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Auction: 19003 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 208

(x) A fine group of six awarded to Lieutenant-Colonel L. H. de Pinto, West Riding Regiment, attached Royal Engineers, who was imprisoned in a tunnel following the detonation of a German mine on the Western Front, and who experienced a number of scrapes involving the authorities and his personal life thereafter

1914-15 Star (Lieut. L. H. de Pinto W. Rid. R.); British War and Victory Medals with M.I.D. oak leaves (Lieut. L. H. de Pinto); France and Germany Star; Defence and War Medal 1939-45, very fine (6)

Lionel Herbert de Pinto was born on 14 September 1893, the son of Herbert de Pinto of Mannings Heath, Horsham, West Sussex. Educated at Clifton College from January 1908 and having worked as a railroad engineer, he was commissioned Temporary 2nd Lieutenant in the Duke of Wellington's (West Riding) Regiment on 25 September 1914. Promoted Lieutenant in the 9th Battalion on 9 March 1915, he served in France from 15 July 1915. He was mentioned in despatches (London Gazette 1 January 1916, refers) whilst serving with the West Riding Regiment, before being seconded to the Royal Engineers. In September 1917 de Pinto was admitted to hospital suffering from shell shock. The Medical Board Report of a Disabled Officer describes the circumstances:

'He states that he was blown up with a mine and that he was buried for 20 hours. Since then he has been nervous and shaky and sleepless. He states that he has been twice blown up whilst tunnelling on occasions previous to this one.'

Recovered from his condition de Pinto sailed in 1921 from Avonmouth for Jamaica aboard the Coronado, listing his profession as engineer.

Returning to England, de Pinto set up home at Toat House, Pulborough in the late 1920's and became involved in local dog shows and dog breeding. In 1928 he was summoned for keeping two Alsatian dogs without licenses at a kennels at Mannings Heath and fined 15s. for each dog (West Sussex County Times, refers). In 1931 he returned to court once again for failing to pay fees of £22 12s. for the hire of a hunter mare (West Sussex Gazette, refers). At around this time he met The Honourable Flavia Forbes, daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel James Stewart Forbes and Lady Angela Selina Bianca St. Clair-Erskine, a niece of the Duchess of Sutherland, the Countess of Westmorland, the Countess of Warwick and the Earl of Rosslyn. No stranger to the press herself, Flavia attracted notoriety in June 1928 when her husband Sir Lionel Frederick Heald petitioned for divorce on the grounds of her adultery with Captain James Roy Notter Garton, a bankrupt. She was subsequently forced to give up the life of a 'society butterfly' (The Daily Herald, refers) and set up a greengrocer's shop in Mayfair with Mr Jock Currie. A few months after the opening of the shop Flavia became engaged to Currie but the marriage was called off for reasons unclear. Flavia instead turned her attention towards de Pinto and on 27 July 1933 they were married at the Registry Office in Hanover Square, London.

Moving to Curtis Meadow, Kineton, the couple were soon in the local newspapers, Mrs de Pinto charged with allowing a dangerous dog to be at large and worrying sheep at Compton Verney on 12 January 1934 (Warwick and Warwickshire Advertiser, refers), and Lionel de Pinto charged with aiding and abetting when a Mrs Mavis Leslie Bennett of Banbury Street, Kineton, was caught using a motor car without a road fund licence (Leaming Spa Courier, refers). The dog was put down and Mrs de Pinto was found guilty and fined £1 with costs.

On 14 January 1936 de Pinto filed for bankruptcy, giving his details as Company Director, late of 12 Welbeck Street, W.1, a member of the Royal Automobile Club, Pall Mall. His difficulties were compounded by infidelity in his marriage and on 20 August 1937 de Pinto applied for a divorce from his wife on the grounds that 'the Respondent has frequently committed adultery with Harry David Cooper who died on the 30th day of January 1937' (The Petition of L. H. de Pinto, refers).

The couple divorced in 1938 and Flavia soon married Sir Alexander Hay Seton, 10th Baronet of Abercorn, on 17 June 1939. The marriage occurred just 4 days after the decree of divorce in the Court of Session between Hay Seton and his former wife, Lady Zeyla Daphne Seton. It was said that Zeyla and the Baronet's family had been blighted since 1936 when she had taken a bone from an Egyptian tomb and brought it back to their home in Learmonth Gardens, Edinburgh, as described in The Transgressions of a Baronet, written by Hay Seton. He destroyed the bone and their marriage turned to dust with it.

In later life the Lady Seton called her title 'a curse' and wrote newspaper articles about the difficulties of the "titled poor" (Coventry Evening Telegraph 14 October 1959, refers). Divorced for a third time in 1958, she spent her final years working as a store demonstrator of packet soups and in the information kiosk at Battersea fun fair and died at Chelsea on 13 October 1959. Her second husband Lionel predeceased her, passing away on 30 May 1953 and was buried at Dymock, Gloucester, whilst her daughter Susan, borne of her first marriage, worked as a secretary and was one of those who typed the English version of the German Instrument of Surrender at the conclusion of the Second World War. Hay Seton married for a third time on 30 July 1962 but was again haunted by 'the curse of the mummy'. It was said that he foresaw his own death within 6 months whilst on honeymoon: he lived little under a year. Sold with copied service record, High Court of Justice divorce proceedings, private research and MIC.


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Sold for
£230

Starting price
£170