John de Courcy, 35th

Baron Kingsale Baron Kingsale is a title of the premier baron in the Peerage of Ireland. The feudal barony dates to at least the thirteenth century. The first peerage creation was by writ. Name and precedence In the early times the name was "Kinsale" or " ...

(27 January 1941 – 15 September 2005), was an

Anglo-Irish Anglo-Irish people () denotes an ethnic, social and religious grouping who are mostly the descendants and successors of the English Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland. They mostly belong to the Anglican Church of Ireland, which was the establis ...

nobleman who was the Premier Baron of

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

Early life and education

He succeeded his grandfather to the title in 1969, his father,

Lieutenant-Commander Lieutenant commander (also hyphenated lieutenant-commander and abbreviated Lt Cdr, LtCdr. or LCDR) is a commissioned officer rank in many navies. The rank is superior to a lieutenant and subordinate to a commander. The corresponding rank i ...

The

Honourable ''The Honourable'' (British English) or ''The Honorable'' (American English; see spelling differences) (abbreviation: ''Hon.'', ''Hon'ble'', or variations) is an honorific style that is used as a prefix before the names or titles of certain ...

Michael Robert Rancé de Courcy (1907-1940), RN, having been killed in action in 1940. His mother, Glory Elizabeth, was a daughter of Engr-Cdr Alfred Claremont Evans, R.N., whose family owned a lucrative lanolin oil business; this allowed for Lord Kingsale's education at

Stowe School , motto_translation = I stand firm and I stand first , established = , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent school, day & boarding , religion = Church of England , president = , head_label = Headmaster ...

and the Universities of Paris and

Salzburg Salzburg (, ; literally "Salt-Castle"; bar, Soizbuag, label=Bavarian language, Austro-Bavarian) is the List of cities and towns in Austria, fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020, it had a population of 156,872. The town is on the site of the ...

, but the business later collapsed. He commented of his education- and public-school education in general- "it's no training for making a living", and observed "my education equipped me for an upper-class life of leisure, not working for a living. I wish I had been educated like my nephews who went to comprehensive school and have learnt about metalwork and carpentry. I've only learnt about such things in my early forties." He took a sanguine attitude to his family's lack of money and "long downhill struggle", noting that his great-grandfather "went out to Assam in India and succeeded in being the only man there not to make money out of tea". Although his father inherited half a million pounds, according to his son he left debts of £30,000.

Career

Lord Kingsale was a

2nd Lieutenant Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces, comparable to NATO OF-1 rank. Australia The rank of second lieutenant existed in the military forces of the Australian colonies and Australian Army until ...

in the

Irish Guards ("Who Shall Separate s") , colors = , identification_symbol_2 Saffron (pipes), identification_symbol_2_label = Tartan , identification_symbol = , identification_symbol_label = Tactical Recognition F ...

1962–1965, after which he resigned due to being unable to keep himself on his limited private income. He was famous for his subsequent varied career, at various times working as a film extra (including on ''

Cleopatra Cleopatra VII Philopator ( grc-gre, Κλεοπάτρα Φιλοπάτωρ}, "Cleopatra the father-beloved"; 69 BC10 August 30 BC) was Queen of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt from 51 to 30 BC, and its last active ruler.She was also a ...

'' starring

Elizabeth Taylor Dame Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor (February 27, 1932 – March 23, 2011) was a British-American actress. She began her career as a child actress in the early 1940s and was one of the most popular stars of classical Hollywood cinema in the 1950s. ...

), a lorry driver in the

West Midlands West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

, safari keeper on the estate of the

Duke of Bedford Duke of Bedford (named after Bedford, England) is a title that has been created six times (for five distinct people) in the Peerage of England. The first and second creations came in 1414 and 1433 respectively, in favour of Henry IV's third so ...

, and bingo caller in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

. At one point he attempted publishing with his cousin,

Kenneth de Courcy Kenneth Hugh de Courcy () was an editor of the British subscription newsletter ''Intelligence Digest'', as well as a confidant of British King Edward VIII. In the 1940s, de Courcy was part of a scheme dreamed up by some conservative members of the ...

, and was a director of the off-licence chain Bin Ends.The Nouveau Pauvres: a guide to downward nobility, Nicholas Monson and Debra Scott, Quartet Books, 1984, p. 29 In the 1980s he ran a dating service in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

— which was successful although he never managed himself to marry, although he made repeated attempts to acquire a wife. He was director of several companies,

Chairman The chairperson, also chairman, chairwoman or chair, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the grou ...

of the National Association for Service to the Realm (which advocated for the return of national service) from 1979, and

Patron Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows on another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings, popes, and the wealthy have provided to artists su ...

of L'Orchestre du Monde from 1988. Lord Kingsale died in sheltered housing in Somerset, where he had lived since 1994, on 15 September 2005 aged 64. He was succeeded in his peerages by a descendant of the 20th Baron, Nevinson Mark de Courcy, who was born on 11 May 1958.

Ancestry

References

*
The Independent:The Sorry Tale of an Aristocrat on his Uppers

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kingsale, John de Courcy, 35th Baron 1941 births 2005 deaths University of Paris alumni Barons in the Peerage of Ireland Irish Guards officers People educated at Stowe School University of Salzburg alumni