Nicholas Preston, 17th Viscount Gormanston

(Jenico) Nicholas Dudley Preston, 17th Viscount Gormanston (born 19 November 1939), is an Anglo-Irish aristocrat and British hereditary peer, who sat in the House of Lords (as Baron Gormanston) until 1999.[1]

Lord Gormanston is the premier viscount in the Peerage of Ireland (title created 1478).[2]

Family background
Gormanston Castle, Co. Meath

The only son and heir of Captain the 16th Viscount Gormanston (1914–1940)[3] and Pamela Hanly, daughter of Captain Edward Hanly and Lady Marjorie Feilding (daughter of the 9th Earl of Denbigh), he succeeded to the family titles before his first birthday; the 16th Viscount (Captain Jenico Preston, King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry) was killed in action[4] during the Battle of France in 1940.[5]

His maternal great-grandfather was General Sir William Butler, of Bansha Castle, County Tipperary, and his great-grandmother was the celebrated Victorian painter, Elizabeth Thompson (later Lady Butler). The 14th Viscount Gormanston GCMG, a diplomat, was his paternal great-grandfather.

Education

A Roman Catholic like his forebears, Lord Gormanston attended the Benedictine school of Downside, Somerset. He is a connoisseur of art.

Gormanston Castle

The ancestral seat, Gormanston Castle in County Meath, Ireland, was sold to the Franciscan Order of Friars Minor (OFM) in 1947, becoming Gormanston College.[6]

Personal life

In 1974, Viscount Gormanston married, firstly, Eva-Antonie Landzwójczaka (1955–1984),[7] having two sons:[8]

Viscount Gormanston married, secondly, on 2 November 1997 Lucy Arabella Fox (born 1960), daughter of Edward Fox and Tracy Reed.[15]

Lord and Lady Gormanston live in Kensington, London.

See also

References
  1. "Parliamentary career for Viscount Gormanston - MPs and Lords - UK Parliament". members.parliament.uk.
  2. "Burke's Peerage & Baronetage".
  3. www.npg.org.uk
  4. www.parliament.uk
  5. www.npg.org.uk
  6. www.gormanstoncollege.ie
  7. Polish Order of the Virtuti Militari
  8. "Gormanston, Viscount (I, 1478)". www.cracroftspeerage.co.uk.
  9. www.haberdashers.co.uk
  10. www.fashionunited.uk
  11. www.olympia.co.uk
  12. www.diarydirectory.com
  13. "Jo Malone London".
  14. www.debretts.com
  15. www.burkespeerage.com
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