Jenico Preston, 14th Viscount Gormanston

The Right Honourable
The Viscount Gormanston
GCMG
35th Governor of the Leeward Islands
In office
1885–1887
MonarchVictoria
Preceded byCharles Monroe Eldridge
Succeeded byCharles Mitchell
14th Governor of British Guiana
In office
1887–1893
MonarchVictoria
Preceded byCharles Bruce
Succeeded byCharles Bruce
7th Governor of Tasmania
In office
8 August 1893 – 14 August 1900
MonarchVictoria
Preceded byRobert Hamilton
Succeeded byArthur Havelock
Personal details
Born1 June 1837
Gormanston Castle, County Meath, Ireland
Died29 October 1907 (1907-10-30) (aged 70)
Dublin, Ireland
Spouse(s)1. Ismay Louisa Ursula Bellew;
2. Georgina Jane Connellan

Jenico William Joseph Preston, 14th Viscount Gormanston, GCMG (1 June 1837 – 29 October 1907), was an aristocratic Anglo-Irish colonial administrator.

Biography

Born at Gormanston Castle, County Meath, he was the elder son and heir of Edward Preston, 13th Viscount Gormanston, by his wife Lucretia, daughter of William Charles Jerningham, brother of the 8th Baron Stafford.[1]

He was commissioned into the 60th King's Royal Rifle Corps in 1855, and served as a Lieutenant during the Indian Rebellion of 1857, before retiring from the British Army in 1860.

As the Hon. Jenico Preston he served as High Sheriff of County Dublin (1865), County Meath (1871) before being appointed Chamberlain to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, the Marquess of Abercorn KG, between 1866 and 1868. He succeeded his father in the viscountcy in 1876, having entered the House of Lords under the subsidiary title of Baron Gormanston, created for his father in the Peerage of the United Kingdom in 1868.

In 1885 Gormanston was appointed Governor of the Leeward Islands, a post he held until 1887, and then served as Governor of British Guiana from 1887 to 1893 and as Governor of Tasmania from 1893 to 1900.[2]

Appointed KCMG in 1887, he was promoted GCMG in 1897.

Lord Gormanston married firstly the Hon. Ismay Louisa Ursula Bellew, daughter of Patrick, 1st Baron Bellew, in 1861; they had no children. After his first wife's death in 1875, he married secondly Georgina Jane Connellan, daughter of Major Peter Connellan, in 1878; they had three sons and one daughter.

Georgina, Lady Gormanston suggested that a maternity hospital would be a fitting was of marking Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. At the time the only assistance to pregnant women came from untrained and unregulated midwives. It was agreed and a committee of women manage the Queen Victoria Maternity Hospital which opened in September 1897.[3]

Lord Gormanston died at Dublin in October 1907, aged 70, and was succeeded in his titles by his eldest son Jenico Edward Joseph Preston, 15th Viscount Gormanston.[2]

He held almost 11,000 acres in Meath and Dublin.[4]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Burke's Peerage & Baronetage
  2. ^ a b Davis, R. P. (1983). "Gormanston, 14th Viscount (1837 - 1907)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. ISBN 978-0-522-84459-7. ISSN 1833-7538. OCLC 70677943. Retrieved 16 October 2008.
  3. ^ "Queen Victoria Hospital". www.utas.edu.au. Retrieved 7 October 2024.
  4. ^ The great landowners of Great Britain and Ireland

Further reading

  • Kidd, Charles, Williamson, David (editors). Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage (2019 edition).
Government offices
Preceded by Governor of the Leeward Islands
1885–1887 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Governor of British Guiana
1887–1893 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Governor of Tasmania
1893–1900 		Succeeded by
Peerage of Ireland
Preceded by
Edward Anthony John Preston
13th Viscount
 Viscount Gormanston
1876–1907 		Succeeded by
Jenico Edward Joseph Preston
15th Viscount