Marcus Beresford, 7th Baron Decies


Marcus Hugh Tristram de la Poer Beresford, 7th Baron Decies is an Anglo-Irish hereditary peer. He is the son of Arthur George Marcus Douglas de la Poer Beresford, 6th Baron Decies and Diana. His grandmother Helen Gould was born in the United States.
He was educated initially at Aiglon College, Chesières-Villars, Switzerland, and from 1962 to 1967 at St Columba's College, Dublin.
He graduated from Dublin University, with a Master of Letters. Beresford practiced as a solicitor and rose to be Chairman of A&L Goodbody, the leading Irish corporate law firm. He was a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators.
He succeeded to the title of 7th Baron Decies, of Decies, County Waterford in 1992.

Family

He married, firstly, Sarah Jane Gunnell, daughter of Colonel Basil Gunnell, on 11 April 1970. They divorced in 1974. He remarried in 1981 to Edel Jeannette Hendron. Since 1989 the couple have resided in Straffan, County Kildare.
The couple have four children.
The couple are equine enthusiasts, and trained racehorses locally with Arthur Moore for many years. His wife is a keen sportswoman who fly-fishes for Ireland and is involved with numerous charitable causes, including the Irish Haemophilia Society.
He has an enduring interest in history stimulated by his ancestors.
William Beresford, 1st Baron Decies was also the Archbishop of Tuam.
General William Carr Beresford, 1st Viscount Beresford, 1st Marquis of Campo Maior, GCB, GCH, PC was a general in the British Army and a Marshal in the Portuguese Army; he fought alongside The Duke of Wellington in the Peninsular War and held the office of Master-General of the Ordnance in 1828 in Wellington's first ministry. In 2019 the Irish Academic Press published his biography of the General.
Beresford is a member of both the Irish and British Commissions for Military History. He is Chairman of the Trustees of the British Cemetery, Elvas, a member of the Friends of the Lines of Torres Vedras and the Waterford Historical Society.

Other activities

Beresford was a Trustee 1999-2014 of the Alfred Beit Foundation and Chairman 2008-14. He is currently a Trustee of the Apollo Foundation.
He has also been involved in the world of education being a member of the Boards of