Gerald FitzGerald, 5th Duke of Leinster

Gerald FitzGerald, 5th Duke of Leinster (16 August 1851 – 1 December 1893) was an Irish peer.

Biography

Leinster was born in Dublin, Ireland, the son of Charles FitzGerald, 4th Duke of Leinster and Lady Caroline Sutherland-Leveson-Gower.

He married Lady Hermione Wilhelmina Duncombe (30 March 1864 – Mentone, France, 19 March 1895), daughter of William Duncombe, 1st Earl of Feversham, in London on 17 January 1884. She died of tuberculosis at age 30.[1]

The Leinsters had the following children:

After the 5th Duke's death of typhoid fever, his stamp collection, which contained around ten thousand pieces, was bequeathed to the Dublin Museum of Science and Art. It included an Inverted Swan which he had discovered was inverted years after he took possession of it.[8]

Ancestry

Sources and references

  1. ↑ Angela Lambert, Unquiet Souls (Harper & Row, 1984), pages 64–65
  2. ↑ According to cemetery records, Desmond FitzGerald is buried in Calais Southern Cemetery, Plot A, Row Officers, Grave 5
  3. ↑ A photograph of Lord Desmond FitzGerald's grave can be seen at http://twgpp.org/information.php?id=3135263
  4. ↑ "Bomb Kills Duke's Heir: Lord Desmond Fitzgerald Was Experimenting with New Missile", The New York Times, 8 March 1916. The article states that FitzGerald "was experimenting with a new kind of bomb, when it exploded and a fragment struck him in the head. He was taken to a hospital and died an hour later". According to Rudyard Kipling (http://www.telelib.com/authors/K/KiplingRudyard/prose/IrishGuardsv1/1916salientsomme.html), FitzGerald "was so severely wounded that he died within an hour at the Millicent Sutherland (No. 9. Red Cross Hospital). Lieutenant T. E. G. Nugent was dangerously wounded at the same time through the liver, though he did not realise this at the time, and stayed coolly in charge of a party till help came. Lieutenant Hanbury, who was conducting the practice, was wounded in the hand and leg, and Father Lane-Fox lost an eye and some fingers. Lord Desmond FitzGerald was buried in the public cemetery at Calais on the 5th. As he himself had expressly desired, there was no formal parade, but the whole Battalion, of which he was next for the command, lined the road to his grave. His passion and his loyalty had been given to the Battalion without thought of self, and among many sad things few are sadder than to see the record of his unceasing activities and care since he had been second in command cut across by the curt announcement of his death. It was a little thing that his name had been at the time submitted for a well-deserved D.S.O."
  5. ↑ Peterkin, Tom; Elsworth, Catherine. A Californian claimant, an 'escape' from the trenches and the fight for a dukedom, Daily Telegraph, 28 February 2006. Accessed 12 June 2008.
  6. ↑ According to the Scottish War Memorials Project, Col. Lord Desmond's death occurred thusly: "Fr Lane Fox OSB was chaplain to the Irish Guards. He lost his right eye and hand in a bombing accident. He was standing by the Colonel Lord Desmond Fitzgerald watching a bombing practice. The Colonel said "Now Padre, you can have a try”. Fr Lane Fox took a bomb, pulled out the pin and then before the proper time the bomb exploded in his hand, destroying his right eye and hand and killing Lord Desmond Fitzgerald. He also served with the 2nd London Irish of 47th Division and was awarded the Military Cross and the French Medaille Militaire". See http://warmemscot.s4.bizhat.com/warmemscot-post-42305.html
  7. ↑ Angela Lambert, Unquiet Souls (Harper & Row, 1984), page 64
  8. ↑ Arthur Ronald Butler, The British Philatelic Federation Limited, 1990, page 18.

External links

Peerage of Ireland
Preceded by
Charles FitzGerald		 Duke of Leinster
1887–1893 		Succeeded by
Maurice FitzGerald