Second Lieutenant Geoffrey LYNCH-STAUNTON (1914)

13th Hussars
Born 17 July 1896 in Hamilton, Ontario, in Canada
Killed in action 5 March 1917, aged 20
Commemorated on the Basra Memorial, Iraq. Also commemorated on the war memorials at Osgoode Hall Law School, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and St Catharine’s Church, Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire (home of his paternal uncle).

Geoffrey Lynch-Staunton was the elder son of Senator George Staunton Lynch-Staunton and Adelaide, née Dewar, of Clydagh House, Hamilton, Canada.

He was educated at Highfield School for Boys (now Hillfield Strathallen College) in Hamilton, Ontario, then at Downside School, Stratton-on-the-Fosse, near Bath. After Merton he returned to Canada and continued his studies at Osgoode Hall Law School, now part of York University in Toronto, Canada.

He enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force in early 1915, and arrived in France as a Lieutenant in June that year. In December he applied to join the British Army, was accepted on 13 February 1916, and on 1 July transferred to the 13th Hussars. In January 1917 the Hussars were sent to Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq).

He was killed in action in a cavalry charge against Turkish trenches, his first engagement with the enemy, at Lajj on the Tigris River, on 5 March 1917. It is said that he rode down into a Turkish trench and walked his horse along it over the Turks. They took him prisoner, but his body was found the next day. They had dressed his wounds, but then decided that he would be a hindrance to carry along, so killed him and took everything off him.