Gerald FitzGerald, 8th Duke of Leinster (27 May 1914 – 3 December 2004) was the premier Duke, Marquess and Earl in the Peerage of Ireland.
Early life
Gerald FitzGerald was the only child of Edward FitzGerald, 7th Duke of Leinster, and his first wife, May Juanita Etheridge, a chorus girl.
Relations between Gerald FitzGerald's parents became strained when he was still a small child. In 1922, his father became 7th duke upon the death of the 6th duke, and Gerald FitzGerald gained the courtesy title of Marquess of Kildare. But Harry Mallaby-Deeley acquired control of the large estates of the Dukes of Leinster during the lifetime of the new duke, who had previously sold Mallaby-Deeley his reversionary rights to them for a small sum, not expecting, as a younger son, to inherit.
Soon after this, the 7th Duke secured a separation from his mother, and they were divorced eight years later, in 1930. Gerald Kildare spent most of his childhood being brought up by his great aunt Lady Adelaide FitzGerald (1860–1942), at Johnstown Castle, County Wexford. A daughter of George Forbes, 7th Earl of Granard, she was the widow of his great uncle Lord Maurice FitzGerald, and it was felt that she would provide a suitable environment for the future duke.
The 7th Duke married four times in all, but had no other legitimate children and became notorious for financial profligacy and mismanagement. He had numerous step-children, the progeny of his wives by previous marriages. Among them was Joan Yarde-Buller, daughter of his third wife Denise Orme. Joan Yarde-Buller, also known as Princess Taj-ud-dawlah, was married to Prince Aly Khan at the time he married her mother in 1946. Joan's son Karim (born 1936) would in time become Prince Aga Khan IV.
Due to the 7th Duke’s money troubles, the trustees of the family estate entrusted the young Gerald Kildare with the care of family heirlooms and treasures and gave him an advance on his inheritance.
Educated at Eton College, Gerald Kildare became a cadet at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, and was commissioned into the 5th Royal Inniskilling Dragoon Guards. In 1935, his mother committed suicide by swallowing an overdose of sleeping pills. He saw active service in the Second World War and was invalided out of the Army after being wounded in Normandy, with the rank of major.
Later life
After the war, the future duke farmed his estate at Kilkea Castle, County Kildare, Ireland, but it proved unprofitable. In the early 1960s, he moved to Oxfordshire and worked in the aviation industry. It was at his Oxfordshire home that, in 1976, the police were called to prevent his father making off with property worth over £100,000, a painting by Joshua Reynolds and a tapestry. The 7th Duke died the same year; however, the 8th Duke was hindered from receiving the peerages due to an American who claimed to be the son of his father's elder brother Lord Desmond FitzGerald (died 1916).
The Duke of Leinster was a keen field sportsman. He was Master of the North Kilkenny Foxhounds from 1937 to 1940; of the West Percy Foxhounds in 1945-46; and of the Portman Foxhounds in 1946-47.
In 1999, the Duke failed in his attempts to prevent a half-brother from being formally recognised as a member of the ducal family by both Debrett's Peerage and Burke's Peerage. This was Adrian FitzGerald, an illegitimate son of the 7th Duke by Yvonne Denison Percy Probyn, later surnamed FitzGerald by deed poll, who was the daughter of Captain Percy John Probyn, RAMC, the eldest son of Frederick Probyn, JP, of Cambridge House, Treverthen, Monmouthshire.