A childhood of shifting scene and a mixed nationality may be responsible for my useful knack of growing roots wherever I happen to find myself – Happy Odyssey (1950)
It is always of interest to the local historian, in this case one in Castleisland, to learn about the background of famous people. In this respect, it is curious that the most decorated, much travelled and seemingly indestructible war hero, Lieutenant-General Sir Adrian Paul Ghislain Carton de Wiart – the model for Evelyn Waugh’s Brigadier Ben Ritchie-Hook – died near Carrigadrohid, close enough to the county of Kerry to raise questions about Irish connections.
In September 1951, it was confirmed that Sir Adrian would retire to Ireland where he had purchased and was modernising Aghinagh House, Killinardrish. There Sir Adrian subsequently spent his last years with his second wife until his death on 5 June 1963.[1]
Sir Adrian’s memoir, Happy Odyssey, published a year before his relocation, revealed that he had ‘an Irish grandmother to produce a small quantity of British blood in my veins.’ In the record of such a famous man, it should be a simple matter to identify the source of that Irish blood. However, as with all in Sir Adrian’s adventurous life, it could hardly be so straightforward.
His paternal genealogy begins with his birth in Brussels on 5 May 1880 to Léon Constant Ghislain Carton de Wiart (1854-1915), of Oxahott, Surrey and of Egypt (who from 9 October 1900 was a naturalised British subject). Léon Constant’s father was Adrian Bonaventure Ghislain Carton de Wiart (1816-1877), Advocate of the Court of Appeal, Brussels, older brother of Hassan Eusebe Rodophe Carton de Wiart (1821-1889) and Riego Benjamin Constant Carton de Wiart (1825-1895).
Adrian Bonaventure married in St George’s Cathedral, Southwark, on 1 June 1853 to Zoe Maria Isabelle Ryan, eldest daughter of John Ryan Esq, MD, of Maryland House, Stratford, London and his wife Amelia, daughter of Thomas Moseley Esq.[2]
However, the genealogy of Sir Adrian’s paternal grandmother, Zoe Maria Isabelle Ryan, indicates a Yorkshire (Kirkburton) and Welsh background.[3]
The genealogy of Sir Adrian’s maternal grandmother is less transparent because as Sir Adrian reveals in his autobiography, ‘When I was six I lost my mother’:
My father decided to uproot himself from Europe, transfer to Cairo and practise international law. My father’s sister and her family came to look after us, and saw to it that my French accent improved.[4]
Sir Adrian’s loss of his mother has generally been interpreted as her death.[5] However, his words had more significance because in January 1886 his parents divorced, and his mother, whose second son was William Gregory Cuppa (1885-1976), remarried later that year in London to Demosthenes Gregory Cuppa.[6]
His mother, born in Belgium on 1 October 1862, was Ernestine-Zephirine-Emilie, daughter of Ferdinang (sic) Wilhelm Wenzig and Pauline Julie Levasseur. There is a suggestion that Ernestine may have remained in contact with her son.[7] Although it cannot be discounted, the names of Ernestine’s parents do not suggest an Irish background.[8]
On 16 April 1888 in Brussels, Sir Adrian’s father remarried to ‘an Englishwoman who was travelling abroad as companion to a Turkish princess.’ As Sir Adrian recalled:
My whole horizon changed … To my youthful eyes, she appeared very pretty, but she was full of rigorous ideas accentuated by a strong will and a violent temper. My father’s house was cleared of all his extraneous relations, and I was given the English child’s prerogative, a little precious freedom, and encouraged in what was to be my first and lasting love, sport.
Sir Adrian’s Stepmother
A difficulty presents in trying to discern Irish roots in Sir Adrian’s stepmother because so little is known about her. Her name is invariably given as Mary James, Mary I. James, with suggestion of the name Condouris in her ancestry.
Research is hampered by the deaths in childhood of her children of the marriage, Marie Ghislain Carton de Wiart (1889-1891), Beatrice Carton de Wiart (1891-1891) and Edith Carton de Wiart (1893-1897). A son, and much younger half-brother of Sir Adrian, did survive, Maurice Edmond Carton de Wiart, born in Cairo on 7 August 1895. Maurice was educated at Eton, and later served with the Lancashire Fusiliers and the Welsh Guards, but the record falls silent on him after about 1920.[9]
What can be said with certainty is that Mrs Mary Carton de Wiart was widowed in 1915 and afterwards retired to the parish of St Peter in Broadstairs, Kent.[10] Whatever the fate of her natural born son, her stepson, ‘the one-armed VC,’ was a frequent visitor to Broadstairs.[11]
Mrs Mary Carton de Wiart died at Stone Gap Cottage (or Bungalow), Broadstairs, on 9 August 1932 and was buried in the cemetery of St Peter’s, Broadstairs on 11 August 1932, the funeral service performed by Rev Lewis Lanning Edwards.
Mrs de Wiart had been a prominent supporter of charitable institutions particularly at Cairo, and associated with the foundation of Lady Cromer’s dispensary.[13] It may be that ‘Mary James’ was of Irish descent, the Irish grandmother mentioned by Sir Adrian in his memoir. Research of Belgian marriage records and other official records may reveal more about Mrs Mary Carton de Wiart.
Sir Adrian’s Family
No soldier of his generation was more admired or more loved[14]
Sir Adrian’s ancestry may appear a little chequered, but his own family tree is no less transparent. He married twice, firstly, on 27 October 1908 at St Stephen’s, Vienna, to the Austrian Countess Freiderike Maria Karoline Henriette Rosa Sabina Franziska Pauline née Fugger von Babenhausen (1887-1949). They had two daughters, Anita, born in Bavaria in 1909, and Maria Eleanora, born in 1911.[15]
Both daughters married, Anita Carton de Wiart in 1933 (in Hambledon, Surrey) to Walter Hugh Thompson of Tudor Cottage, Thursley, Godalming, Surrey, only son of Harry James Thompson, M.I.C.E. of Tregarthen, Leatherhead. [16] Maria Eleanora (Ria) Carton de Wiart of Allington Farm, Lewes, married in 1937 (in Surrey) to William Roger Holmes Walker of Burnthwaite, Bolton.[17]
Lady Freiderike Carton de Wiart died in Vienna on 4 July 1949.
Sir Adrian’s Retirement
In 1951, it was learned that Sir Adrian had married again:
General Sir Adrian Carton de Wiart, VC, has married again secretly. The wedding took place in England … After the wedding the General took his bride over to Ireland. They stayed at first in Galway, house-hunting, until they found Aghinagh, a Georgian house near Carrigadrohid, Co Cork.[18]
Sir Adrian, whose spirit of adventure was clearly far from over, had embarked on marriage for a second time in his 71st year. His bride was divorcee Ruth Myrtle Muriel Joan Sutherland (née McKechnie), former wife of Arthur Henry Carr Sutherland.[19]
Sir Adrian spent the next twelve years of his life in retirement in Cork. He was an avid salmon fisherman, where he could be seen by the river sporting a special harness for one-arm fishing.[20]
In 1950, shortly before his residence in Ireland, Sir Adrian’s memoir, Happy Odyssey, was published.[21]
A reviewer in Ireland remarked on Sir Adrian’s association with Ballymena:
Stationed in Ballymena for a time during the war, he made friends among all sections of the community and pays tribute in his book to the hospitality which he received in the Borough during his stay. He particularly mentions the Caruth family and Mrs Jane McCurry who ‘always had a cup of tea ready for me.’[23]
During his years in Cork, Sir Adrian made many friends in the locality, and became acquainted with journalist Denis Rolleston Gwynn (1893-1971), who recalled their introduction:
The last British Ambassador, Sir Alec Clutterbuck, had asked me to ‘extend his education’ by arranging a brief tour though West Cork and I had asked General Carton de Wiart if we might call on him on the way home. At our first preliminary meeting in Cork city, he surprised me by mentioning that he was a born Catholic, but had less contact than he wished with the Church. I asked would he like to meet a Cork priest who had been a chaplain in both Great Wars and in due course he and Canon Duggan became close friends.[24]
Gwynn recalled an incident that occurred while Sir Adrian was fishing on the Lee:
He had fallen into the river while wearing his wading boots. Somehow his friends helped to rescue him and, when I told him that I hoped he had suffered no after-effects, he replied simply that it had been ‘damned cold.’[25]
Gwynn described Sir Adrian’s vitality and courage as ‘incredible’:
His disabilities would have broken the spirit of any ordinary mortal. He had lost one eye in battle and wore a black patch over it till he died. His arm was amputated after he had one hand shot away, and his many other wounds told heavily on him.
Sir Adrian did not regard his reputation for having had an adventurous life as correct. As he wrote in his memoir, ‘I think it has been made up of misadventures. That I should have survived them is to me by far the most interesting thing about it.’
Gwynn remarked on Sir Adrian’s character:
He told me once that he thought self-pity was the worst of sins, and that he would far sooner forgive a man for burglary than for self-pity. One of the last times I met him was on the steps of the County Club in Cork after he had been reported to be quite incapacitated. Yet he was walking in from his car without even the aid of a stick. When I expressed surprise, he replied that once a man uses a stick, his confidence goes and he would never face that.
Sir Adrian Paul Ghislain Carton de Wiart died at Aghinagh House, Cork on Wednesday 5 June 1963.[26] Requiem mass was celebrated at Caum Chapel (St John the Baptist Church) on Friday 7 June 1963 by Rev J Cronin CC, Macroom, who officiated at the graveside in Aghinagh Cemetery. Members of the household staff ‘dropped pansy petals into the grave as it was being filled.’[27]
Chief mourners were his widow, Lady Joan Carton de Wiart, and his stepson, Captain Fergus Sutherland.[28]
Solemn Requiem Mass also held in Westminster Cathedral the following month (Tuesday 23 July 1963), celebrant Right Rev Mons Gordon Wheeler, Administrator of the Cathedral, with Rev Michael Ashdown and Rev John O’Halloran, deacon and sub-deacon. The attendance included the Belgian Ambassador to Britain, M Jacques de Thier, and Admiral of the Fleet, Earl Mountbatten of Burma.[29]
Sir Adrian was buried in the grounds of Aghinagh House, outside the perimeter wall of Aghinagh Church of Ireland.
An elaborate enclosure there includes an inscribed gravestone:
In Loving Memory
of
Lieutenant General
Sir Adrian Carton de Wiart VC
4th Royal Irish Dragoon Guards
Born May 5th 1880
Died June 5th 1963
In Quietness and Confidence
Shall Be My Strength
Captain Fergus Carr Sutherland
In 1951, Sir Adrian gained a stepson from his second wife’s first marriage in the form of National Hunt trainer, Fergus Carr Sutherland (1931-2012), better known as Fergie Sutherland. After the death of Sir Adrian in 1963, Lady Carton de Wiart was considering her future in Ireland:
Lady Carton De Wiart, was thinking of selling her house in Cork at the time Fergie was still in Newmarket. He asked her to keep it, pointing out that he might go there to train and hunt. He was never to regret the day he made the vital move. Lady Carton De Wiart decided to make Cork her permanent home, and today she has her own place beside Fergie and Ann. When Fergie turned out his first winner in Ireland in 1968 – a year after his move to this country – it was fitting that Primrose Posy should carry the colours of his mother in taking a 10-furlong event at Limerick ridden by the top apprentice of the time, Christy Roche. It was inevitable that in time we would accept Fergie Sutherland as ‘one of our own.’[31]
In 2003, Lady Carton de Wiart celebrated her 100th birthday at Arás Aoibhinn Nursing Home, Macroom. Joining in the celebrations was the Mayor of Macroom, Breda McCarthy. Lady Carton de Wiart was also honoured by Queen Elizabeth and President McAleese.[32]
Lady Carton de Wiart died on 13 January 2006 at Killinardrish, Cork. Her funeral service was held in Aherla Church of Ireland, Co Cork on Thursday 19 January, 2006, followed by cremation at The Island Crematorium, Ringskiddy.[33]
Sir Adrian’s Will
In his will, Sir Adrian left the bulk of his estate to Lady Joan Carton de Wiart, and to Muriel, Lady Tweedmouth.[34] Lady Tweedmouth, otherwise Lady Muriel Brodrick (1881-1966), was the daughter of William St John Freemantle Brodrick (1856-1942) 1st Earl of Midleton, and Lady Hilda Charteris (1854-1901).[35]
Lady Muriel Brodrick married in 1901 Dudley Churchill Marjoribanks (1874-1935) 3rd Baron Tweedmouth, son of Edward Majoribanks (1849-1909), 2nd Baron Tweedmouth and Lady Fanny Octavia Louise Spencer-Churchill, daughter of the 7th Duke of Marlborough (aunt of Sir Winston Churchill):
Mr Churchill, great Statesman, is nephew of the late Lord and Lady Tweedmouth, of Ninewells, Berwickshire. For over 30 years, Lord Tweedmouth (then Honble Edward Marjoribanks) was MP for Berwickshire and Chief Whip of Liberal Party when Gladstone was Prime Minister. Lady Tweedmouth (known by everybody in Berwickshire as Lady Fanny Marjoribanks) was sister of Lord Randolph Churchill (1849-1895) MP, father of Mr Winston Churchill.[36]
Muriel, Lady Tweedmouth, had two daughters, Hon Moyra Marjoribanks (1902-1995) who married Lt Col Reginald Francis Heyworth[37] and Hon Millicent Joan Marjoribanks (1906) who married Sir Michael Duff-Assheton-Smith (otherwise Sir Charles Michael Robert Duff, 3rd bt) in 1935.[38] Muriel, Lady Tweedmouth, died on 7 September 1966.
Sir Adrian’s relationship with Muriel, Lady Tweedmouth, is not known.
_____________
[1] Irish Examiner, 9 September 2003. It was claimed that the couple had moved to Ireland in 1951 to write his reminiscences. ‘She wrote a book of his career reminiscences.’ This may refer to Sir Adrian’s autobiography, Happy Odyssey (1950), which was reissued by Pan Books 1955. [2] Adrian Bonaventure Ghislain Carton de Wiart (1816-1877) was the son of Alexandre Joseph Ghislain Carton de Wiart (1781-1851) Sgr De Steenweghe, and his wife, Isabelle Josine van den Elsken (1797-1878). Alexandre was son of Hendrik Joseph Ghislain Carton Heer van Wiart (1747-1792) and Catherina Elisabeth Aerts van Opdorp (1754-1810). The younger brothers of Adrian Bonaventure Ghislain Carton de Wiart were Hassan Eusebe Rodophe Carton de Wiart (1821-1889), who married Elise Morel (1841-1926) and had Albert Carton de Wiart (1870-1938), and Riego Benjamin Constant Carton de Wiart (1825-1895) whose offspring are given below. [3] Dr John Ryan was described as formerly of the Royal Polytechnic Institution. The death of Amelia, wife of John Ryan Esq MD, LLD, and youngest daughter of the late Thomas Moseley Esq of Handforth-cum-Bosden, occurred in London on 12 February 1850. [4] Sir Adrian’s use of the word ‘us’ suggests a sibling though none can be identified. Sir Adrian’s paternal aunt was Helene Marie Isabelle Ghislain de Ryckman de Betz (1857-1943) (née de Wiart) whose children were Jeanne (1881-1925), André (1884-1905), Raoul (1885-1958) and Edmond (1889-1955). [5] ‘He was born in Brussels, a Belgian child with an Irish grandmother … When he was six his mother died, and his father migrated to Cairo to practise international law, thereafter meeting and marrying ‘an Englishwoman who was travelling abroad as companion to a Turkish princess’ (Sir John Squire’s review of Happy Odyssey, Illustrated London News, 5 August 1950). [6] Demosthenes Gregory Cuppa (1860-1945), son of Gregory Cuppa, merchant, of Constantinople and Mary Taylor, undergraduate of Jesus College Cambridge and student of the Middle Temple in 1879, was called to the bar 6 June 1883. Demosthenes and Ernestine Cuppa had two children, William Gregory Cuppa, born 15 February 1885, died in Los Angeles in 1976, and Mary Pauline Cuppa (1893-1969) of Smyrna, Izmir, Turkey, who married Friedrich Christian Reiser. In June 1936, Demosthenes was charged, with [John Victor] Aspinall, with swindling and sentenced to six months’ imprisonment but under the First Offenders Act was not imprisoned. [7] Ernestine Cuppa died in Paris on 13 May 1943. The ‘Notice of the Death of a British Subject’ dated 12 June 1943 gave Mrs Cuppa’s address as 27 rue de la Barre, Enghien-les-Bains, Seine-et-Oise. She was buried in Enghien local cemetery, burial expenses paid by her daughter, Mrs M Reiser, 214 rue de Courcelles, Paris. Relatives were named as Major-General Adrian Carton de Wiart, War Office, and Mr Gregory Cuppa, Bank of America, Seventh & Olive Office, Los Angeles, California. Demosthenes Gregory Cuppa died in Paris on 11 June 1945. Genealogical research by Marie Huxtable Wilson. [8] The marriage of Léon Constant Ghislain Carton de Wiart and Ernestine-Zephirine-Emilie Wenzig took place in Brussels on 15 October 1879. [9] See service record in Victoria Crosses on the Western Front Somme 1916 (2016) by Paul Oldfield, p255. A document concerning Lieutenant Maurice Carton de Wiart, Welsh Guards, is held in the National Archives UK, Reference WO 339/54561 though the archive is currently closed until the end of April 2021 due to Covid19 restrictions. [10] The death in Cairo of Léon Carton de Wiart occurred in June 1915. A death notice stated he was ‘a brother of the Belgian Minister of Justice and his two sons are officers in the British Army, the elder, Captain A Carton de Wiart, the younger, Second Lieutenant M Carton de Wiart, 6th Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers, recently arrived wounded in Egypt from the Dardanelles’ (Evening Mail, 11 June 1915). Léon was however a cousin of the (then) Belgian Minister of Justice, Hendrik Victor Maria Ghislain Graaf Carton de Wiart (1869-1951), later Prime Minister of Belgium (1920-1921). Hendrik, otherwise Henry Carton de Wiart, was the son of Riego Benjamin Constant Carton de Wiart (1825-1895), his siblings Rene (1867-1906), Maurice (1872-1935) and Edmond (1876-1959). An article in the Wakefield and West Riding Herald, 2 July 1910, described the above named Maurice de Wiart (1872-1935), whose name is full is Maurice Emmanuel Marie Ghislain Carton de Wiart, as a brother of Sir Adrian: ‘Rev M Carton de Wiart of the Westminster Cathedral on whom the King of the Belgians has just conferred the Knighthood of the Order of the Crown of Belgium, is the Keeper of the Archives and Treasurer of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Westminster and will be remembered as one of the principal organisers of the great Eucharist Congress of 1908. He is the second son of the Hon Leon C Carton de Wiart, for many years an advocate of eminence at the ‘mixed tribunals’ at Cairo and one of the most prominent upholders of the policy of British Occupation in Egypt. Father Carton de Wiart’s elder brother, Major Adrian Carton de Wiart, who distinguished himself and was twice severely wounded in the South African War, is an officer of the 4th Dragoon Guards.’ [11] Thanet Advertiser, 21 September 1943. The remark was made in a report that Sir Adrian had returned from Italy, where he was a prisoner. [12] Illustration published with article about the history of Holy Trinity by Bill Lapthorne, ‘Hamlets sent petition for a Chapel of Ease,’ East Kent Times, 9 December 1977. Rev Lewis Lanning Edwards (1862-1941), Rector of Holy Trinity Parish Church, Broadstairs from 1909 until his retirement in 1934. Rev L L Edwards died on 13 April 1941: ‘It was largely owing to his faithful teaching and ministry that Broadstairs came to be recognised as a centre of Catholic teaching and practice, not only in South-East Kent but throughout the diocese of Canterbury.’ The plot and headstone of Mrs Carton de Wiart have not yet been identified. Local research by Lorraine Reese is ongoing. The Church of St Peter-the-Apostle-in-Thanet, also located in Broadstairs, is the subject of The History of St Peter-the-Apostle Church in Thanet (2017) by Jill Hogben. [13] ‘Lady Valda Machell and Mme Carton de Wiart are both on the committee of Lady Cromer’s Dispensary for Native Children. This charity was started about a year ago – one branch at Bulak and another in the heart of the native quarter, just outside the Citadel. In spite of prejudice and superstition, the institution is very popular, and the quaint little brown babies are brought by their mothers very willingly for treatment, it having been brought home to them by endless patience that though washing and cleanliness and medicine are extremely disagreeable, fatiguing, and boring, yet in the long run the cure seems rather more certain than that effected by the wearing of an amulet blessed by a sheikh. So long as she was in Cairo, Lady Cromer came twice a week to the Dispensary to help in the work’ (The Bystander, 25 December 1907). In 1930, Lady Cromer’s Dispensaries for Sick Children were described as among the most important charitable organisations in Egypt. In 1945, it was reported that ‘Despite the difficulties of the war, the work of the Lady Cromer dispensaries, which for 38 years have been to give free medical treatment and advice in Egypt, has increased until now 250,000 free treatments are provided annually’ (Dundee Evening Telegraph, 3 May 1945). Lady Cromer was Lady Katherine Georgiana Louisa Thynne (1865-1933), daughter of the 4th Marquess of Bath, and the second wife of Evelyn Baring (1841-1917) 1st Earl of Cromer. Lady Cromer died at her London home on 4 March 1933. [14] Obituary, Journal of The Royal Central Asian Society, ‘Lt-General Sir Adrian Carton de Wiart, VC, KBE, CB, CMG, DSO’ by Lord Ismay, Volume 50, 1963, Issue 3-4. [15] In 1911, Sir Adrian’s address was 1 San merino, Hove, Sussex. [16] The address of Anita and Walter Thompson in 1962 was Symondstone, Churt. They had issue Maureen Thompson (born in 1934), and Deirdre Thompson (born in 1937) who married Captain William Tetbert Vivian Loyd, son of Mr V G Loyd of Ascot and of Mrs G H Critchley of Chester Square in 1962. A photograph of Anita Carton De Wiart and Hugh Thompson on their engagement was published in The Sketch, 4 October 1933. A photograph of Deirdre Thompson on her engagement to Mr Loyd was published in The Tatler, 16 August 1962. [17] Maria Eleanora Walker (1891-1983) and William Roger Holmes Walker (1897-1967) had issue Roger Carton de Wiart Walker (1938-1995) ‘father of Annabell and Adrian,’ married Kathleen M Simms, and Sonja Ann Walker, who married John Edward Chetwynd-Talbot (1934-2019), son of Squadron Leader John Arthur Chetwynd-Talbot. Sonja Ann Chetwynd-Talbot (born 1940), later the wife of Peter Donald Cory Woolland, had issue from her first marriage, Jane Sonja Chetwynd-Talbot and Sarah Ann Chetwyn-Talbot. [18] Belfast Telegraph, 2 November 1951. Aghinagh House, in the townland of Caum, parish of Aghinagh or Ahinagh, Co Cork, was formerly the rectory of the nearby Church of Ireland, as indicated on the first Ordnance Survey map. In 1889, Rev Henry Jellett (1821-1901) resigned the rectory and vicarage of Aghinagh and went to Dublin. The parish was subsequently joined part to Magourney and part to Macroom, and its church fell into disuse. The later Ordnance Survey map indicates the rectory was renamed ‘Ashton.’ The property seems to have been named Aghinagh House from about 1951, the time it was purchased by Sir Adrian de Wiart. In 2002, Aghinagh House with 19 acres was on the market, a property with entrance hall, three reception rooms, five bedrooms, three bathrooms, basement with kitchen, utility, staff bedroom and sitting room, stone coachouse with two reception rooms, three bedrooms, two bathrooms, gate lodge, stable yard with 20 loose boxes, paddocks, mature grounds and ‘magnificent views over the River Lee.’ In 2004, Lady Carton De Wiart instructed Mealys in the auction of its fine art and antique furniture at auction galleries, Castlecomer, Co Kilkenny. The property was sold for ‘over 1.3 million euro’ (Irish Examiner, 22 May 2004). [19] Ruth married Arthur Henry Carr Sutherland (1891-1962) on 31 January 1928. Sutherland was three times married, first to Ruby Miller in 1919, with issue David George Carr Sutherland (1920-2006), secondly to Ruth McKechnie, and thirdly in 1943 to Elizabeth Warburton-Lee née Swinton, widow of Captain Bernard Armitage Warburton-Lee, who died on HMS Hardy in 1940 age 44. [20] Irish Independent, 6 June 1963. [21] Sir Adrian described the work as his ‘reminiscences of a lucky life.’ [22] The dog was reported lost in January 1963, ‘Please telephone General Carton de Wiart, Killinardrish 6.’ [23] Ballymena Weekly Telegraph, 24 November 1950. [24] Cork Examiner, 11 June 1963. Gwynn added, ‘He had been a conspicuous figure through Co Cork since he came to live near Macroom soon after the Second World War. He had, I believe, no Irish connections, just as he had no Polish connections, though he chose to live in Poland, as an indomitable sportsman, after the First World War … he had been hoping, before his last accident, to accept a pressing invitation to dine at Collins Barracks.’ [25] Tribute in Cork Examiner, 11 June 1963. [26] Death notice, Southern Star, 16 June 1963. ‘In the Great War he lost his left eye and his left hand and as a result he was known to his friends as ‘Nelson'.’ [27] ‘The late General Carton de Wiart had a particular liking for these flowers’ (Irish Examiner, 8 June 1963). [28] See Irish Examiner, 8 June 1963 for list of mourners who included General E M Dorman, Carrigaline, Cork and Brigadier The O’Donovan, Skibbereen. [29] Chief mourners included Lady Carton de Wiart, (widow), Fergus Carr Sutherland (stepson), Mr and Mrs Peter Roberts (granddaughter), Captain and Mrs William Loyd (granddaughter), Mr Compton Carton Walker (grandson), Mr and Mrs John Arthur Chetwynd Talbot (granddaughter), Countess Edmund Carton de Wiart, Baroness Albert Houtard, M Jean Carton de Wiart, M Albert Carton de Wiart (cousins), Mrs McKechnie, mother-in-law, A J Fitzgerald, godson. See list in full in Evening Echo, 24 July 1963. [30] The following year, it was observed that the late Sir Adrian was to be subject of a 40 minute programme on the BBC’s Genius Encouraged series: ‘On the Home Service on Sunday night’ (Irish Examiner, 16 January 1964). [31] ‘Racing life of a lion-heart,’ Sunday Independent, 13 October 1996. Captain Fergus Carr Sutherland was married three times, in 1954 to Judy Ranger with whom he had two sons and two daughters, secondly to Jennifer Jill Sutherland, Preston Capes, Rugby (from whom he was divorced in 1967) and thirdly in 1970 to Ann Dorgan with whom he had a daughter. Fergie Sutherland died on 31 October 2012 at the Marymount Hospice in Co Cork. His five children survived him. He was cremated at The Island Crematorium, Ringskiddy, Cork, and his ashes scattered in a number of his favourite locations in the grounds of Aghinagh. Information courtesy Mrs Ann Sutherland, in conversation 5 April 2021. Obituary in Munster Express, 9 November 2012. [32] Lady Carton de Wiart turned 100 on 1 September 2003. Lady Carton de Wiart, or ‘Lady Joan’ as she was known, was described as a charming and beautiful person, a great conversationalist, and had been a good friend of the Queen Mother. Arás Aoibhinn Nursing Home was sold in 2009 and is now under the management of CareChoice. [33] The casket of ashes was placed in the grave at Aghinagh beside Sir Adrian. Reference: in conversation with Mrs Ann Sutherland, 5 April 2021. See also Cumann Geinealaig na heireann, Ireland’s Genealogical Gazette, ‘What Did Your Father do in the War?’ by Jim Herlihy, February 2006, p2 which contains references to the funeral service. [34] Irish Examiner, 30 April 1964. Estate in England and the Republic was valued at £7,654 (duty paid £12,102), £4,158 being the gross value of the estate in Ireland. He left £15,000 and his effects to his wife and £10,000 less duty to Muriel, Lady Tweedmouth. £1000 was left to his daughter Anita, Marie ‘was otherwise provided for.’ A sum of £200 was left to Miss Ellen Reidy, Colmanswell, Charleville, ‘as a mark of gratitude for the way in which she looked after me when I was a patient in the Royal Masonic Hospital in 1946 to 1947.’ [35] Lady Tweedmouth’s siblings were Lady Sybil Brodrick (1885-1935), George St John Brodrick (1888-1979) 2nd Earl of Midleton; Lady Aileen Hilda Brodrick (1890-1970), Lady Moyra Brodrick (1897-1982). [36] Berwickshire News and General Advertiser, 28 November 1939. [37] Lt Col Heyworth died in 1941 and Hon Mrs Moyra Heyworth married secondly to Capt Reginald Broderick Freeman-Thomas, the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, only son of Major Charles Freeman-Thomas of Cockerton Hall, Darlington in 1943. [38] The title became extinct on the death of 3rd Baron Tweedmouth in 1935.
