Mervyn Richard Wingfield, 8th Viscount Powerscourt (16 July 1880 – 21 March 1947) was an Anglo-Irish peer.
Life
Wingfield was born to
Mervyn Wingfield, 7th Viscount Powerscourt, whom he succeeded as Viscount Powerscourt in 1904.
He was commissioned in the
Irish Guards
The Irish Guards (IG) is one of the Foot guards#United Kingdom, Foot Guards regiments of the British Army and is part of the Guards Division. Together with the Royal Irish Regiment (1992), Royal Irish Regiment, it is one of the two Irish infant ...
in February 1901, and promoted to
Lieutenant
A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a Junior officer, junior commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations, as well as fire services, emergency medical services, Security agency, security services ...
on 3 July 1901. The Irish Guards had been created in 1900, and Wingfield was chosen to carry the colours at the first presentation of
Colours
Color (or colour in Commonwealth English; see spelling differences) is the visual perception based on the electromagnetic spectrum. Though color is not an inherent property of matter, color perception is related to an object's light absorpt ...
to the Regiment on 30 May 1902, following which he was appointed a Member of the
Royal Victorian Order
The Royal Victorian Order () is a dynastic order of knighthood established in 1896 by Queen Victoria. It recognises distinguished personal service to the monarch, members of the royal family, or to any viceroy or senior representative of the m ...
(MVO). He was appointed
Lord Lieutenant of Wicklow on 15 February 1910 and created a Knight of the
Order of St Patrick
The Most Illustrious Order of Saint Patrick is a dormant British order of chivalry associated with Ireland. The Order was created in 1783 by King George III at the request of the then Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, George Nugent-Temple-Grenville, ...
on 18 April 1916.
He served as Commissioner for Leinster in the
Dublin Boy Scouts and allowed Scouts to have extensive access to the Powerscourt Estate for camping. He was involved in early Scouting milestones, attending the 1st
World Scout Jamboree
The World Scout Jamboree is a Scouting Jamboree (Scouting), jamboree of the World Organization of the Scout Movement, typically attended by several tens of thousands of Scouts from around the world, aged 14 to 17. At the jamboree, many scouts sw ...
at Olympia in 1920. He was awarded the
Silver Wolf by the
Scout Association
The Scout Association is the largest organisation in the Scout Movement in the Scouting in the United Kingdom, United Kingdom. Following the rapid development of the Scouting, Scout Movement from 1907, The Scout Association was formed in 1910 ...
in 1924 and welcomed
Baden Powell to the estate in 1928 to review a party of Scouts.
Lord Powerscourt died on 21 March 1947.
Family
In 1903, he married Sybil Pleydell-Bouverie: they had three children, including
Mervyn Patrick Wingfield, 9th Viscount Powerscourt. Lady Powerscourt served as the
Girl Guides
Girl Guides (or Girl Scouts in the United States and some other countries) are organisations within the Scout Movement originally and largely still for girls and women only. The Girl Guides began in 1910 with the formation of Girlguiding, The ...
Deputy Chief Commissioner for Ireland.
Through the Wingfield line he was a descendant of the
Noble House of Stratford. He is a great-grandfather of
Sarah, Duchess of York
Sarah, Duchess of York (born Sarah Margaret Ferguson; 15 October 1959), also known by the nickname Fergie, is a British author, philanthropist, television personality, and member of the extended British royal family. She is the former wife of P ...
through her mother
Susan Barrantes
Susan Mary Barrantes (''née'' Wright, previously Ferguson; 9 June 193719 September 1998) was a documentary filmmaker and the mother of Sarah, Duchess of York, as well as the maternal grandmother of princesses Princess Beatrice, Beatrice and Prin ...
, who is Powerscourt's granddaughter.
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Powerscourt, Mervyn Wingfield, 8th Viscount
Mervyn
1880 births
1947 deaths
Knights of St Patrick
Lord-lieutenants of Wicklow
Members of the Royal Victorian Order
Viscounts in the Peerage of Ireland
Members of the Senate of Southern Ireland