George Staunton Lynch-Staunton
(1839-1924)
21 July 1864
Volume 12, page 142, sitting number 15,715.
Born in Florence on 11 October 1839, George Staunton Lynch was the eldest son of Captain Henry Cormick Lynch of Galway in Ireland, who was a Captain in the service of the East India Company. His mother was Charlotte Margretta née Wood of Crickhowell in Wales. In 1860 he assumed the additional surname Staunton by Royal Licence.
Originally a Lieutenant in the Hampshire Artillery Militia, in January 1862 he became a Cornet (by purchase) in the 14th (King’s) Hussars. He gained the rank of Captain in 1868 and retired in March 1869.
On 2 July 1870 at the parish church of Catherington in Hampshire he married Margaret Hasler Kirkpatrick, youngest daughter of the Reverend James Kirkpartrick of Holydale, Keston, Kent.
The couple appear on the 1881 census living at Purbrook House near Farlington in Hampshire with their children: Gertrude (8), Henry (7), Leonard (5), Arthur (4), and Reginald (11 months). Also present on the night of the census were: a governess; five servants, all female; and, in the Lodge nearby, a gardener and his family.
They were at the same address when the 1891 census was taken, this time with son Arthur (14), daughter Beatrix (9), a governess and five female servants. In 1901 children Gertrude (28), Reginald (20), a Lieutenant in the Royal Artillery, and Beatrix (19) were with them. In 1911 Gertrude was still living with her parents at Purbrook House. Reginald was killed at Baghdad during the First War World.
Mrs Lynch-Staunton died on 17 March 1914. Captain Lynch-Staunton died, aged 85, on 29 December 1924 at Hayling Island in Hampshire and was buried at All Saints, Catherington, Hampshire. He left an estate valued at £12,066.
A brief announcement of his death appeared in the Portsmouth Evening News (31 December 1924): ‘We announce with regret the death of Capt. George Staunton Lynch-Staunton, which took place on Monday at his residence, Norfolk House, Hayling Island. The deceased gentleman, who was an octogenarian, had been ill for a considerable time. He formerly lived at Purbrook and latterly at Southwick. He was a J.P. for Hampshire, sitting on the Havant Bench, and one of the largest landowners in Hayling. The Staunton Avenue, leading from the railway station to the beach, was made by him through his land.’