Lt. Van Staden was killed while flying at Kirton Lindsey on 26th April 1918. He was 24.
The local paper reported:
“Lieut. Laurens Jacobus Van Staden, a South African officer, has been killed while flying an aeroplane at night in Lincolnshire. He was accompanied by Lieut. Bilson, as observer, and when engine trouble arose he attempted to land, with the result that the machine nose-dived and ran into a flare, setting the aeroplane on fire.
Lieut. Bilton was thrown many yards from the machine, and he now lies in hospital. Lieut. Van Staden was killed and terribly burned. He had only been married three months to Miss Emmeline Beilby, daughter of Mr Frederick Beilby, of Gainsborough.”
Lt. Van Staden had married at All Saints’ Church on 29th February 1918. His funeral service was held at the same Church.
Lt. Van Staden’s headstone is one the Friends have restored. A ceremony was held after the work on his, and Lt. Augustus Harman’s, headstones was completed. The Friends wish to thank the Lincolnshire Co-operative Society who kindly paid half the cost of the restorations and for the incredible work their stonemasons did to restore the headstones.
The inscription says:
“In loving memory of my dear husband Lieut. Laurens J Van Staden (South African). Who was killed whilst night flying, at Kirton-in-Lindsey April 26th 1918, aged 24 years. ‘Not my will, but thine O Lord'”
However, Lt. Van Staden’s story didn’t end there. The Friends had appealed for any of his relatives to come forward.
When we opened the Cemetery Chapel as part of the West Lindsey Churches Festival, two of our visitors were Philip and Hanlie du Toit, both born in South Africa and now living on the Isle of Man.
Several years ago Philip was given by his mother what he thought was a coin but recently Philip realised that it wasn’t a coin, it was a medal. It had an inscription on the edge LIEUT. L. J. VAN STADEN R.A.F.
This led Philip and his wife Hanlie to investigate and they discovered that the medal was awarded to Lieut. Laurens Jacobus Van Staden and this was Philip’s grandmother’s brother. But no one else in the family knew anything about Laurens.
Searching online they discovered that Laurens was buried in Gainsborough in 1918 and found that the Friends of Gainsborough Cemeteries and Chapel had also been trying to find out more about him because they were restoring his headstone, the cross marking his grave had been broken several years ago.
We were able to provide some additional information about Laurens – he had married a local woman, Emmeline Elizabeth Beilby, from Tower Street, in All Saints’ Church on February 2nd, 1918. His best man was fellow South African R.A.F. officer Lt. C.B. Mellor.
But just three months later, on 26th April, Laurens was killed while flying at night at Kirton Lindsey, he had been trying to find Zeppelins.
Laurens and Emmeline lived at 9 Jubilee Crescent. However, finding out what happened to Emmeline Elizabeth after her husband’s death proved to be impossible for the Friends.
There appears to be no record of her remarrying or when and where she died. Philip and Hanlie were determined to find out more and during a visit to relatives in South Africa at Christmas they found a photograph of Laurens in a family album in his R.A.F. uniform standing next to a plane. But again there was still no clue about what happened to Emmeline.
Following their visit to his
The Beilbys and Wordsworths (Emmeline’s mother’s maiden name) were a large family and Philip and Hanlie hoped there maybe someone still living in the area who held the key to finding out more about Emmeline?
