Anthony FitzClarence, 7th Earl of Munster

Coat of arms of the Earls of Munster

Anthony Charles FitzClarence, 7th Earl of Munster , FRSA (March 21, 1926 - December 30, 2000 ) was a British peer .

He was the last Earl of Munster and the last male descendant of King William IV . and his mistress Dorothea Jordan (nee Bland).

Life

He was the only son of Edward FitzClarence (1899-1983) and Monica Grayson († 1958). He had a younger sister, Mary (1928–1971). In 1975, after the death of his two cousin, Geoffrey FitzClarence, 5th Earl of Munster , his father inherited his title of nobility as 6th Earl of Munster. Anthony's marriage apparently from then on bore the courtesy title Viscount FitzClarence .

Anthony attended St Edward's School in Oxford and then a private school in Switzerland . He volunteered for the Royal Navy in 1942 at the age of 16 to serve on the aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious for the remainder of the war . He was wounded in combat and served in the Mediterranean and the Far East.

He was fluent in French. He retired from the Navy in 1947 for health reasons.

He then began training at the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London and became a graphic designer in 1950 . From 1957 he worked for the Daily Mirror group and from 1966 for the advertising department of the Sun before it was taken over by Rupert Murdoch .

When he was fired in 1969, he worked as a freelance graphic artist for a decade. In 1979 he was briefly lessee of a pub in Haslemere , Surrey . He then worked as a glass painter at the Burrell Collection in Glasgow .

Since he had acquired knowledge of heraldic glass engraving , he was given the design of part of the Burell collection.

After the opening of the Burrell Collection in 1983, he left it and then worked at Chapel Studio, a leading company for glass painting and restoration. Most recently he built up a digital archive with photographs of stained glass.

On November 15, 1983, when his father died, he inherited his title of nobility as 7th Earl of Munster with the subordinate titles 7th Viscount FitzClarence and 7th Baron Tewkesbury. A seat in the House of Lords was associated with the titles at that time . In parliament he initially sat on the side of the Crossbencher , but then switched to the Conservative Party . Through the House of Lords Act in 1999 he lost his hereditary seat in parliament. In Hansard no parliamentary speeches are recorded by him. His main interests were museum funding, distribution issues, and osteoporosis . For many years he was a member of the House of Lords yacht club and competed against the House of Commons . In 1987 he became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts .

Marriages and offspring

On July 28, 1949, FitzClarence married his first wife, Louise Margaret Diane Delvigne. He had two daughters with her before they divorced in 1966.

• Lady Tara Francesca FitzClarence (born August 6, 1952), former director of Sotheby's, ⚭ 1979 Ross Jean Heffler.
• Lady Finola Dominique FitzClarence (born December 6, 1953), ⚭ 1981 Jonathan Terence Poynton.

On June 18, 1966, FitzClarence married his second wife, Pamela Margaret Spooner. They had two daughters and they divorced in 1979:

• Oonagh Sarah Lawrence Mills (* 1964, she was adopted before her parents' marriage and by John and Roewen Lawrence Mills), ⚭ 1987 Raymond Burt.
• Lady Georgina FitzClarence (* 1966).

In 1979 he married his third wife Dorothy Alexa Maxwell († June 13, 1995). They didn't have any children.

On May 3, 1997, he married his fourth wife, Halina Winska. They didn't have any children.

Since he had no male offspring, his nobility titles expired on his death on December 30, 2000.

Web links

• Anthony Charles Fitz-Clarence, 7th Earl of Munster on thepeerage.com
• Mr Anthony Fitz-Clarence at Hansard (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Genealogy of the House of Hanover in: angelfire.com [accessed on December 11, 2014]
2. ↑ House of Hannover in: almanachdegotha.org [accessed on December 11, 2014]

predecessor	Office	successor
Edward FitzClarence	Earl of Munster 1975-1983	Title expired