Viscount Gort

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Viscount Gort is a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created in 1816 for John Prendergast-Smyth. He had already been created Baron Kiltarton, of Gort in the County of Galway, in 1810, also in the Peerage of Ireland. Both titles were created with remainder to his nephew Charles Vereker, the son of his sister Juliana by her marriage with Thomas Vereker. Prendergast-Smyth was himself the nephew of Sir Thomas Prendergast, 2nd Baronet, and had succeeded to the Prendergast estates on the death of his uncle in 1760 (see Prendergast Baronets, of Gort). Lord Gort was succeeded according to the special remainder by his nephew, the second Viscount. He represented Limerick in the House of Commons and sat in the House of Lords as an Irish Representative Peer from 1824 to 1842. His son, the third Viscount, also succeeded his father as Member of Parliament for Limerick and was briefly an Irish Representative Peer in 1865. His great-grandson, the sixth Viscount, was a prominent soldier and served as Chief of the Imperial General Staff. In 1946 he was created Viscount Gort, of Hamsterley in the County of Durham, in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. However, he had no sons and on his death the viscountcy of 1946 became extinct while he was succeeded in the Irish titles by his younger brother, the seventh Viscount. On his death in 1975 the titles passed to his first cousin once removed, the eighth Viscount. He was the grandson of Hon. Foley Charles Prendergast Vereker, second son of the fourth Viscount. Lord Gort was notably a member of the House of Keys, the lower house of the Parliament of the Isle of Man. As of 2006 the titles are held by his son, the ninth Viscount. Like his father he lives on the Isle of Man.