment. However Lieutenant Stanbury had received a month’s pay in advance for July 1916. The final payment was reduced by amount not ‘earned’ during the period 8 – 31st of July 1916