Geoffrey FitzClarence, 5th Earl of Munster

The Right Honourable The Earl of Munster KBE PC
Lord Lieutenant of Surrey
In office 1957–1973
Preceded by	Sir Robert Haining
Succeeded by	The Lord Hamilton of Dalzell
Minister without Portfolio
In office 1954–1957
Prime Minister	Anthony Eden Winston Churchill
Preceded by	Arthur Greenwood
Succeeded by	The Lord Bancroft
Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies
In office 1951–1954
Prime Minister	Winston Churchill
Preceded by	Thomas Fotheringham-Cook
Succeeded by	The Lord Lloyd
Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department
In office 1944–1945
Prime Minister	Winston Churchill
Preceded by	Osbert Peake
Succeeded by	George Oliver
Parliamentary Secretary for India and Burma
In office 1943–1944
Prime Minister	Winston Churchill
Preceded by	The Duke of Devonshire
Succeeded by	The Earl of Listowel
Under-Secretary of State for War
In office January 1939 – September 1939
Prime Minister	Neville Chamberlain
Preceded by	The Lord Strathcona and Mount Royal
Succeeded by	The Viscount Cobham
Paymaster General
In office 1938–1939
Prime Minister	Neville Chamberlain
Preceded by	The Lord Hutchison of Montrose
Succeeded by	The Earl Winterton
Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal
In office 1928 – 1975 Hereditary Peerage
Preceded by	Aubrey FitzClarence, 4th Earl of Munster
Succeeded by	Edward FitzClarence, 6th Earl of Munster
Personal details
Born	Geoffrey William Richard Hugh FitzClarence (1906-02-17)17 February 1906
Died	26 August 1975(1975-08-26) (aged 69)
Political party	Conservative
Spouse(s)	Hilary Wilson ​ (m. 1928)​
Parents	The Hon. Harold FitzClarence Frances Keppel
Education	Charterhouse School

Geoffrey William Richard Hugh FitzClarence, 5th Earl of Munster, KBE, PC (17 February 1906 – 26 August 1975) was a British peer and Conservative politician.

Background[]

Munster was the son of Major the Honourable Harold Edward FitzClarence, seventh son of William FitzClarence, 2nd Earl of Munster, and his wife, Frances Isabel Eleanor (née Keppel) (1874–1951), whose paternal grandfather, Rev. William Arnold Walpole Keppel, was a male-line great-grandson of Willem van Keppel, 2nd Earl of Albemarle.^[1] Munster was educated at Charterhouse School. The 2nd Earl was the son of George FitzClarence, 1st Earl of Munster, the eldest illegitimate child of William IV of the United Kingdom and his mistress Dorothea Jordan.

Political career[]

Munster succeeded his uncle as fifth Earl of Munster in 1928 and took his seat on the Conservative benches in the House of Lords. In 1934 he was appointed a Lord-in-waiting (government whip in the House of Lords) in the National Government of Ramsay MacDonald, a post he held until 1938, the last three years under the premiership firstly of Stanley Baldwin and secondly of Neville Chamberlain. In June 1938 Chamberlain appointed Munster Paymaster-General, an office he held until January 1939, when he was made Under-Secretary of State for War. He remained in this position until September 1939.^{[citation needed]}

Munster returned to the government in January 1943 when Winston Churchill appointed him Parliamentary Secretary for India and Burma, a post he held until October 1944, and then served as Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department until July 1945 when Labour came to power. When Churchill became Prime Minister for a second time in 1951 Munster was appointed Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies, an office he retained until 1954, and was then Minister without Portfolio between 1954 and 1957. In 1954 he was admitted to the Privy Council.

Honours[]

Apart from his political career, Lord Munster was also Lord Lieutenant of Surrey from 1957 to 1973. In 1957 he was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE)^[2]

Personal life[]

The family's estate in the Greensand Ridge in the parish of Bletchingley in Surrey, the reduced modern county which is south and south-west of London

Lord Munster married Hilary Wilson in 1928. Lord Munster died in August 1975, aged 69, and was succeeded in his titles by his second cousin, Edward Charles FitzClarence, 6th Earl of Munster.

Hilary, Lady Munster, was an accomplished musician who, in 1958, founded the Countess of Munster Musical Trust; she died in 1979 just as her husband living at Sandhills, Bletchingley. Her estate was sworn for probate as £799,392 (equivalent to £4,100,000 in 2019). The house which had at the time more than 10 acres was built in 1893 by Mervyn Macartney in free Tudor style and is protected under UK law with Grade II listing.^[3][4][5]

Notes[]

References[]

• Kidd, Charles, Williamson, David (editors). Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage (1990 edition). New York: St Martin's Press, 1990,^{[page needed]}

External links[]

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by the Earl of Munster