Dunraven, 4th Earl of (1841–1926) UK

Category: OWNERS

DunravenVWindham Thomas Wyndham-Quin, 4th Earl of Dunraven and Mount-Earl, (12 February 1841 – 14 June 1926), styled Viscount Adare between 1850 and 1871, was an Irish journalist, landowner, entrepreneur, sportsman and Conservative politician.
He served as Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies under Lord Salisbury from 1885 to 1886 and 1886 to 1887...

EofDunravenS... He also successfully presided over the 1902 Land Conference and was the founder of the Irish Reform Association.

Lord Dunraven was the son of The 3rd Earl of Dunraven and Mount-Earl by his first wife, Florence Augusta Goold, third daughter of Thomas Goold. He was educated at Christ Church, Oxford. Lord Dunraven married Florence Kerr, second daughter of Lord Charles Kerr, first son by his second wife of William Kerr, 6th Marquess of Lothian. They had three children:
- Lady Florence Enid Wyndham-Quin (13 June 1870 – July 1891).
- Lady Rachael Charlotte Wyndham-Quin (20 February 1872 – 30 January 1901), married Desmond FitzJohn Lloyd FitzGerald, 27th Knight of Glin and had issue.
- Lady Aileen May Wyndham-Quin (9 April 1873 – 25 February 1962), married Reginald Brabazon, 13th Earl of Meath and had issue. In 1897, she was one of the guests at the Duchess of Devonshire’s Diamond Jubilee Costume Ball.

In 1869, Lord Dunraven revealed in his diaries under the title Experiences in Spiritualism with D. D. Home that he had slept in the same bed with Daniel Dunglas Home. Many of the diary entries contain erotic homosexual overtones between Adare and Home.

Lord Dunraven died in June 1926, aged 85. As he died without a male heir the earldom passed to a cousin, Windham Wyndham-Quin, 5th Earl of Dunraven and Mount-Earl, and the barony of Kenry, which had been created for his father, became extinct. He is buried at St. Nicholas' Church of Ireland in Adare, County Limerick, Ireland. In 1895 Dunraven lived at 27 Norfolk Street, then 26 years after his death in 1939 the street was renamed Dunraven Street in his honour.

LORD DUNRAVEN AND THE AMERICA'S CUP

In 1892, in an interesting article in the North American Review, Lord Dunraven gives its opinion on the yachting in general and on the America's Cup in particular.

For his first challenge in 1893, Lord Dunraven had undoubtedly the best boat. By drawing Valkyrie II, George Lennox Watson had taken a step ahead of the competition, but this advantage has not been translated on the water, largely because of bad luck. The 1893 challenge offered us splendid matches and gave Lord Dunraven the desire to challenge again.

03462VUnfortunately, the 1895 challenge will be a fiasco that will culminate in an investigation unworthy of sport. And yet ...

In the autumn of 1894 Lord Dunraven opened correspondence looking to another challenge. His first letter on the subject was dated October 24th, 1894, at Dunraven Castle, and addressed to Mr. J. V. S. Oddie, secretary of the New York Yacht Club. In it he suggested that he would challenge again on the terms of the Vigilant-Valkyrie II. races, slighdy modified. He desired the yachts to be measured with all weights on board, and their water-lines marked; all races on windward and leeward courses to be started to windward; the races to be sailed off Marblehead, as offering a clearer course than that off Sandy Hook. 04876VMalheureusement, le New York Yacht Club ne tiendra pas compte de ces revendications tout à fait légitimes qui seront en partie acceptées pour le défi de 1899:
- the United States government, for the first time, exercised authority to keep a clear course, under a special act of congress, passed May 19th, 1896, at the instance of members of the New York Yacht Club and other yachtsmen.
- the vessels were allowed three men to every five feet of racing length when measured.
- the water-line should be marked “at the bow and as far aft as possible, on each vessel."

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