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Lionel Dawson-Damer, 6th Earl of Portarlington

Lionel Arthur Henry Seymour Dawson-Damer, 6th Earl of Portarlington (26 August 1883 – 4 July 1959) was an Anglo-Irish peer and soldier.

The Right Honourable
The Earl of Portarlington
Photograph of Lord Portarlington at the Coronation of King George V, 1911[1]
Born
Lionel Arthur Henry Seymour Dawson-Damer

(1883-08-26)26 August 1883
Died7 April 1959(1959-04-07) (aged 75)
EducationEton College
Spouse
Winnifreda Yuill
​
​
(m. 1907; died 1959)​
Children1
Parent(s)George Dawson-Damer, 5th Earl of Portarlington
Emma Andalusia Frere Kennedy

Early life

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Dawson-Damer was born on 26 August 1883. He was the son of George Dawson-Damer, 5th Earl of Portarlington and Emma Andalusia Frere Kennedy.[2] His younger siblings were Lady Aline Dawson-Damer (wife of Lt.-Col. Valentine Vivian), Lady Christian Dawson-Damer (wife of Capt. Hon. Fergus Bowes-Lyon,[a] and Capt. William Frederick Martin), Lt. George Seymour Dawson-Damer (who was killed in action during World War I), Lady Moyra Dawson-Damer (wife of James Brinsley Peter FitzGerald, a grandson of Sir Peter FitzGerald, 19th Knight of Kerry).[4] After his father's death, his mother married Henry Portman, 3rd Viscount Portman in September 1901.[5][6] From this marriage, he had a younger half-sister, Hon. Selina Luisa Portman.[4]

His paternal grandparents were Lionel Dawson-Damer, 4th Earl of Portarlington and Hon. Harriet Lydia Montagu (eldest daughter and co-heiress of Gen. Henry Montagu, 6th Baron Rokeby). His mother was the only daughter of Lord Nigel Kennedy (a younger son of Archibald Kennedy, Earl of Cassilis and brother to Archibald Kennedy, 2nd Marquess of Ailsa) and Catherine Anne May.[4][2]

He was educated at Eton College.[4]

Career

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Upon the death of his father on 31 August 1900 at the Royal Palace Hotel at Ostend,[7] he succeeded as the 6th Earl of Portarlington, in the Peerage of Ireland, as well as the 7th Lord Dawson and the 7th Viscount Carlow. He served as one of the King's train-bearers at the Coronation of Edward VII and Alexandra at Westminster Abbey, London, on 9 August 1902.[8][9]

Lord Portarlington was commissioned a lieutenant in the 4th (Militia) Battalion, the Prince of Wales's Leinster Regiment (Royal Canadians) on 21 December 1901. He transferred to the regular army with the appointment as second lieutenant in the Irish Guards on 28 January 1903,[10] and served in the regiment between 1903 and 1905. A Lieutenant during World War I, he fought with the 4th Battalion, Leinster Regiment.[4]

During the 1920s, Lord Portarlington and his wife were among the best-known personalities in London society. He was "celebrated for his ready wit and his perpetual good humour and high spirits."[11]

Emo Park

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Emo Court (c. 1900–1920)

Upon inheriting the earldom, Portarlington also inherited Emo Court, a large neo-classical mansion near the village of Emo in County Laois, Ireland designed by the architect James Gandon in 1790 for John Dawson, 1st Earl of Portarlington. While construction began in the 1790s, work was not completed until the 1860s by the 3rd Earl of Portarlington.[12]

After the outbreak of World War I in 1914, and, two years later, the Easter Rising and subsequent War of Independence, Lord Portarlington, like many Protestants and most of the Anglo-Irish nobility and gentry, left what would become the Irish Free State permanently, and the house was shut up. In 1920, the estate, which extended over nearly 20 square miles (52 km2), was sold to the Irish Land Commission.[12] The house remained unoccupied, while most of the land was distributed to local farmers. Lord Portarlington then made his home at Came House, the former seat of the Damer family in Dorsetshire.[13][14]

Personal life

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On 2 February 1907, Lord Portarlington married the American, Winnifreda Yuill (1886–1975), a daughter of George Skelton Yuill of New Orleans, at the Holy Trinity Church, Sloane Street in London.[15][16] Before they married, she was in London "under the chaperonage of her relative and fellow countrywoman, Lady Hay, widow of Sir Robert Hay, of Smithfield, and sister of the late William Butler Duncan, of 1 Fifth Avenue, New York."[13][17] Together, they were the parents of:[4]

He died on 4 July 1959, at age 75. As his eldest son predeceased him, he was succeeded in his titles by his grandson, George. His widow, the dowager Countess of Portarlington, died in 1975.[4]

Descendants

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Through his son George, he was a grandfather of George Lionel Yuill Seymour Dawson-Damer (b. 1938), who served as a Page of Honour to Queen Elizabeth II before succeeding his grandfather as the 7th Earl of Portarlington, and Hon. Lionel John Charles Seymour Dawson-Damer (1940–2000), who died in a motor-racing accident at Goodwood House.[4]

Notes

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  1. ^ Lord Portarlington's brother-in-law, Capt. Hon. Fergus Bowes-Lyon, was the older brother of Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (who later became the queen consort of King George VI) and maternal uncle of Elizabeth II. Capt. Bowes-Lyon was killed during the Battle of the Hohenzollern Redoubt in the Battle of Loos during World War I.[3]

References

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  1. ^ "Lionel Arthur Henry Seymour Dawson-Damer, 6th Earl of Portarlington (1883-1959)". lafayette.org.uk. Retrieved 14 February 2024.
  2. ^ a b "DEATH OF THE EARL OF PORTARLINGTON". Birmingham Daily Post. 3 Sep 1900. Retrieved 14 February 2024.
  3. ^ "Captain Fergus Bowes-Lyon, 8th Black Watch".
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Mosley, Charles, editor. Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes. Wilmington, Delaware: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003, volume 3, page 3181 and volume 2, page 3190.
  5. ^ Edmund Lodge, compiler, The Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire, 80th edition (London, U.K.: Kelly's Directories Ltd, 1911), page 148.
  6. ^ "Peeress's Bequest of Jewels". Liverpool Daily Post. 8 Jul 1929. Retrieved 14 February 2024.
  7. ^ "DEATH OF THE EARL OF PORTARLINGTON". Liverpool Mercury. 1 Sep 1900. Retrieved 14 February 2024.
  8. ^ NB (16 August 1902). Black & White. p. 237. portrait as one of the King's train-bearers at coronation.
  9. ^ "The Earl of Portarlington". The Ormskirk Advertiser. 3 Sep 1908. Retrieved 14 February 2024.
  10. ^ "No. 27519". The London Gazette. 27 January 1903. p. 531.
  11. ^ "Mary Evans The Earl of Portarlington by Olive Snell 11677209". www.maryevans.com. Retrieved 14 February 2024.
  12. ^ a b "Emo Court - A Resource Book" (PDF). emocourt.net. Office of Public Works. 2009. Retrieved 4 November 2018.
  13. ^ a b "To Sell Irish Estate". The Washington Post. 15 Nov 1920. p. 6. Retrieved 14 February 2024.
  14. ^ "Came House". www.thedicamillo.com. DiCamillo. Retrieved 14 February 2024.
  15. ^ "THIS MORNING'S GOSSIP". Daily Mirror. 2 Feb 1907. Retrieved 14 February 2024.
  16. ^ Edis, Olive; Legat, Katharine (1907). "Winnafreda (née Yuill), Countess of Portarlington". National Portrait Gallery, London.
  17. ^ "DOWAGER LADY HAY DEAD.; Widow of Sir Robert Hay, Bart., and Sister of William Butler Duncan". The New York Times. 2 February 1910. Retrieved 14 February 2024.
  18. ^ "Air Commodore George Lionel Seymour Dawson-Damer | War Casualty Details 2430774". www.cwgc.org. CWGC. Retrieved 14 February 2024.
  19. ^ "PEGGY CAMBIE BRIDE OF VISCOUNT CARLOW; Daughter of Late Banker Wed in London Church to the Son of Earl of Portarlington". The New York Times. 8 January 1937. Retrieved 14 February 2024.
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Peerage of Ireland
Preceded by Earl of Portarlington
1900–1959 		Succeeded by
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