Gerald FitzGerald, 8th Duke of Leinster


Gerald FitzGerald, 8th Duke of Leinster was the premier Duke, Marquess and Earl in the Peerage of Ireland.

Family and background

Gerald FitzGerald was the only child of Edward FitzGerald, 7th Duke of Leinster and his first wife, May Juanita Etheridge, a chorus girl.
Relations between Gerald's parents became strained when he was still a toddler. In 1922, Gerald's father became 7th duke upon the death of the 6th duke, and Gerald inherited the courtesy title of Marquess of Kildare. His father took advantage of his new position as duke to secure a separation from Gerald's mother. The couple were divorced eight years later, in 1930. Due to the strain in their marriage and bad environment at home, Gerald spent most of his childhood being cared for by his grandaunt, Lady Adelaide FitzGerald, at Johnstown Castle, County Wexford. Lady Adelaide was the widow of his granduncle, Lord Maurice FitzGerald, and a daughter of the 7th Earl of Granard. She was a lady of character and dignity, and it was felt that she would provide a suitable environment for the future duke to grow up in. In 1935, Gerald's mother committed suicide by swallowing an overdose of sleeping pills. His father was also to commit suicide forty years later, in 1976.
Gerald's father married four times in all, and became notorious for financial profligacy and mismanagement. Due to this, the trustees of the family estate entrusted Gerald with the care of the family heirlooms and treasures by way of an advance on his inheritance. Despite four marriages, Gerald's father did not have any legitimate children except him. He did however have an illegitimate son, Adrian FitzGerald, born of an affair with a woman named Yvonne Denison Percy Probyn. Gerald did have numerous step-siblings, the progeny of his father's wives by previous marriages, and among them was Joan Yarde-Buller, daughter of his father's third wife Denise Orme. Joan Yarde-Buller, also known as Princess Taj-ud-dawlah, was married to Prince Aly Khan at the time when her mother Denise married Gerald's father in 1946. Joan's son Karim would in time become Prince Aga Khan IV.

Career and pursuits

Educated at Eton, Gerald became a cadet at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst and took a commission in the 5th Royal Inniskilling Dragoon Guards, with whom he served as a major in the Second World War. He was invalided out of the Army after being wounded in Normandy.
After the war the future duke tried to farm the estate at Kilkea Castle, County Kildare, Ireland, but it proved unprofitable, and in the early 1960s he moved to Oxfordshire and worked in the aviation industry. It was at his Oxfordshire home that, in 1976, the police were called to prevent his father making off with over £100,000 by way of a painting by Joshua Reynolds and a tapestry. The 7th Duke died the same year; however the 8th Duke was prevented from receiving his title momentarily due to an American who claimed to be the son of his father's elder brother Lord Desmond FitzGerald.
The Duke of Leinster was a keen fieldsportsman. He was Master of the North Kilkenny Foxhounds from 1937 to 1940; of the West Percy Foxhounds in 1945-46; and of the Portman Foxhounds in 1946-47.
Similarly, in 1999, the Duke failed in his attempts to prevent a half-brother being formally recognised by both Debrett's Peerage and Burke's Peerage. This man, Adrian FitzGerald, was the illegitimate son of the 7th Duke by Yvonne Probyn (later surnamed FitzGerald by deed poll, who was the daughter of Captain Percy John Probyn, RAMC, who was the eldest son of Frederick Probyn, JP, of Cambridge House, Treverthen, Monmouthshire.

Marriages and children

The Duke was twice married, his wives being:
After Gerald FitzGerald, Marquess of Kildare, became 8th Duke of Leinster, in 1976, a California artist and teacher, Leonard FitzGerald, claimed to be the rightful duke. He said his father was Lord Desmond FitzGerald, the second of three sons of Gerald FitzGerald, 5th Duke of Leinster, and who was thought to have been killed in the First World War while serving in the Irish Guards. Leonard FitzGerald declared that Lord Desmond, however, secretly emigrated to North America and lived there until his death in 1967, despite eyewitness accounts of Desmond FitzGerald's death and his burial at the public cemetery in Calais, France. A Californian claimant, an 'escape' from the trenches and the fight for a dukedom], Daily Telegraph, 28 February 2006. Retrieved 12 June 2008.
On the advice of his doctor, because of ill health, Leonard FitzGerald withdrew his claim. He died in 1994, but the claim is continued by his son Paul FitzGerald, who filed a suit about this with the Department of Constitutional Affairs in 2006. Paul FitzGerald's claim, however, was eventually dismissed in 2007.
In 2010, however, DNA evidence was presented that indicates that Paul FitzGerald is related to the wife of the 5th Duke, the former Lady Hermione Duncombe. As reported in The Scotsman, "With the help of Dunfermline-based genealogist Lloyd Pitcairn, Mrs FitzGerald Caudill traced Maud Crawford, the grand-daughter of Lady Hermione's younger sister Urica Duncombe. The results of the tests found that it was '41 times more probable' that Ms Crawford and Paul FitzGerald were extremely closely related than were from different families. The evidence that Paul FitzGerald is related to the family of the 5th Duke's wife is the first DNA evidence ever produced in the case, and may support Mrs FitzGerald Caudhill's long-held claim suggesting that her mysterious father was the son of Lady Hermione, the wife of the fifth Duke of Leinster."