Peter Lawford's parents - Lt Col Aylen, cuckolded by his commanding officer

On 12 October 1947, seventy year old Lt Col Ernest Vaughen Aylen DSO died in the Three Crowns, East Preston, West Sussex, England. His death was due to myocardial degeneration and carcinoma of the larynx. He had been a surgeon with the Royal Army Medical Corps since about 1906, and had served in China, Egypt and India. In the Great War he was part of the British-Indian defence force holding out against the Turkish army during siege of Kut Al Amara that started on 7 December 1915 and lasted 147 days. He was taken prisoner and later released by the Turks as part of an exchange. Due to a starvation diet he was in an emaciated condition. On his return to Britain he was awarded the DSO and promoted to Lieutenant Colonel.

In 1906 he married May Somerville Cooper (née Bunny). She was the widow of an army captain who had died in India in 1905 from a self inflicted gunshot wound. May had a daughter from this first marriage, but the child had died in infancy. The Aylens remained childless until the birth of a son in 1923 who was named Peter Sydney Ernest Aylen. However, all was not as it seemed. The Aylens had been going through a difficult period in their relationship, and for some time there had been a lack of intimacy between them. May admitted to her husband that the biological father of the child was not him, but was Lieutenant-General Sir Sydney Turing Barlow Lawford - Aylen’s commanding officer.

In 1924, following two divorce cases, May Aylen and Sir Sydney were free to marry. The scandal was such that the Lawfords moved away from Britain and took up residents in the USA. Their son, Peter Sydney Ernest Aylen, became an actor and changed his name to Peter Lawford. In addition to his film career, Lawford also became a member of the legendary Rat Pack that included Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Jr and Dean Martin. He married Patricia Kennedy, daughter of Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., United States Ambassador to the UK from 1938 to 1940, and became the brother-in-law of future President John F Kennedy and Senators Edward and Robert Kennedy.

Lt Col Ernest Vaughen Aylen remained single after his divorce. Records indicate that he lived in hotels in London and in East Preston, where two of his sisters also lived. In 1944, during the war, he got in trouble with the law when he went into the grounds of his hotel in East Preston with a torch to scare off cats that were keeping him awake. He was fined 20 shillings for showing an undimmed torch during a blackout.

Lt Col Aylen is buried in the local St Mary the Virgin cemetery, East Preston, with a simple headstone that says “In Memory of Lt Colonel E V Aylen DSO RAMC 1877-1947”.

Lt Col Aylen's grave stone

Peter Lawford (Wikipedia)

Rat Pack (Wikipedia)