Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice, 6th Marquess of Lansdowne

The 6th Marquess of Lansdowne.

Lieutenant-Colonel Henry William Edmund Petty-Fitzmaurice, 6th Marquess of Lansdowne DSO MVO (14 January 1872 – 5 March 1936), styled Earl of Kerry until 1927, was a British soldier and politician.

Background

Lansdowne was the son of Henry Petty-FitzMaurice, 5th Marquess of Lansdowne and his wife, Maud.

Military career

Lansdowne was originally commissioned into a volunteer battalion of the Oxfordshire Light Infantry, but transferred to the (regular) Grenadier Guards in 1895 and the Irish Guards on its formation in 1900, resigning in 1906 with the rank of Major. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) in 1900 for his service in the Boer War. He returned to the Army during the First World War, reaching the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel.

Political career

Lansdowne was Liberal Unionist Member of Parliament (MP) for West Derbyshire from 1908–18. He was a member of the Senate of the Irish Free State from 1922 to 1929, to which he was nominated by the executive council. He succeeded his father as Marquess of Lansdowne in 1927, with a seat in the British House of Lords, meaning that he had the unusual distinction of serving in the national legislatures of two different countries at the same time.

Family

Derreen House and Garden

He married Elizabeth Caroline Hope, on 16 February 1904 and they had five children:

• Katherine Evelyn Constance Petty-Fitzmaurice (1912–1995), married 1933 Edward Clive Bigham, 3rd Viscount Mersey (1906–1979) and had issue. She became 12th Baroness of Nairne after inheriting the title and Derreen House and Gardens (Lauragh, County Kerry, Ireland) from her brother Charles Hope Petty-Fitzmaurice, 7th Marquess of Lansdowne in 1944.
• Henry Maurice John Petty-Fitzmaurice, Earl of Kerry (1913–1933), died young
• Charles Hope Petty-Fitzmaurice, 7th Marquess of Lansdowne (1917–1944), killed in action in Italy.
• Lieutenant Lord Edward Norman Petty-Fitzmaurice (1922–1944), killed in action in Normandy.
• Lady Elizabeth Mary Petty-Fitzmaurice (1927–2016), married the late Major Charles William Lambton, grandson of George Lambton, 2nd Earl of Durham, and had issue.

Alva Vanderbilt once considered him a suitable match for her daughter Consuelo, but instead she married his maternal first cousin, the Duke of Marlborough in 1895.

He died in Marylebone, aged 64.

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by the Marquess of Lansdowne