Francis William Beaumont Francis William Lionel Collings Beaumont ( 6 August 1903 – 4 May 1941 ) , also known as F . W . L . C . Beaumont or “ Buster ” Beaumont , was the heir to the Seigneur of Sark , a Royal Air Force officer , film producer and the husband of actress Mary Lawson . He and Lawson were killed in 1941 during the Liverpool Blitz . Family Background . Francis William Lionel Collings Beaumont was born on 6 August 1903 . He was the second child of Dudley John Beaumont and Sibyl Mary Collings , daughter of the Seigneur of Sark , the ruling family of the island of Sark . Sark is a self - governing territory that is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey , a British Crown Dependency in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy . The island has been called one of the last feudal outposts in Western Europe , a term used by Beaumont ’ s mother to describe the island ’ s political system . Beaumont was named after his grandfather , William Frederick Collings , the 20th Seigneur of Sark , but was often called by his nickname , Buster . On his father ’ s side of the family , Beaumont descended from a line of notable British Army officers . His father served in France during the First World War and died in 1918 during the Spanish flu pandemic . His grandfather , William Spencer Beaumont , was a captain in the 14th King ' s Hussars cavalry regiment , while his great - great grandfather , John Thomas Barber Beaumont was a well known miniature painter who in 1803 , during the Napoleonic Wars , raised The Duke of Cumberland ' s Sharp Shooters corps . In 1927 Beaumont ’ s mother became the 21st Seigneur of Sark and took the title Dame Sibyl Mary Collings Beaumont Hathaway . As his mother ’ s oldest son , Beaumont was the heir to the title of Seigneur of Sark . Education and early military career . Beaumont was educated at Elizabeth College , in St Peter Port , Guernsey . Beaumont ’ s mother wanted her son to study at the Royal Air Force College at Cranwell , but she faced financial difficulties following her husband ’ s death . She was forced to sell her farm on Sark and relocate to Guernsey and then Cologne , Germany in order to support her family . While still a cadet , Beaumont became an able pilot and participated in an RAF aerial show at Hendon . In December 1923 Beaumont graduated from Cranwell , was commissioned as a pilot officer on 19 December , and posted to No . 207 Squadron at Eastchurch ; on 19 June 1925 he was promoted to flying officer . While serving Beaumont accumulated personal financial debts that threatened to end his career . His mother intervened with contacts in the RAF and pleaded for her son to be deployed abroad where he would be “ away from the crowd of young irresponsibles he is running around with . ” In November 1925 Beaumont was assigned to No . 45 Squadron in Iraq , where the British had established the Mandate of Mesopotamia . In 1928 Beaumont was assigned to the RAF depot at Uxbridge near London , and resigned his commission in the RAF on 3 October 1928 . Marriages . In 1924 , while serving in the RAF , it was announced that Beaumont was engaged to Enid Corinne Ripley of Outwood , Surrey and in October 1926 the couple were married in London . In December 1927 , Enid Beaumont gave birth to a son , John Michael Beaumont , who would become the 22nd Seigneur of Sark in 1974 . Beaumont met his second wife , actress Mary Lawson , while producing the 1936 film " Toilers of the Sea " , a film adaption of Victor Hugo ’ s 1866 novel " Les Travailleurs de la mer " . Hugo ’ s book is set in Guernsey and Beaumont ’ s mother writes in her 1961 autobiography that scenes from the film were shot on Sark and that her son provided backing for the film , along with French director / producer Jean Choux ; in the film credits the production company L . C . Beaumont is mentioned , but not Choux . At this time Beaumont was still married to his first wife . It is uncertain when the affair between Lawson and Beaumont began , but Beaumont ’ s wife purchased an announcement in the 30 November 1937 edition of The Times asking for a “ dissolution ” of their marriage “ on the ground of his adultery with Miss Mary Lawson . ” That year the Beaumonts were divorced , and on 22 June 1938 Beumont and Lawson were married in Chelsea . In her memoirs , Beaumont ’ s mother makes no mention of her son ’ s second wife , rather she praises his first wife as a “ charming girl ” Upon marriage Lawson legally changed her name to Mary Elizabeth Beaumont , but she continued to use Mary Lawson as her stage name . Fascist connection and the Second World War . In 1937 Beaumont reportedly met with Oswald Mosley , founder of the British Union of Fascists , to discuss the opening of a private radio broadcast station on Sark . In the 1930s , the British Broadcasting Corporation had a government sanctioned monopoly in Britain on broadcasting television and radio and private commercially broadcasts funded by advertisers were illegal . Mosley wanted to challenge this monopoly in order to raise funds for his fledgling party by setting up broadcast stations outside of the BBC ’ s jurisdiction . Mosley and Beaumont reportedly came to an agreement for a thirty year lease to set up a " Radio Sark " broadcast station on the island . There have been claims that Beaumont was sympathetic to the Mosley ’ s movement and that he and Mosley were amiable . Beaumont is also reported to have hidden the source of the funding of the radio station from his mother in order to obtain her approval . In addition , British government documents opened to the public in the 1990s reveal that Mosley sought funding from the German Nazi government for Radio Sark , though Beaumont is not implicated in these dealings . Despite his connections with British fascists , Beaumont promptly rejoined the RAF at the outset of the Second World War in 1939 ; he was recommissioned as a pilot officer on probation on 26 September , and on 1 June 1940 he was promoted to war substantive flying officer . He seems later to have been promoted flight lieutenant . He was assigned to the Administrative and Special Duties Branch , which includes the RAF ’ s intelligence section . During the war the Channel Islands were occupied by German forces and contact was severed between Beaumont and his relatives on Sark , including his mother , who remained on the island for the duration of the war . Death . In May 1941 Beaumont received a week ’ s leave and he , Lawson , friends and family travelled to Liverpool , where they stayed at a hotel at 126 Smithdown Road in the Sefton Park district . On 1 May the German Luftwaffe began a bombing campaign on Liverpool that would last more than a week . On 4 May , as the warning sirens went off , family and friends at the hotel , including Lawson ’ s sister Dorothy , took safety in a shelter , while Lawson and Beaumont stayed in their room . The hotel was destroyed , killing the couple , while all those who sought safety in the shelter survived . The death of Beaumont and Lawson was announced in newspapers around the globe , but news of Beaumont ’ s death was slow to reach Sark because of the German occupation . Beaumont ’ s elder sister , Amice , who was in England at the time , contacted the embassy of the United States of America , which had yet to enter the war , and ask them to convey the news of her brother ’ s passing to German authorities . Beaumont ’ s mother was notified of her son ’ s death by the German Commandant in Guernsey , a Colonel von Schmettow , who conveyed the news in a manner that she described as “ gently as possible . ” Beaumont and Lawson are buried in Kirkdale Cemetery , Liverpool . A memorial plaque with names of Beaumont and other former pupils of Elizabeth College that fell during the Second World War is located on the school grounds in Guernsey .