Peter Wentworth-Fitzwilliam, 8th Earl Fitzwilliam

William Henry Lawrence Peter Wentworth-Fitzwilliam, 8th Earl Fitzwilliam, DSO (31 December 1910 – 13 May 1948), styled Viscount Milton before 1943, was a British soldier and aristocrat.

Biography

The fifth child and only son of the 7th Earl Fitzwilliam, he was born at the family's seat of Wentworth Woodhouse and died in an aircraft accident over Saint-Bauzile, Ardèche, France.

Marriage and issue

He was married, on 19 April 1933, to Olive Dorothea "Obby" Plunket (d. 1975) (the daughter of Benjamin Plunket, Bishop of Tuam, Killala and Achonry, and thereby granddaughter of the 4th Baron Plunket, Archbishop of Dublin), with whom he had one daughter:

• Lady Anne Juliet Dorothea Maud Wentworth-Fitzwilliam (b. 24 January 1935). She married firstly (1960) the 6th Marquess of Bristol (1915–1985) (divorced 1972); secondly (1974) as his fourth wife Somerset de Chair, of Bourne Park, nr Canterbury (22 August 1911 – 5 January 1995^[1] / buried January 1996),^[2] son of Admiral Sir Dudley de Chair; thirdly (1996) to Christopher Tadgell. She is now known as Lady Juliet Tadgell. Her children are:
  • Lord Frederick William Charles Nicholas Wentworth Hervey (26 November 1961 – 26 January 1998)
  • Lady Ann Hervey (b & d. 24 February 1965), stillborn
  • Helena Anne Beatrix Wentworth Fitzwilliam de Chair (b. 1977) writer on a trade magazine for the oil industry; who married 13 January 2007 Canterbury Cathedral^[3] Hon. Jacob Rees-Mogg (b. 24 May 1969), son of William Rees-Mogg, once editor of The Times.
    • Peter Theodore Alphoge Rees-Mogg (b. mid-October 2007 Chelsea & Westminster Hospital, London)^[4]
    • Mary Anne Charlotte Emma Rees-Mogg (b.16 Nov 2008)
    • Thomas Wentworth Somerset Dunstan Rees-Mogg (b. 8 Jun 2010)
    • Anslem Charles Fitzwilliam Rees-Mogg (b. 22 June 2012)
    • Alfred Wulfric Leyson Pius (b. 22 Feb 2016)

In Lord Fitzwilliam's later years the marriage to Obby became strained. At the time of his death, he was seeking a divorce in order to marry someone else.^[5] In 1943 he inherited the Earldom from his father.

Service

As a former Cadet with the Eton College Contingent (June Division) Officer Training Corps he was commissioned second lieutenant into the Royal Scots Greys (Supplementary Reserve of Officers) on 20 July 1929.^[6] During World War II he served with distinction in the Commandos and later for the Special Operations Executive, gaining a Distinguished Service Order.

Death

He died in France in a plane crash on 13 May 1948.

From 1946 he was romantically linked with the widowed Kathleen Cavendish, Marchioness of Hartington, sister of future U.S. President John F. Kennedy. She was killed with Fitzwilliam in the crash, although the nature of their relationship was obscured in the newspaper accounts at the time.^[5]

At his death the title passed to his second cousin once removed, Eric Wentworth-Fitzwilliam, and his fortune, then estimated at 45 million pounds, which included half of the Wentworth Woodhouse estate, the Coolattin estate in County Wicklow, Ireland, and a considerable part of the Fitzwilliam art collection, passed to his daughter, the present Lady Juliet Tadgell.

Popular culture

• Fitzwilliam is portrayed by Thomas Gibson in the television mini-series The Kennedys of Massachusetts (1990).
• Fitzwilliam is portrayed by Larry Carter in the film Lives and Deaths of the Poets (2011).

Ancestry

Notes

References

• Lundy, Darryl. "#46395 (Peter)". The Peerage. 
• Lundy, Darryl. "#40404 (Olive)". The Peerage. 

External links

• Peter Wentworth-Fitzwilliam, 8th Earl Fitzwilliam