Terence Bourke, 10th Earl of Mayo

Terence Patrick Bourke, 10th Earl of Mayo (26 August 1929 - 22 September 2006) spent much of his life in England, before moving to Ireland and finally France. He was a pilot in the Fleet Air Arm, ran a printing company, attempted to be elected as an MP in England, ran a marble quarrying company, and finally bred deer in south-west France.

Biography

Bourke was born in Gosforth, Northumbria. His father was the Honorable Bryan Longley Bourke, the 3rd son of Walter Longley Bourke, 8th Earl of Mayo. Bourke was educated at St. Aubyns Preparatory School in Rottingdean before attending the Dartmouth Royal Naval College as a cadet. He joined the Fleet Air Arm, and flew Sea Hawks in the Suez Crisis in 1956. He then flew aerobatics with No. 703 Naval Air Squadron. He left the Royal Navy on medical grounds in 1959.

He set up a printing company in Gosport in Hampshire, and became active in local politics, serving as a Conservative councillor from 1961 to 1964. He inherited his titles from his uncle [[Ulick Henry Bourke, 9th Earl of Mayo, in 1962. However, his Irish peerages (Earl of Mayo, Viscount Mayo of Monycrower and Lord Naas) only entitled him to sit in the Irish House of Lords, which was abolished under the Act of Union 1800]]. He stood for Parliament as a Liberal candidate in South Dorset in the 1964 general election, but lost heavily to the Conservative candidate.

In 1965, he moved to County Galway in the Republic of Ireland, where he became managing director of the Irish Marble Company, which quarries Connemara marble. He also founded the Galway flying club (leading to the creation of Galway airport).

He married twice. He was first married to Margaret Jane Robinson Harrison in 1952. They had three sons, but were divorced in 1987. He was remarried to Sally Anne Matthews, in 1987. With his second wife and their son, he moved to a chateau in the south-west of France, where he bred deer.

Lord Mayo was buried at Mondebat in the French département of Gers.

He was succeeded to his titles by his eldest son, Charles Bourke, 11th Earl of Mayo.

References

• Obituary, The Daily Telegraph, 27 October 2006