Randal McDonnell, 8th Earl of Antrim explained

Randal John Somerled McDonnell, 8th Earl of Antrim KBE (1911–1977) was a diplomat, activist, soldier and administrator. He became chairman of the National Trust in 1965.[1]

Life

He was the son of Randal Mark Kerr McDonnell, 7th Earl of Antrim, and his wife, Margaret Isabel Talbot, daughter of John Gilbert Talbot. He was educated at Eton College and at Christ Church, Oxford, where he was a friend of Evelyn Waugh, and left without taking a degree. He succeeded his father in 1932.[1] In 1937 Antrim visited Valencia, during the Spanish Civil War, with Cyril Connolly.[2]

During the Second World War Antrim was a Royal Navy officer, with the rank of Lieutenant-Commander. With the Special Operations Executive and Peter Fleming he served in various theatres of war.[3] [4] [5]

In 1965, Antrim and eleven other Irish peers presented a petition to the House of Lords arguing that the law still provided for Irish representative peers to represent Ireland. Henry Moore, 10th Earl of Drogheda, had continued to sit as one until 1954, long after the creation of the Irish Free State, and it was simply a question of providing a new mechanism for the elections. However, the Lords rejected the petition.[6]

Antrim was Chairman of the National Trust from 1965 to 1977.[7]

Family

Antrim married the artist Angela Sykes in 1934: she was the daughter of Sir Tatton Benvenuto Mark Sykes, 6th Baronet, and sister of Christopher Sykes. They lived at Glenarm Castle.[8]

They had three sons, one of whom died young, and a daughter Lady Christina who married Joseph Hoare, son of Sir Reginald Hervey Hoare. The elder surviving son Alexander succeeded his father as Earl; the younger son was Hector McDonnell the artist.[1] [9]

Notes and References

  1. 31389. John. Winnifrith. McDonnell, Randal John Somerled.
  2. Book: Humphrey Carpenter. The Brideshead Generation: Evelyn Waugh and His Friends. 7 November 2013. Faber & Faber. 978-0-571-30928-3. 311.
  3. Book: Michael Bloch. Michael Bloch. James Lees-Milne. James Lees-Milne. Diaries, 1942-1954. 8 December 2011. Hodder & Stoughton. 978-1-84854-709-4. 387 note 23.
  4. Book: Thaddeus Holt. The Deceivers: Allied Military Deception in the Second World War. 11 May 2010. Simon and Schuster. 978-1-4391-0388-3. 622.
  5. Book: Tim Jones. SAS: The First Secret Wars: The Unknown Years of Combat and Counter-Insurgency. 8 July 2005. I.B.Tauris. 978-1-86064-676-8. 77.
  6. Andrew Turek, “The Irish Peerage: A Modest Proposal” in The Cambridge Law Journal Vol. 50, No. 2 (July 1991), pp. 347-353, https://www.jstor.org/stable/4507543
  7. Book: James Lees-Milne. James Lees-Milne. Michael Bloch. Michael Bloch. Diaries, 1971-1983. 21 December 2011. Hodder & Stoughton. 978-1-84854-710-0. 432.
  8. Web site: Angela MacDonnell (1911–1984): Sculptor, The Dictionary of Ulster Biography. 18 May 2015.
  9. Hector McDonnell and Sanda Miller, Interview with Hector McDonnell, The GPA Irish Arts Review Yearbook (1988), pp. 93–99, at p. 93. Published by: Irish Arts Review. Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/20492054