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The Encyclopaedia of Plymouth History |
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Various Lords St Levan have been Lords of the Manor of Stoke Damerel (Devonport). This is not a history of the whole family but just those who have held the title of Lordship. FIRST LORD St LEVAN (Baron from 1887-1908) SIR JOHN St AUBYN, 1st Baron St Levan, was born on October 23rd 1829, the eldest son of Sir Edward St Aubyn and Emma, his wife,who was the daughter of General Knollys. On July 15th 1856 he married Lady Elizabeth Clementina Townshend, daughter of John, the fourth Marquess Townshend, a Rear-Admiral in the Royal Navy. He served as Member of Parliament for West Cornwall from 1858 to 1885 and for St Ives from 1885 until he was created a Baron in 1887 and moved to the House of Lords. He held the post of Special Deputy Warden of the Stannaries and was honorary Colonel of the 3rd Battalion of the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry. He was also Commodore of the Western Yacht Squadron. Sir John died in 1908. SECOND LORD St LEVAN (Baron from 1908-1940) JOHN TOWNSHEND St AUBYN, 2nd Baron St Levan, was born on September 23rd 1857. He was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge. On June 23rd 1892 he married Lady Edith Hilaria Edgcumbe, the daughter of William, the fourth Earl of Mount Edgcumbe. Lady St Levan died in 1931 after a long illness and his Lordship then married Julia, the widow of the 2nd Earl of Dartrey. He was a Justice of the Peace and Deputy Lieutenant for Cornwall and Deputy Warden of the Stannaries. He joined the Grenadier Guards in 1878, which he eventually commanded. He held various other appointments including honorary Colonel of the Devon and Cornwall Heavy Brigade of the Royal Artillery, honorary Colonel of the Cornwall Royal Garrison Artillery, and was Military Secretary to the Governor-General of Canada in 1892-94. He was awarded the Order of the Red Eagle of Prussia. John had served in the Sudan in 1884 and at the Nile in 1884-85. In 1916 he rejoined the Army and was promoted to Brigadier-General in charge of the Reserve Western Territorial Division. Unfortunately John and his wife had two daughters. As two of John's brothers, Edward Stuart St Aubyn and Francis Michael St Aubyn, remained unmarried, the title passed in 1940 to the heir of Sir John's fourth son, Arthur James Dudley Stuart St Aubyn and his wife, Helen Phillippo, daughter of Dr J C Phillippo. All was not lost for the second Lord St Levan, however. His eldest daughter, Marjory, married the Hon. John Parker, and their son, the Hon. John St Aubyn Parker, became the 6th Earl of Morley. THIRD LORD St LEVAN (Baron from 1940-1978) FRANCIS CECIL St AUBYN, 3rd Baron St Levan, was born in Kingston, Jamaica, on April 18th 1895, the only son of the Hon. Arthur James Dudley Stuart St Aubyn and his wife Helen. His father was the Inspector of the Jamaican Police. He was educated at Eton and Sandhurst. In 1916 he married the Hon. Clementina Gwendolen Catherine Nicolson, daughter of Lord Carnock. He was wounded while serving with the Grenadier Guards in World War One. During the Second World War he served in the Grenadier Guards from 1939-42 and then became a Lieutenant-Colonel commanding the Land's End battalion of the Home Guard. Lady St Levan spent the war years serving the Red Cross in Kent and later in Cornwall. The third Lord St Levan died in 1978. FOURTH LORD St LEVAN (Baron from 1978- to date) JOHN FRANCIS ARTHUR St AUBYN, 4th Baron St Levan, the current Lord St Levan, was born in 1918 and he was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross during the Second World War, when he served on mine-sweepers guarding the Russian convoys. In 1948 he qualified as a solicitor. In 1970 he married Susan Kennedy, the daughter of Major General Sir John Kennedy GCMG, governor of Rhodesia between 1946 and 1954. John Francis Arthur St Aubyn inherited the title upon the death of his father in 1978. Lady Susan St Levan died at St Michael's Mount on February 21st 2003, at the age of 69.
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