About
Austin Stone
Austin Stone (1904–1979)
Austin Stone (1904-1979) born in Chelsea, London to Arthur Stone & Evelyn Le Motte’e – (great granddaughter of Frederick Corbin Lukis of Guernsey). During WW1 his uncle Major Edward Le Motte’e DSO died at the Battle of Loos, France in 1915. Becoming orphaned after loosing both parents during the 1917/18 ‘Spanish Flue’ epidemic, his sister was sent to live with the famous Lutyens family and Austin to his uncle, Rear Admiral, Douglas Le Motte’e (Commander on HMS Princess Royal during the 1916 Battle of Jutland). His maternal grandfather Col. John Edward Le Motte’e RGM, ADC to King Edward V11 in 1903, died in 1919 and his grandmother Laura Amelia Lukas died 2 years later. Austin’s paternal grandfather was William Henry Stone MP (1835-1896) who’s direct Stone family dates back to 1515 in Framfield, East Sussex.
Many of Austin’s books and plays were also written in other languages. However, after his loving wife, Josie, died in 1959, he had to take on a stable job to support his children. After all, the bank wasn’t likely to provide loans, on the basis of his next book getting published! Ironically, in 1959, his son Edmund was only 13 years old – the same age Austin had been when he lost his mother!
Austin at War in 1941.
Austin’s Bugatti at Brooklands-1926/7
Ed Stone (Editor’s Notes)
My father Austin Stone was a well known British author and BBC playwright, who’s first 2 books were written and published in 1936. During WW2 he joined the British army as 2nd. Lieutenant in the R.A.S.C. A few years after the war he moved to quieter locations in rural Wales and Malvern, where he continued his writing career. By 1953 (the Queen’s Coronation Year) he had completed and published 5 more crime novels. The same year he became chairman of the Malvern Writers Circle during which time he also organized the Malvern Writers Festival.
Subsequently, he was acquainted with many other well known authors, including Barbara Cartland (Queen of Romance) and Daphne du Maurier (‘Frenchman’s Creek’-1941 etc.) who’s novel ‘The Birds’ became the basis for Alfred Hitchcock’s movie of the same name.
Ed the editor in 1951 at the Malvern Pageant, in a suit of ‘chain mail’ armour, ‘knitted’ by his father, Austin Stone.
