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Normandy landings: Part 4
Luke Theodore Lillingston
We trace the footsteps taken in June 1944 by four ancestors of those working in today’s bloodstock industry.
Although the quartet of men had very different wars, all four stories are of bravery, honour, love, misfortune and sadness.
Arthur Henry Cyril Smith: Father of Laura Green, photographer, Tattersalls
Douglas Mann: Grandfather of Ed Harper, Whitsbury Manor Stud
Charles Francis Birch: Grandfather of Danny Molony, senior spotter, Tattersalls, and Hon Peter Stanley, New England Stud
Luke Theodore Lillingston: Grandfather of Luke Lillingston, Mount Coote Stud, and Georgina Bell, Tattersalls
Lillingston: a fast-living man of action
By the late 1930s the British population was resigned to the likelihood of war, so many were keen to make the most of what life in the late 1930s had to offer; Captain Luke Theodore Lillingston certainly made sure he lived life to the full.
An excellent horseman he was master of the North Atherstone Hunt and was regarded as one of the best men to ride across country, he rode in point-to-points and enjoyed a fine old time of it.
“He and friends would get in a plane and fly down the country for parties,” reports his namesake and grandson Luke Lilllingston of Mount Coote Stud. “They were known to take bets as to where they could land.”
Born in 1907, Luke Theodore Lillingston was the son of Captain William George Lillingston, who had served with the Irish Rifles, and Olive Theodora Lillingston.
He was brought up in the finest Leicestershire sporting country; hunting was his passion and he made it his life.
In 1930-31, at just 23, Lillingston was first whip (amateur) of the Harrington Hounds before he moved to Ireland to become joint-master (masters then also hunting hounds themselves) of the Meath.
Despite moving to Ireland, he was known to frequently entertain a certain Margaret, Countess of Harrington. She was a fine horsewomen herself and rode in many point-to-points, but was widowed after her first husband, the Earl of Harrington, had been killed in 1929 when hunting his own pack and attempting to jump a five-bar gate.
Against the likely convention of the time, on his death the Countess had taken over the responsibility of hunting the pack herself.
And despite this duty she still found time to head to Ireland to visit the Meath at the invitation of Lillingston.
The young man enjoyed two seasons hunting in Ireland before he gave notice in 1933 to return to the UK to fulfill the same role with the North Atherstone.
After his resignation became public a follower of the Meath wrote to the Tamworth Herald on March 11: “The rumour that Mr Luke Lillingston has sent in his resignation in March 1933 of the joint mastership has caused much regret.
“He has shown good sport in North Meath, and has the makings of a first-class huntsman. Even without this attribute, his keenness, dash and good cheer appeal to everyone.”
He was reported to be the youngest-ever master of the North Atherstone, a role that, even viewed from this distance of time, was perfect for him. However, his return to the UK was not just for the job – it also involved affair of the heart, and on July 15, 1934, the 26-year-old Lillingston married the Countess.
The society wedding saw the pair break with the social convention of the time – she was 36, nine years older than her new husband and with an 11-year-old son from her first marriage.
The pair tied the knot in London, according to newspaper reports only a few friends were in attendance and the Countess wore a “black and white ensemble with a silver fox fur around her shoulders.”
In 1938, the happily-married Lillingston, by then father of Alan, decided to buy a property in Ireland, his grandson Luke recounts the story.
“The Greenall family were selling Mount Coote, and my grandfather told the agent to keep him in mind,” reports Lillingston Jnr.
“When an initial sale had not gone through my grandfather was approached by the agent to whom grandfather immediately said, ‘I’ll buy it!’
“The agent asked if he would like to walk the land first, whereupon my grandfather is reported to have said, ‘I have stayed at Mount Coote and remember the view from the bedroom window, that will do to buy it!’”
Lillingston adds: “To be fair, it was a decision that did not need a lot of thought as the farm had already produced an Oaks winner – Love In Idleness, bred by Sir Gilbert Greenall, who had won at Epsom in 1921.”
Lillingston Snr, whose name had occasionally appeared (unsurprisingly in light of his character) in the local papers through the 1930s for various speeding and driving misdemeanors, was a Guards reserve and a subaltern in the Leicestershire Yeomanry with whom he mobilised at the beginning of the war.
The unit had been a reserve horse division of the British army since 1794, and continued to train for mounted service after Word War I. In 1939, when it was ordered to recruit to full capacity, it was still assigned as a cavalry brigade; later that year the horses were abandoned and it refocused as a reserve unit to the Royal Artillery.
On June 28 and 29, 1944, with Lillingston in its ranks, the 153rd Leicestershire Yeomanry Field Regiment crossed to Normandy, landing on Gold Beach’s Mulberry B port, one of the two temporary harbours set up by the British army.
The unit saw its first action on July 7 as part of Operation Charnwood to retake Caen before moving to a position near the River Orne.
The crew then saw continuous fighting to the beginning of August, Lillingston’s action alongside the 2nd Grenadier Guards commended in the regimental war diary.
On August 11, the regiment moved to Le Brien where it saw some particularly heavy fighting, the British army having to fight violently and requiring full involvement of the 153rd in its supporting role from the Leicestershire reserve regiment.
Sadly, the regiment diary then reports: “Alas, in this area, was lost one of its most liked officers the regiment has ever had in Luke Lillingston.
“He was going forward to try and give support to the 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards, when his tank was hit, and caught fire immediately. He received bad burns and a nasty wound to the chest from which he died before getting back to the C.S.S. [combat service support].
“His loss was felt deeply by all who knew him. In action his coolness of mind was wonderful and his gameness superb. God rest his soul, and give him happy hunting.
Later that week Lillingston’s death hit the British papers and in the Leicester Evening Mail on August 17, 1944, his obituary reported him to be a top amateur rider and a keen airman.
The piece went on to recall instances of Lillingston’s life, clearly outlining the man’s joyful, yet daring, character.
“It was not only in the hunting field that he distinguished himself, he was a crack amateur rider and he won many races at point-to-point meetings in Ireland where he bred racehorses at his Mount Coote home.
“In dividing his time between his Leicestershire and Irish home, Captain Lillingston found it easier to go by air. He learned to fly, became an aeroplane owner and was frequently seen touching down at Leicester airport when he housed his plane.
“It was the adventurous nature of the man that he was not at a loss for a landing place whenever he wanted where there was no convenient airfield. Open fields were all that he needed and on many visits to Elvaston, the Derby home of the Countess, he brought his plane to rest in the nearest field suitable to the castle.
“It is recalled that once, shortly before the war, he was forced down three times by fog on the way from Heston to Elvaston Castle for the hunt puppy show, but he got there in time to preside over at luncheon.
“He was a great lover of animals and once when one of the Quorn hounds fell down a steep quarry-face and injured itself, he had himself lowered down the quarry by ropes to rescue it.
“He was a fearless rider and once in Ireland he was shown a very high fence which had not been jumped for many a year. Captain Lillingston took one look at the fence, jumped it, turned around and repeated the performance to show it was no fluke.”
He was a bold, country sportsman, brilliant equestrian, fast living, dashing young man who loved his horses, fast cars and planes, his hunting and, of course, his Countess.
He grandson, now owner and manager of Mount Coote, concludes, “My grandfather never got to enjoy Mount Coote himself and only visited the farm three or four times.
“But he bought the most wonderful property in Mount Coote and my family has been so lucky to have been here since, we are always grateful for the decision he made.”
Lillingston is buried in Saint Charles de Percy War Cemetery, south-west of Caen. There are over 800 World War II servicemen buried in the cemetery, the majority having died alongside Lillingston through that historic July and August of 1944.
