Francis Needham, 4th Earl of Kilmorey

Francis Charles Adelbert Henry Needham, 4th Earl of Kilmorey PC (NI) OBE (26 November 1883-11 January 1961), known as Viscount Newry from 1883 to 1915, was an Anglo-Irish peer.

Kilmorey was the eldest son of Francis Needham, 3rd Earl of Kilmorey, and Ellen Constance Black. He was commissioned into the 3rd (Militia) Battalion, King's Shropshire Light Infantry in 1901 and promoted Lieutenant in 1902. A month later he transferred to the 1st Life Guards as a Second Lieutenant. He was promoted Lieutenant again in 1904 and Captain in 1907. He resigned his commission in 1911. He returned to the Army during the First World War, reaching the rank of Major. In 1930 he was appointed Captain in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve and waw the second Commanding Officer of HMS "Caroline", the RNR base in Belfast, where his photograph can be seen today.

He also served as High Sheriff of County Down in 1913, as Lord Lieutenant of County Down from 1949 to 1959 and as Vice-Admiral of Ulster from 1937 to 1961. From 1916 until his death Kilmorey sat in the House of Lords as an Irish Representative Peer, becoming the last surviving Irish representative Peer. In 1936 he was admitted to the Privy Council of Northern Ireland.

Lord Kilmorey married Lady Norah Frances Hastings, daughter of Warner Francis John Plantagenet Hastings, 15th Earl of Huntingdon, in 1920. He died in January 1961, aged 77, and was succeeded in his titles by his nephew Francis. The ancestral Mourne Park Estate, of some 800 acres, in County Down, Northern Ireland, 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 Ansley family, descendants of the late Lady Eleanor Needham, elder daughter of the 4th Earl of Kilmorey.

References

*Kidd, Charles, Williamson, David (editors). "Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage" (1990 edition). 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]