Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

Francis Charles Adelbert Henry Needham, 4th Earl of Kilmorey (26 November 1883 – 11 January 1961), styled Viscount Newry until 1915, was a

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

officer and

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 State rel ...

peer. In 1916 he was appointed as an

Irish representative peer This is a list of representative peers elected from the Peerage of Ireland to sit in the British House of Lords after the Kingdom of Ireland was brought into union with the Kingdom of Great Britain. No new members were added to the House after ...

, to sit in the

House of Lords The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...

for life representing Ireland. No more such peers were appointed after the independence of the

Irish Free State The Irish Free State (6 December 192229 December 1937), also known by its Irish-language, Irish name ( , ), was a State (polity), state established in December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921. The treaty ended the three-ye ...

in 1922, and when Kilmorey died in 1961 he was the last such surviving peer.

Background

Kilmorey was the eldest son of

Francis Needham, 3rd Earl of Kilmorey Francis Charles Needham, 3rd Earl of Kilmorey (2 August 1842 – 28 July 1915), styled Viscount Newry from 1851 to 1880, was an Anglo-Irish peer and Conservative Member of Parliament. Background and education Kilmorey was the eldest son of ...

, and Ellen Constance Baldock. He was educated at

Eton College Eton College ( ) is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school providing boarding school, boarding education for boys aged 13–18, in the small town of Eton, Berkshire, Eton, in Berkshire, in the United Kingdom. It has educated Prime Mini ...

and the

Royal Military College, Sandhurst The Royal Military College (RMC) was a United Kingdom, British military academy for training infantry and cavalry Officer (armed forces), officers of the British Army, British and British Indian Army, Indian Armies. It was founded in 1801 at Gre ...

. He was from a prominent

Ulster Ulster (; or ; or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional or historic provinces of Ireland, Irish provinces. It is made up of nine Counties of Ireland, counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kingdom); t ...

family with roots in

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shrop ...

Military career

He was commissioned into the 3rd (

Militia A militia ( ) is a military or paramilitary force that comprises civilian members, as opposed to a professional standing army of regular, full-time military personnel. Militias may be raised in times of need to support regular troops or se ...

) Battalion,

King's Shropshire Light Infantry The King's Shropshire Light Infantry (KSLI) was a light infantry regiment of the British Army, formed in the Childers Reforms of 1881, but with antecedents dating back to 1755. It served in the Second Boer War, World War I, World War II and Korea ...

in 1901, and in March 1902 transferred to the

1st Life Guards The 1st Regiment of Life Guards was a cavalry regiment in the British Army, part of the Household Cavalry. It was formed in 1788 by the union of the 1st Troop of Horse Guards and 1st Troop of Horse Grenadier Guards. In 1922, it was amalgamate ...

as a Second Lieutenant. He was promoted Lieutenant again in 1904 and

in 1907. He resigned his commission in 1911. He returned to the Army during the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, reaching the rank of

Major Major most commonly refers to: * Major (rank), a military rank * Academic major, an academic discipline to which an undergraduate student formally commits * People named Major, including given names, surnames, nicknames * Major and minor in musi ...

. In 1930 he was appointed Captain in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve in which rank from 1930 to his retirement in 1946 he was commanding officer of the Ulster Division of the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve based in HMS Caroline in Belfast Harbour (now a museum). He was appointed an Officer of the Military Division of the

Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

in the

1936 Birthday Honours The King's Birthday Honours 1936 were appointments in many of the Commonwealth realms of King Edward VIII to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. The appointments were made to celebrate the ...

Political career

He also served as High Sheriff of

County Down County Down () is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It covers an area of and has a population of 552,261. It borders County Antrim to the ...

in 1913, as

Lord Lieutenant of County Down This is a list of ''Lord Lieutenant, lords lieutenants of County Down''. There were lieutenants of counties in Ireland until the reign of James II of England, James II, when they were renamed governors. The office of Lord Lieutenant was recreate ...

from 1949 to 1959 and as

Vice-Admiral of Ulster This is a list of the vice-admirals of Ulster, a province in the north of Ireland. Prior to 1585, the whole of Ireland was served by a single vice-admiral, namely: the 3rd Earl of Sussex (1558–1565); the 11th Earl of Kildare (1564–1573); an ...

from 1937 to 1961. From 1916 until his death, Kilmorey sat in the

as an

, becoming the last surviving Irish representative Peer. In 1936 he was admitted to the

Privy Council of Northern Ireland The Privy Council of Northern Ireland is a dormant privy council formerly advising the Governor of Northern Ireland in his role as viceroy of the British Crown, in particular in the exercise of the monarch's prerogative powers. The council wa ...

Family

Lord Kilmorey married Lady Norah Frances Hastings, daughter of Warner Francis John Plantagenet Hastings, 15th Earl of Huntingdon, in 1920. They had two daughters. He died in January 1961, aged 77, at the family seat of Mourne Park. He was succeeded in his titles by his nephew

Patrick Patrick may refer to: *Patrick (given name), list of people and fictional characters with this name * Patrick (surname), list of people with this name People *Saint Patrick (c. 385–c. 461), Christian saint * Gilla Pátraic (died 1084), Patrick ...

. The ancestral Mourne Park Estate, of some , in County Down, Northern Ireland (including the lordships and manors of Newry, Mourne and Greencastle) was not, however, inherited by the 5th Earl who opted to inherit contents to the value of the estate as he lived in England. It is currently owned by the Anley family, descendants of the late Lady Eleanor Needham, elder daughter of the 4th Earl of Kilmorey.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kilmorey, Francis Needham, 4th Earl of 1883 births 1961 deaths British Militia officers High sheriffs of Down King's Shropshire Light Infantry officers British Life Guards officers British Army personnel of World War I Royal Navy captains Lord-lieutenants of Down Officers of the Order of the British Empire Members of the Privy Council of Northern Ireland Irish representative peers People educated at Eton College Graduates of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst Earls of Kilmorey