Edmund FitzAlan-Howard, 1st Viscount FitzAlan of Derwent

Edmund FitzAlan-Howard (date unknown)

Edmund Bernard FitzAlan-Howard, 1st Viscount FitzAlan of Derwent KG , PC , GCVO , DSO (born June 1, 1855 in London , † May 18, 1947 in Cumberland Lodge , Windsor ) was a British nobleman and conservative politician who from 1921 served as the last Lord Lieutenant of Ireland until 1922 . He was also the first and only Catholic since the 17th century to exercise this office again.

Life

Origin and youth

FitzAlan-Howard came from the noble family Fitzalan-Howard , among other things owner of the title Duke of Norfolk , and was the third eldest son of Henry Fitzalan-Howard, 14th Duke of Norfolk († 1860) and Augusta Lyons and brother of Henry Fitzalan Howard, 15th Duke of Norfolk . From birth Lord Edmund FitzAlan-Howard called, he changed his surname in 1876 by Royal Warrant in Talbot , according to the last will of Bertram Arthur Talbot, 17th Earl of Shrewsbury (1832-1856) and was known until 1921 as Lord Edmund Talbot . Last year he reverted to his original last name.

He attended the Oratory School in Edgbaston and initially pursued a military career. From the Royal Sussex Militia he moved to the 11th Hussars regiment in 1875 and reached the rank of major by 1891 .

Entry into politics and Boer War

Talbot first appeared for the Conservative Party in the Burnley constituency in 1880 for a seat in parliament. This attempt, like the following two in 1883 and 1886, failed in a constituency in Sheffield . He was finally elected to the House of Commons for the Chichester constituency in 1894 and held that seat until he was elected to the peerage in 1921.

From 1896 to 1898 he served under the Minister Lord Lansdowne as his private secretary in the War Office , then until the following year as Secretary of State in the Foreign Office under Lord Salisbury .

When the Second Boer War broke out in the fall of 1899 , Talbot went to South Africa as a Special Service officer , where he served, among other things, as Deputy Assistant Adjutant General and achieved the rank of Lieutenant Colonel . He was awarded the Queen's South Africa Medal with five clasps and the Distinguished Service Order for his service and was mentioned in dispatches . In 1902 he was accepted as a member of the Royal Victorian Order .

Political career until 1921

On his return he served again in the War Department under the Minister St John Brodrick, 1st Earl of Midleton and followed this when the latter took over the Ministry of India in 1903 . In 1905 Talbot became Junior Lord of the Treasury . After the resignation of the Balfour government in December 1905 and the liberal takeover, Talbot became a junior whip of the opposition in the lower house. In 1913 he succeeded Lord Balcarres, who had moved to the House of Lords, Chief Whip of the Conservatives who were still in opposition. In the same year he also became director of the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway . In the Ulster Crisis of 1914, triggered by the Government of Ireland Act , Talbot played an important role in mobilizing the Unionist MPs.

In 1915, after the formation of the coalition government , Lord Edmund became one of the parliamentary state secretaries in the Treasury, which he remained in the subsequent Lloyd George administration until 1921. In 1917 he was appointed Deputy Earl Marshal at the side of his nephew, the underage 16th Duke of Norfolk , and held this post until 1929. In 1918 Talbot was sworn into the Privy Council .

After the end of the war, Lord Talbot was appointed Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order in 1919 and was Justice of the Peace in Sussex.

Lord Lieutenant of Ireland

FitzAlan-Howard during a troop inspection in front of Belfast City Hall, June 7, 1921

At the end of April 1921, a few months before the end of the Irish War of Independence , Talbot was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland as the successor to Field Marshal French and at the same time raised to the Peerage of the United Kingdom as Viscount FitzAlan of Derwent , of Derwent in the County of Derby . On May 2, he took the oath of office in Dublin Castle . As a unionist-conservative Catholic, he should be acceptable to both the Irish and the British establishment and help negotiate a ceasefire. For the Catholic Irish who wanted their own state in southern Ireland , however, he remained an English Catholic and as a unionist anyway unacceptable. In the negotiations that ultimately led to the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 6, 1921, he was largely left out, although he tried to achieve reconciliation on all sides. With the entry into force of the Irish Free State Constitution in December 1922, FitzAlan-Howard's tenure also ended and the centuries-old institution of the Lord Lieutenant was replaced by the office of Governor General , which the Irish nationalist Tim Healy took over.

Late years and offspring

In 1925 FitzAlan-Howard was accepted into the Order of the Garter. He died in 1947 at the age of 91.

In 1879 he had married Lady Mary Caroline Bertie, daughter of the 7th Earl of Abingdon , with whom he had two children:

• Hon. Mary Caroline Magdalan Fitzalan-Howard (1880–1974) died unmarried.
• Henry Edmund Fitzalan-Howard, 2nd Viscount FitzAlan of Derwent (1883–1962) was married and had two daughters. The title of nobility thus expired upon his death.

literature

• Keith Jeffery: Twilight of the Viceroy: Lords French and FitzAlan at the Lodge, 1918–1922 , in: Peter Gray, Olwen Purdue (ed.): The Irish Lord Lieutenancy c. 1541-1922. University College Dublin Press, 2012.

Web links

• Edmund FitzAlan-Howard, 1st Viscount FitzAlan of Derwent at Hansard (English)
• Edmund FitzAlan-Howard, 1st Viscount FitzAlan of Derwent on thepeerage.com
• Fitzalan of Derwent, Viscount (UK, 1921–1962) on cracroftspeerage.co.uk
• Entry on angloboerwar.com

predecessor	Office	successor
John French, 1st Earl of Ypres	Lord Lieutenant of Ireland 1921-1922	- Timothy Michael Healy (as Governor General)
New title created	Viscount FitzAlan of Derwent 1921-1947	Henry FitzAlan-Howard