(Jenico) Nicholas Dudley Preston, 17th Viscount Gormanston (born 19 November 1939), is an Anglo-Irish aristocrat and British hereditary peer, who sat in the House of Lords (as Baron Gormanston) until 1999.[1]
Lord Gormanston is the premier viscount in the Peerage of Ireland (title created 1478).[2]
Family background edit
The only son and heir of Captain the 16th Viscount Gormanston (1914–1940)[3] and Pamela Hanly, daughter of Captain Edward Hanly and Lady Marjorie Feilding (daughter of the 9th Earl of Denbigh), he succeeded to the family titles before his first birthday; the 16th Viscount (Captain Jenico Preston, King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry) was killed in action[4] during the Battle of France in 1940.[5]
His maternal great-grandfather was General Sir William Butler, of Bansha Castle, County Tipperary, and his great-grandmother was the celebrated Victorian painter, Elizabeth Thompson (later Lady Butler). The 14th Viscount Gormanston GCMG, a diplomat, was his paternal great-grandfather.
Education edit
A Roman Catholic like his forebears, Lord Gormanston attended the Benedictine school of Downside, Somerset. He is a connoisseur of art.
Gormanston Castle edit
The ancestral seat, Gormanston Castle in County Meath, Ireland, was sold to the Franciscan Order of Friars Minor (OFM) in 1947, becoming Gormanston College.[6]
Personal life edit
In 1974, Viscount Gormanston married, firstly, Eva-Antonie Landzwójczaka (1955–1984),[7] having two sons:[8]
- Hon. Jenico Francis Tara Preston, born 1974, heir apparent; commercial director,[9] British Fashion Council[10] then Future Olympia,[11] married 2015 Kelly Catherine Reade (born 1978), global communications director Jo Malone,[12] descended via her mother from the Marquises of Chaves,[13] by whom he has one son,
- (Jenico Bertram Nicholas) Alfred Preston, born 2016, heir in line;
- Hon. William Luke Preston, born 1976, married 2016 Victoria Christensen.[14]
Viscount Gormanston married, secondly, on 2 November 1997 Lucy Arabella Fox (born 1960), daughter of Edward Fox and Tracy Reed.[15]
Lord and Lady Gormanston live in Kensington, London.
See also edit
References edit
- ^ "Parliamentary career for Viscount Gormanston - MPs and Lords - UK Parliament". members.parliament.uk.
- ^ "Burke's Peerage & Baronetage".
- ^ www.npg.org.uk
- ^ www.parliament.uk
- ^ www.npg.org.uk
- ^ www.gormanstoncollege.ie
- ^ Polish Order of the Virtuti Militari
- ^ "Gormanston, Viscount (I, 1478)". www.cracroftspeerage.co.uk.
- ^ www.haberdashers.co.uk
- ^ www.fashionunited.uk
- ^ www.olympia.co.uk
- ^ www.diarydirectory.com
- ^ "Jo Malone London".
- ^ www.debretts.com
- ^ www.burkespeerage.com