Patrick Plunket, 7th Baron Plunket

Patrick Terence William Span Plunket, 7th Baron Plunket MVO (8 September 1923-1975) was Equerry to Queen Elizabeth II and Deputy Master of the Household of the Royal Household (1954-1975). ^[1]

Plunket's mother, Dorothé Mabel Lewis, was the illegitimate daughter of the actress Fannie Ward and 7th Marquess of Londonderry.^[2] Briefly married to Capt. Jack Barnato, who died during World War I, she married as her second husband Terence Plunket, 6th Baron Plunket.

When his parents were killed in an air accident in 1938, Plunket succeeded to the family peerage (created in 1827). He and his brothers were then raised by an aunt, the Hon. Helen Rhodes, and her husband. He was educated at Eton College and joined the Irish Guards.

Plunket was temporary Equerry to King George VI and then to Queen Elizabeth II (1948-1954) as a captain. On 8 September 1957 he was promoted to major and to lieutenant-colonel 8 April 1969.

Lord Plunket was Trustee of the Wallace Collection and of the National Art Collection Fund.

Unmarried, Lord Plunket died of cancer in 1975. The Queen unusually attended both his funeral at the Chapel Royal and his memorial service at the Guards’ Chapel.^[3] He is buried in the Royal Family's private burial ground at Frogmore in Windsor Park. The Queen had a memorial built for him^[4] in Valley Gardens, Windsor Great Park (a little pavilion with four columns) at the top of the valley.

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