Peter Wentworth-Fitzwilliam, 8th Earl Fitzwilliam

Peter Wentworth-Fitzwilliam, 8th Earl Fitzwilliam
Born William Henry Lawrence Peter Wentworth-Fitzwilliam
(1910-12-31)31 December 1910
Wentworth, Yorkshire, England
Died 13 May 1948(1948-05-13) (aged 37)
France
Spouse(s) Olive Dorothea Plunket
Children Lady Juliet Tadgell
Parent(s) William Wentworth-Fitzwilliam, 7th Earl Fitzwilliam
Lady Maud Dundas

William Henry Lawrence Peter Wentworth-Fitzwilliam, 8th Earl Fitzwilliam, DSO (31 December 1910 – 13 May 1948), styled Viscount Milton before 1943, was a British soldier, nobleman, and aristocrat.

Early life

The fifth child and only son of the 7th Earl Fitzwilliam, he was born at the family's seat of Wentworth Woodhouse. As a former Cadet with the Eton College Contingent (June Division) Officer Training Corps he was commissioned Second lieutenant into the Royal Scots Greys (Supplementary Reserve of Officers) on 20 July 1929.[1]

Second world war

During the Second World War he served with distinction in the Commandos and later for the Special Operations Executive, gaining a Distinguished Service Order.

Family life

He was married, on 19 April 1933, to Olive Dorothea "Obby" Plunket (d. 1975) (the daughter of Benjamin Plunket, Bishop of Tuam, Killala and Achonry, and thereby granddaughter of the 4th Baron Plunket, Archbishop of Dublin), with whom he had one daughter Lady Anne Juliet Dorothea Maud Wentworth-Fitzwilliam was born on 24 January 1935.

In Lord Fitzwilliam's later years the marriage to Obby became strained. At the time of his death, he was seeking a divorce in order to marry someone else.[2] In 1943 he inherited the Earldom from his father.

From 1946 he was romantically linked with the widowed Kathleen Cavendish, Marchioness of Hartington, sister of future U.S. President John F. Kennedy. She was killed with Fitzwilliam in an airplane crash, although the nature of their relationship was obscured in the newspaper accounts at the time.[2]

Death

He died in France in a plane crash on 13 May 1948. At his death the title passed to his second cousin once removed, Eric Wentworth-Fitzwilliam, and his fortune, then estimated at 45 million pounds, which included half of the Wentworth Woodhouse estate, the Coolattin estate in County Wicklow, Ireland, and a considerable part of the Fitzwilliam art collection, passed to his daughter, the present Lady Juliet Tadgell.

Ancestry

References

  1. ↑ "No. 33518". The London Gazette. 19 July 1929. p. 4767.
  2. 1 2 Storey, Kate (27 April 2016). "Inside the Scandalous Life of JFK's Sister, Kick Kennedy". Esquire. Hearst Communications. Retrieved 27 April 2016.
Peerage of Ireland
Preceded by
William Wentworth-Fitzwilliam		 Earl Fitzwilliam
1943–1948 		Succeeded by
Eric Wentworth-Fitzwilliam
Peerage of Great Britain
Preceded by
William Wentworth-Fitzwilliam		 Earl Fitzwilliam
1943–1948 		Succeeded by
Eric Wentworth-Fitzwilliam

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