William Gibson, 2nd Baron Ashbourne (16 December 1868 – 21 January 1942) was born at 20 Upper Pembroke Street, Dublin, the son of Edward Gibson, 1st Baron Ashbourne and Frances Maria Adelaide Colles, grand-daughter of Abraham Colles and niece of John Dawson Mayne.
He was educated at Harrow School, Trinity College, Dublin and Merton College, Oxford University. He succeeded to the title of 2nd Baron Ashbourne, of Ashbourne, co. Meath in 1913 and held the office of Justice of the Peace for County Dublin and County Meath. He was a founder of the Roger Bacon Society and Vice-President of the Irish Literary Society. he was the author of The Abbe de Lammenais and the Liberal Catholic Movement in France and was a contributor to The Dublin and other reviews. In 1896, he married Marianne de Monbrison (d.1953), daughter of Henri Roger Conquerré de Monbrison of Paris, a French Protestant from the Languedoc. Marianne's sister was married to Count Edmond de Poutales. Lord and Lady Ashbourne left no children.
Gibson was an enthusiastic cultural nationalist and converted to Catholicism. He insisted in speaking only Irish, even in the House of Lords, and rather than speak English to those who didn't speak Irish, the only other language he would converse in was French. He adopted Irish dress and was a member of the Conradh na Gaeilge.[1]
His father had left in his will £100,000 (roughly £7 million at today's rate), and though 'Willie' was the eldest son and heir, because of his nationalist leanings, he was left with only a 'paltry' £800, the bulk having been passed to his younger brother, Edward Gibson (1873–1928), father of the 3rd Baron Ashbourne.[2]
Mary Leslie, of the Baronets Leslie of Glaslough said of Lord Ashbourne:
For all his Irishness, he lived near Dorking in Surrey, before he and his wife removed to France. They lived at Compagnie where he died. On the back of a letter that he wrote to his wife in 1937, he wrote the opening lines of a poem:
The Abbe de Lamennais and the liberal Catholic movement in France, 1896.[3]
Peerage of the United Kingdom | ||
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Preceded by Edward Gibson |
Baron Ashbourne 1913–1942 |
Succeeded by Edward Russell Gibson |