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Revision as of 21:35, 13 August 2010

Julia Camoys Stonor
Born
Julia Maria Cristina Mildred Camoys Stonor

(1939-04-19) 19 April 1939 (age 85)
OccupationWriter
Notable workSherman's Wife: A Wartime Childhood Among the English Aristocracy
RelativesSherman Stonor, 6th Baron Camoys
Thomas Southwell, 4th Viscount Southwell
Charles Stourton, 19th Baron Stourton
Websitehttp://www.juliacamoysstonor.com



Julia Maria Cristina Mildred Camoys Stonor (born 19 April 1939) is the eldest daughter of Sherman Stonor, 6th Baron Camoys by his wife Jeanne Stourton. She is best known for her books about her family, exposing long-suppressed family scandals and her claims to be the rightful heir to the Camoys barony.

Ancestry

Julia Camoys Stonor was born Julia Maria Christina Mildred Stonor, the eldest daughter and first child of Ralph Robert Watts Sherman Stonor, 6th Baron Camoys of Stonor Park and Newport, Rhode Island, USA (1913–1976), by his wife (Mary) Jeanne Stourton (1913–1987). Her mother was granddaughter maternally of the 4th Viscount Southwell. According to Julia Stonor, the Spanish aristocrat Pedro de Zulueta was her mother's father.[1]

Legally, Jeanne Stourton was the great-granddaughter patrilineally of the Charles Stourton, 19th Baron Stourton. Jeanne Stourton's great-uncle the 20th Lord Stourton succeeded as 20th Baron Stourton in 1872, and as 23rd Baron Mowbray & 24th Baron Segrave in 1878 when those baronies (last held by the 9th Duke of Norfolk) were called out of abeyance 101 years after his death in 1777.

Biography

Stonor is the author of Sherman's Wife: A Wartime Childhood Among the English Aristocracy,[2] a rather scandalous memoir of her controversial mother Jeanne, Lady Camoys. She is currently at work on the second part of her memoirs, Sherman's Daughter. In the first book, she described her half-Spanish half-English mother, who was fathered by a Spanish aristocrat, and whose lover died in the Spanish Civil War on Franco's side. Stonor alleged in the book that her mother was an ardent Nazi sympathizer, and had been the lover of several men including Joachim von Ribbentrop and her own father-in-law. More controversially, she argued that her mother Jeanne had murdered her husband Lord Camoys (who died 1976) and that Lady Camoys had been murdered by her younger son Honourable Robert Camoys (died 1994).[3]

In later years, Stonor has claimed that she is the only legitimate child of her parents; her mother's other four children, including the present Lord Camoys, being illegitimate and biologically unrelated to Sherman Stonor. Thus, she has argued that she is the rightful heir to the Camoys barony.[4]

She is an active supporter of several charities, including Exiled Writers Ink!,[5] and has worked as a freelance writer, author, human rights activist, volunteer, and charity-supporter.

Stonor was one of many in attendance at the memorial service of Sir John Mortimer in November 2009. [6]

Family

Stonor was married to Donald Robin Slomnicki Saunders (d. 1996), and the marriage ended in divorce 1977, followed by an annulment 1978. Two children were born

  1. Alexander William Joseph Stonor Saunders (b. 1964) who married 2000 Mary Margaret Ohannessian, and has issue one son and one step-daughter.
  2. Frances Hélène Jeanne Stonor Saunders (b. 1966), or Frances Stonor Saunders, a British journalist and author, of among others, The Cultural Cold War: The C.I.A. and the World of Arts and Letters (The New Press, 2000; 1st published UK 1999)

Publications

  • Sherman's Wife - A wartime childhood amongst the English Catholic Aristocracy, by Julia Camoys Stonor (published by Desert Hearts, 2006)
  • Sherman's Daughter, by Julia Camoys Stonor (publication date to be confirmed)

References

  1. ^ Stonor, Julia Sherman's Wife, Desert Hearts Publishing, 2006 pages 21, 60, 151, 156, 263.
  2. ^ “Sherman's Wife,” Desert Hearts Publishers
  3. ^ Chishom, Anne. “Rampant fascism near Henley,” The Spectator. 12 July 2006. (Retrieved 2009-08-18.)
  4. ^ Gillard, Michael. “The Nazi, the banker and a poisonous feud,” The Sunday Times 26 October 2008
  5. ^ “List of Patrons,” Exiled Writers Ink!
  6. ^ “Memorial Service: Sir John Mortimer,” The Times