HER son may have been one of Britain’s greatest masters of comedy but, ironically, Tony Hancock’s mother’s life was dogged by tragedy.

Tony, of course, ended his own life in Australia in 1968 at the age of just 44 but, by then, death had come knocking on her door four times times before.

Jack, her first husband, Tony’s comedian father, died of cancer in 1935 in the Royal Victoria Hospital, Boscombe, when Tony was only 11.

She remarried on January 1 Robert Gordon Walker, 12 years her junior, but tragedy soon came knocking on her door again when she lost her her eldest son, Colin, during the war, in 1942. He had joined the RAF and was reported missing, presumed dead.

In the autumn of 1959, Lily and Robert, who had, by then, a great deal of experience of running hotels, took over the management of the Harbour Heights Hotel in Canford Cliffs, having previously been at the Talbot Hotel in Bournemouth.

Within six weeks, however, Lily’s life was shattered again when her 55-year-old second husband took his own life at their home at Lansdowne House, Christchurch Road, Bournemouth.

That day, he had been due to attend a board meeting at the hotel but failed to turn up At the inquest, Lily was supported by Tony, who arrived wearing a heavy black overcoat with the belt tucked into his pockets.

When Lily was called to give evidence her comedian son, helped her to the stand and then again when she returned to her seat after giving evidence while sobbing into her handkerchief. Her evidence could barely be heard.

There was no evidence that Tony’s stepfather had been depressed but the coroner said: “It is my experience that these things happen.”

Lily remarried a third time. Her third husband, Harry Sennett, died in 1965 at a Bournemouth nursing home at the age of 75.

Within three years her famous son, who had comforted her, so touchingly, after the suicide of her second husband, took his own life in a room in Sydney, Australia.

At the time Lily was living at the Marsham Court Hotel in Bournemouth. In a note the comic left, Tony sent his love to his mother.

Within two years, Lily herself passed away at a Bournemouth nursing home, aged 79, in November 1969.