Desmond John Villiers FitzGerald, 29th Knight of Glin (13 July 1937 – 14 September 2011)
rte.ie; accessed 1 May 2016.
/ref> was an Irish author,

hereditary knight A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the Gr ...

,Profile
, newyorksocialdiary.com; accessed 1 May 2016. and president of the

Irish Georgian Society The Irish Georgian Society is an architectural heritage and preservation organisation which promotes and aims to encourage an interest in the conservation of distinguished examples of architecture and the allied arts of all periods across Ire ...

Career

The son of

Desmond FitzGerald, 28th Knight of Glin Desmond Wyndham Otho FitzGerald, 28th Knight of Glin (20 January 1901 – 2 April 1949)''England & Wales, National Probate Calendar'' (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1966, 1973-1995. was an Anglo-Irish hereditary knighthood, heredita ...

(1901–1949), and Veronica Villiers (daughter of

Ernest Villiers Ernest Amherst Villiers (14 November 1863 – 26 September 1923), was a British clergyman and Liberal politician. Villiers was the son of Reverend Charles Villiers of Croft, Yorkshire, and his wife Florence Mary (née Tyssen-Amherst). His grea ...

M.P. A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members ofte ...

), FitzGerald was born in

Paddington Paddington is an area within the City of Westminster, in Central London. First a medieval parish then a metropolitan borough, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965. Three important landmarks of the district are Padd ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

into an old

Hiberno-Norman From the 12th century onwards, a group of Normans invaded and settled in Gaelic Ireland. These settlers later became known as Norman Irish or Hiberno-Normans. They originated mainly among Cambro-Norman families in Wales and Anglo-Normans fro ...

aristocratic Aristocracy (, ) is a form of government that places strength in the hands of a small, privileged ruling class, the aristocrats. The term derives from the el, αριστοκρατία (), meaning 'rule of the best'. At the time of the word' ...

family of

County Limerick "Remember Limerick" , image_map = Island_of_Ireland_location_map_Limerick.svg , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Republic of Ireland, Ireland , subdivision_type1 = Provinces of Ireland, Province , subd ...

Obituary
independent.co.uk; accessed 1 May 2016. and was educated at the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks among the top thr ...

and

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...

. He worked at the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

in London, in the furniture department. He later returned to

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...

, and became active in conservation issues, becoming involved with the

. He was appointed its president in 1991. He has also represented the

Christie's Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, at Rockefeller Center in New York City and at Alexandra House in Hong Kong. It is owned by Groupe Artémi ...

art auctioneers in Ireland. He died in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 ...

in 2011.

Family

He first married

Loulou de la Falaise Louise Vava Lucia Henriette Le Bailly de La Falaise (; 4 May 1947 – 5 November 2011), known as Loulou de la Falaise, was an English fashion muse and accessory and jewellery designer associated with Yves Saint Laurent. Author Judith Thurma ...

. In 1970, he married his second wife, Olda Ann Willes, daughter of

Major Major ( commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicato ...

Thomas and Georgina Willes. His three daughters are: landscape designer

Catherine Katherine, also spelled Catherine, and other variations are feminine names. They are popular in Christian countries because of their derivation from the name of one of the first Christian saints, Catherine of Alexandria. In the early Christ ...

(who married actor Dominic West in 2010 and was previously married to Ned Lambton), Nesta, and Honor. At the time of his death, he had four grandchildren – Dora, Senan, Francis, and Rose, as well as a step-granddaughter, Martha.

Title

FitzGerald was the last

Black Knight The black knight is a literary stock character who masks his identity and that of his liege by not displaying heraldry. Black knights are usually portrayed as villainous figures who use this anonymity for misdeeds. They are often contrasted with t ...

; as he had no sons and the title cannot be passed to a daughter, the title became dormant with his death.Interview
independent.ie; accessed 1 May 2016. A similar title, the

Knight of Kerry Knight of Kerry (), also called The Green Knight, is one of three Hiberno-Norman hereditary knighthoods, all of which existed in Ireland since feudal times. The other two were The White Knight (surname fixed as Fitzgibbon), being dormant sinc ...

, is held by his distant cousins.

Glin Castle

FitzGerald divided his time between

Glin Castle Glin Castle is a Georgian country house and national heritage site located along the River Shannon in Glin, County Limerick, Ireland. The castle has belonged to the FitzMaurice/FitzGerald family for over 700 years and was the seat of the Kn ...

, Glin,

, which he inherited as a child, and his

townhouse A townhouse, townhome, town house, or town home, is a type of terraced housing. A modern townhouse is often one with a small footprint on multiple floors. In a different British usage, the term originally referred to any type of city residence ...

. He devoted his life to restoring the belongings of the castle, which had been sold due to previous financial difficulties, and rebuilding and finishing the remaining parts of the estate including the Georgian house that had remained incomplete for centuries.

Ancestry

References

Sources

* Book about Desmond FitzGerald: ''The Last Knight: A Tribute to Desmond Fitzgerald, 29th Knight of Glin'' by Robert O'Byrne, Lilliput Press, September 2013;.

Publications

* FitzGerald, Desmond, and James Peill, with photography by James Fennell. ''The Irish Country House'', New York, Vendome Press, 2010 * FitzGerald, Desmond, and James Peill. ''Irish Furniture'', New Haven, Yale University Press, 2007

External links

Bibliography by Knight of Glin
amazon.ca; accessed 1 May 2016.
''Desmond Fitzgerald profile''
limerickcity.ie; accessed 1 May 2016.
The Knight of Glin Papers, University of Limerick, accessed 14 August 2016.
(Ireland) {{DEFAULTSORT:Fitzgerald, Desmond Irish knights Desmond 1937 births 2011 deaths Irish architectural historians Writers from County Limerick University of British Columbia alumni Harvard University alumni People associated with the Victoria and Albert Museum