Denis Anthony Brian Butler, 9th Earl of Lanesborough (28 October 1918 – 21 December 1998), was an Anglo-Irish soldier, peer, and landowner. As well as Earl of Lanesborough, he was also 10th Viscount Lanesborough and 12th Baron Newtown-Butler.

Life

At the time of Lanesborough's birth, the family's Irish seat was Lanesborough Lodge, located on the Lanesborough estate at Quivvy, a

townland A townland ( ga, baile fearainn; Ulster-Scots: ''toonlann'') is a small geographical division of land, historically and currently used in Ireland and in the Western Isles in Scotland, typically covering . The townland system is of Gaelic orig ...

just outside

Belturbet Belturbet (; ) is a town in County Cavan, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It lies on the N3 road (Ireland), N3 road, around north of Cavan town and from Dublin. It is also located around south of the border with Northern Ireland, between the c ...

, in

County Cavan County Cavan ( ; gle, Contae an Chabháin) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster and is part of the Border Region. It is named after the town of Cavan and is base ...

. The lodge and demesne were located on a small peninsula on the shores of Upper Lough Erne, directly opposite

County Fermanagh County Fermanagh ( ; ) is one of the thirty-two counties of Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the six counties of Northern Ireland. The county covers an area of 1,691 km2 (653 sq mi) and has a population of 61,805 ...

. Lanesborough Lodge was burned to the ground in the early 1920s, and the Butler family sold the estate shortly afterwards. The young Lanesborough was educated at Stowe School. He was commissioned into the

Leicestershire Yeomanry The Leicestershire Yeomanry (Prince Albert's Own) was a yeomanry regiment of the British Army, first raised in 1794 and again in 1803, which provided cavalry and mounted infantry in the Second Boer War and the First World War and provided two fie ...

and saw active service in the Second World War, rising to the rank of major.''

Burke's Peerage Burke's Peerage Limited is a British genealogical publisher founded in 1826, when the Irish genealogist John Burke began releasing books devoted to the ancestry and heraldry of the peerage, baronetage, knightage and landed gentry of Great ...

'', 1970, page 1533 In 1950, Lanesborough inherited from his father, the 8th Earl, Swithland Hall and an estate of . However, the death duties owed on the inheritance resulted in the sale of most of the estate. He was appointed as a

Justice of the Peace A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...

for Leicestershire and in 1962 as a Deputy Lieutenant of the county. Lord Lanesborough's hobby was 600-foot model railways, a replica of the Fort William-to-Carlisle line, with 300 pieces of rolling stocks which had to be dismantled with to reduce death duties. Lanesborough eventually applied to

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...

for employment driving trains, which was declined; however, he was successful with his application to sell cars. After the death of his mother, The

Dowager A dowager is a widow or widower who holds a title or property—a "dower"—derived from her or his deceased spouse. As an adjective, ''dowager'' usually appears in association with monarchy, monarchical and aristocracy, aristocratic Title#Aristocr ...

Countess of Lanesborough, he sold Swithland Hall and moved to Kegworth Lodge before health reasons resulted in his moving to

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

Personal life

On 20 December 1939, as Lord Newtown-Butler, Lanesborough married Bettyne Ione Everard, a daughter of Sir William Lindsay Everard, and they had two daughters: Georgina Ione Butler (15 August 1941 – 28 December 1947) and

Lady The word ''lady'' is a term for a girl or woman, with various connotations. Once used to describe only women of a high social class or status, the equivalent of lord, now it may refer to any adult woman, as gentleman can be used for men. Inform ...

Denyne Butler (born 23 February 1945). In 1950, Lanesborough divorced his first wife, and in 1951 he organised a ball for the Canadian actress

Yvonne de Carlo Margaret Yvonne Middleton (September 1, 1922January 8, 2007), known professionally as Yvonne De Carlo, was a Canadian-American actress, dancer and singer. She became a Hollywood film star in the 1940s and 1950s, made several recordings, and late ...

. In 1995, he married Patricia Julia Meston, daughter of F. W. Meston M.C., who had been his secretary for forty-five years. Lanesborough died on 27 December 1998 and his wife Patrica, Countess of Lanesborough, died on 5 March 2015.

Arms

References

External links

"Denis Anthony Brian Butler, 9th Earl of Lanesborough (1918-1998), Landowner"

National Portrait Gallery, London The National Portrait Gallery (NPG) is an art gallery in London housing a collection of portraits of historically important and famous British people. It was arguably the first national public gallery dedicated to portraits in the world when it ...

1918 births 1998 deaths

Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ; postal abbreviation Leics.) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East Midlands, England. The county borders Nottinghamshire to the north, Lincolnshire to the north-east, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire t ...

People from the Borough of Charnwood British people of Irish descent People educated at Stowe School English landowners British landowners 20th-century British people 9 20th-century British businesspeople {{Ireland-earl-stub