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 on the Conservative & Unionist benches in the House of Lords (as Baron Gormanston) until 1999.^[1]

Lord Gormanston is styled the Premier Viscount of Ireland, his title being created by Edward IV in 1478.^[2]

Family background

Gormanston Castle, Co. Meath

The only son and heir of the 16th Viscount Gormanston (1914–1940) and Pamela Hanly (1917–1975), only daughter and heiress of Captain Edward Hanly,^[3] of Avonmore House, Co. Wicklow^[4] and Lady Marjorie Feilding (daughter of the 9th Earl of Denbigh GCVO), he succeeded in the family titles before his first birthday.^[5]

His father, the 16th Viscount Captain Jenico Preston, King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry (who married Pamela Hanly in 1939), served in WWII being killed in action^[6] at Dunkirk in 1940.^[7]

His grandfather, the 15th Viscount Gormanston JP DL, a prominent Irish landowner (of about 11,000 acres),^[8] served as a Lieutenant in the 15th (Prince of Wales' Own Civil Service Rifles) Bn, The London Regiment. 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 diplomat, the 14th Viscount Gormanston GCMG, was his paternal great-grandfather.

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.^[9]

Later life

A Roman Catholic as with his recusant ancestors, he was educated at the Benedictine school of Downside, Somerset.

A socialite, Lord Gormanston became a connoisseur of art, being elected FRSA.^[10]

Personal life

In 1974, Viscount Gormanston married firstly, Eva-Antonie Landzianowska (1955–1984),^[11] daughter of Feliks Landzianowski (1907–2001),^[12] by whom he has two sons:^[13]

• The Hon. Jenico Francis Tara Preston, born 30 April 1974, heir apparent; commercial director^[14] British Fashion Council^[15] then Future Olympia,^[16] married 2015 Kelly Catherine Reade (born 1978), global communications director Jo Malone,^[17] descended via her mother from the marquises of Chaves,^[18] by whom he has one son,
  • (Jenico Bertram Nicholas) Alfred Preston, born 2016, heir-in-line;^[19]
• The Hon. William Luke Preston, born 1976, married 2016 Victoria Christensen.^[20]

He married secondly on 2 November 1997 Lucy Arabella Grenfell (née Fox; 1960), only daughter of Edward Fox and Tracy Reed.^[21]

Lord and Lady Gormanston live in Kensington, London.

See also

• Baron Gormanston (I, cr. 1365)
• Baron Gormanston (UK, cr. 1868)
• House of Lords