Talk:Somerset Lowry-Corry, 4th Earl Belmore

Obituary extract

An interesting, more lively picture of the Earl is given in this extract from his obituary in 1913:

The Rt Hon. the Earl of Belmore ..., senior representative peer of Ireland, was born on 9 April 1835, and succeeded his father in 1845 .... [He] was a man of much intellectuality and was a ripe scholar. He received his education first at Eton and then at Cambridge. In 1861 he married a daughter of Capt. John Neilson Gladstone, RN, of Bowden Park, Chippenham, who was MP for Ipswich and Devizes. Capt. Gladstone was brother to William Ewart Gladstone, who, like the late Earl of Belmore, was in early life brought up in the principles of Evangelicalism, and whose strong Tory opinions gained him his first seat in parliament.

Unlike the distinguished statesman and scholar, Lord Belmore through the whole of his long life remained a consistent Conservative. For a short time, 1866-1867, he was Under Secretary for the Home Department, and so highly did he account this honour that he hardly ever spoke in public, whether on a religious or political platform, without a reference to the fact that he had been an Under Secretary. In 1867 he was made a member of the Privy Council, and was for four years Governor of New South Wales. In 1877 the Earl of Belmore acted as President of the Commission appointed to enquire into the affairs of Dublin University. A more admirable choice could not have been made.

Lord Belmore will also be remembered for the part that he took in defending the Irish landlords as a class than any other English statesman. He was for years a leader in the Irish Landowners' Convention. A man of deep religious convictions, he opposed the disestablishment of the Irish Church. At what were formerly the largely attended gatherings, known as the April meetings, Lord Belmore was a regular speaker. His religious sympathies were, however, far from being confined to the Episcopalian body. Protestants of all denominations had a friend and supporter in him, and in this respect the relatives, Lord James Butler, the late Earl of Carrick and Lord Belmore were conspicuous.

The late Earl was a literary man of some mark. His Parliamentary Memoirs of Fermanagh and Tyrone is a book that was the result of much research, and is highly thought about [sic]. The History of the Corry Family is a standard genealogical work, and was also written by the Earl of Belmore. On the fascinating subject of archaeology, Lord Belmore was an authority, and contributed many learned and instructive articles from time to time to the Ulster Journal of Archaeology.

His life was a stirring one, and he was successively a major in the London Irish RV and a captain in the Fermanagh Militia. He was Lord Lieutenant for the County of Tyrone, and took an active part in discharging his duties as a magistrate of that county. He acted on many occasions as one of the Lords Justices for Ireland, and in everything connected with Ireland he was deeply interested. The Royal Irish Academy elected him a member in recognition of his contributions to literature, and there was no man in Ireland who was more thoroughly respected by all classes. ...'

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