Novelist Henry De Vere Stacpoole, who gifted Bonchurch Pond to the village, died on this day 75 years ago – 12th April 1951.
Henry De Vere Stacpoole gifted Bonchurch Pond to the village in 1934 in memory of his first wife, Margaret. The pond was placed in trust for public enjoyment and as a refuge for wildlife.
He moved to Cliff Dene, Bonchurch, in November 1922 – a house overlooking the Undercliff that remained his home for the rest of his life. He described the village as “the last bit of unspoiled England”, a view that reflected his preference for quiet surroundings and natural landscape. Bonchurch had long attracted writers – including Charles Dickens, Algernon Charles Swinburne and Elizabeth Sewell – and Stacpoole became part of that tradition.
By the time he settled in Bonchurch, Stacpoole was an established author. Born in 1863, the son of the Rev. William Church Stacpoole, he trained as a doctor at St George’s and St Mary’s hospitals in London and practised for a time before turning to writing in his 30s.
His 1908 novel The Blue Lagoon brought him international recognition. It was adapted into a film in 1923, 1949 and 1980. He went on to write more than 40 novels, many centred on maritime settings and the theme of isolation, placing him among early writers of what would become known as desert-island fiction.
Stacpoole continued writing into old age. His autobiography, Men and Mice, was published in 1942. He lived in Bonchurch for nearly 30 years. Alongside his writing, he took an interest in local life, contributing the foreword to the Ventnor town guide and drawing attention to the killing of gulls and other seabirds along the coast, which he linked to pollution at sea.
After his first wife’s death, he married her sister, Florence, in 1938. He remained at Cliff Dene through the Second World War and into the post-war years, living quietly.
Curiously, like his contemporary Arthur Conan Doyle, he held a belief in the existence of fairies.
Shortly after his 88th birthday, he died in a nursing home in Shanklin following a minor operation. He was buried at St Boniface Church, Bonchurch.
