Bernard Forbes, 8th Earl of Granard

Bernard Arthur William Patrick Hastings Forbes, 8th Earl of Granard, KP, GCVO, PC (September 17 1874 – September 10 1948), known as Viscount Forbes from 1874 to 1889, was an Anglo-Irish soldier and Liberal politician.

Family

Granard was the son of George Forbes, 7th Earl of Granard, and Hon. Mary Frances Petre, daughter of William Bernard Petre, 12th Baron Petre. He succeeded as eighth Earl of Granard on the death of his father in 1889, aged only 14.

Political career

In 1895 he was able to take his seat in the House of Lords in right of his junior title of Baron Granard, which was in the Peerage of the United Kingdom (all his other titles were in the Peerage of Ireland). When the Liberals came to power in 1905 under Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, Granard was appointed a Lord-in-Waiting to King Edward VII (government whip in the House of Lords) and Assistant Postmaster-General, posts he held until 1907 and 1909 respectively. In 1907 he was admitted to the Privy Council and also became Master of the Horse, an office he retained until 1915.

He was Special Ambassador to Foreign Courts to announce the accession of King George V of the United Kingdom and Emperor of India.

Ireland

He was Vice-Admiral of Connaught, Lord Lieutenant of county Longford, and was made a Knight of the Order of St Patrick in 1909. He was a member of te Irish Food Convention, Food Controller for Ireland in 1918, in which year he was also admitted to the Irish Privy Council. He was also involved in Irish politics and was a member of the short-lived Senate of Southern Ireland in 1921 and of the Senate of the Irish Free State from 1922 to 1934. He was again Master of the Horse between February 1924 and 1936, but by this time this post had ceased being a political office.

Military

In 1896, he was commissioned into the 3rd (Militia) Battalion, Gordon Highlanders. In 1899 he transferred to the Scots Guards. He was promoted Lieutenant in 1901 and Captain in 1905. He served in the Boer War from 1900 to 1902. In 1908 he was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel in the Post Office Rifles. He resigned his commissions in the Post Office Rifles in 1910 and the Scots Guards in 1911.

In 1916 he was recalled to command the 5th Battalion, Royal Irish Regiment. He was later Military Secretary to the Commander-in-Chief of the Salonika Forces from 1917.

Civil

Apart from his political career, Granard was also on the board of Arsenal Football Club, and was club chairman from 1936 to 1939.

Apart from his seat at Castle Forbes, Newtown Forbes, county Longford, Lord Granard had a London residence at Forbes House, Halkin Street, SW1., and a residence at 73 Rue de Varenne, Paris.

Marriage

Lord Granard married, in 1909, Beatrice Mills, OBE (1920) grand-daughter of Darius Ogden Mills, and brother of Ogden L. Mills from Staatsburg, New York. They had four children, including Eileen, the wife of the 5th Marquess of Bute. He was succeeded by his eldest son:

* Arthur Forbes, 9th Earl of Granard.

References

*"Whitaker's Peerage, Baronetage, Knightage, and Companionage 1935", London, p.297.
*Kidd, Charles, & Williamson, David, editors, "Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage", New York, St Martin's Press, 1990.
* [http://www.angeltowns.com/town/peerage/ Leigh Rayment's Peerage Page]
* [http://www.thepeerage.com/ www.thepeerage.com]