Cecil Stafford-King-Harman

Sir Cecil William Francis Stafford-King-Harman, 2nd Baronet (6 December 1895[1]–1987) was an Anglo-Irish landowner and soldier.

He was born Cecil Stafford, the second son of Sir Thomas Stafford, 1st Baronet and his wife, Frances Agnes, daughter of Edward King-Harman.[2] In 1933 Cecil added his mother's surname to his father's.[2] His elder brother, Edward Charles Stafford King Harman, was killed in the First World War.[3]

Cecil graduated from Oxford, receiving an M.A. in agriculture in 1922.[1] He married Sarah Beatrice Acland, daughter of Alfred Dyke Acland.[4] Their son Thomas Edward Stafford-King-Harman (1921–1944) was killed in the Normandy Campaign.[5] Their daughters were MI6 agent Joan Stafford-King-Harman (1918–2018) and artist Ann Stafford King-Harman (1919–1969). On his father's death in 1935, Cecil succeeded to the baronetcy;[4] it became extinct on his death in 1987.

In 1937 he followed his father as a steward of the Irish Turf Club.[6] He was a member of the Church of Ireland and from 1939 a lay member of the diocesan synod for Kilmore, Elphin and Ardagh.[7] Previously a captain in the yeomanry, during the Second World War Stafford-King-Harman served in the King's Royal Rifle Corps from 7 May 1940[8] until 2 April 1943, when as temporary lieutenant-colonel he relinquished his command due to ill health and was granted honorary rank of major.[9]

After the death of Sir John Keane in 1956, Seán T. O'Kelly, the President of Ireland, appointed Stafford-King-Harman to the Council of State.[10] The family estate was the Rockingham Estate in the north of County Roscommon. The house was gutted by fire in September 1957 while Stafford-King-Harman was at Doncaster Racecourse.[11] Lacking the funds to rebuild the house, he sold the remaining estate of 2,400 acres (970 ha) at auction in 1959.[12] It was bought by the Land Commission and much of it is now Lough Key Forest Park.[12][13]