The second Gunner A.C. Stonehouse to die in battle from Filey Albert was the son of a Great War casualty (also Albert Charles Stonehouse).  The coincidences continue, as both were thirty years old at the time of their death and both died in what can only be described as isolated circumstances.

          The major difference between father and son is that Albert senior served in the Army with the Royal Field Artillery whilst his son served as a naval gunner aboard the battle cruiser the H.M.S. Douglas.  Albert senior died in a part of the Great War which was by all accounts one of the quietest periods of the whole conflict with the lowest casualties.  His son died in what must have either been an accident or a very small scale conflict, as the Douglas’ records do not report anything out of the ordinary on the day of his death.  The ship survived until March 1945 when it was sent for scrap; it was first commissioned in May 1918.  Very few other personnel died whilst serving aboard her.

          Albert junior’s body was lost at sea, or perhaps deliberately cast into the deep if land was far off as is tradition in the Navy; he is commemorated on the Chatham Naval Memorial.

          One wonders about the fate of Elizabeth Stonehouse who lived at 4, Albion Place just off Murray Street.  Having lost a husband in 1916 because of the Great War and being left with a four year old child to raise who is then so abruptly taken away at the same age as her deceased husband it makes one think about the devastating effect that these two conflicts had on the populous of Filey.  Elizabeth’s losses do not end there however, as she was a Gash before she married; there are two Gash’s on the town’s Great War memorial, David and Edward (Elizabeth’s brothers).