Death of seventh Marquess Conyngham

The funeral took place yesterday (Tuesday) on the Isle of Man of Frederick Conyngham, the seventh Marquess Conyngham, formerly of Slane Castle and father of Lord Henry Mountcharles, the current Earl Mountcharles. Aged 84, Marquess Conyngham was diagnosed with cancer six months ago. He had handed over the running of the Slane estate to his son in 1976, and moved to the Isle of Man. The seventh marquess was brought up in Scotland, and was educated at Eton and Sandhurst. He joined the Irish Guards during the Second World War when he was commissioned as a captain. In Henry Mountcharles" 1989 biography 'Public Space-Private Life", he recalls that his father fought in tanks and, amongst other things, did a short stint at Chequers, where he enjoyed the privilege of being personally reprimanded by the then British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill. Mountcharles wrote: 'During an exercise designed to test the defences of the place, somebody under my father"s command succeeded in firing a smoke bomb into the house. The prime minister was enraged and demanded to know who was responsible. He severely reprimanded my father, who was appalled at the thought of being confronted by the great man. Later that day, he invited my father to dinner.' Frederick Conyngham inherited Slane from his uncle, Victor, who died in the trenches during World War I. Victor had bypassed his brother, and left the Slane estate to his brother"s first-born male heir. When Frederick returned to Slane in 1947, he had his own father, and his mother"s father, wealthy provincial newspaper proprietor and lawyer, Gustavus Thompson, to contend with, before he gained control of the demesne. In 1947, with two properties and a shortage of cash, he decided to sell a house in Kent called Bifron and concentrate on Slane. Marquess Conyngham"s first marriage was to Eileen Newsam, from Ashfield in Beauparc, currently Eileen, Countess of Mountcharles, who lives at Galtrim, Dunsany. Her father, Captain Newsam, was the founder of Navan Carpets. In his autobiography, Henry Mountcharles writes that his parents had split up when he was 15, and his father had lived for some time in Portugal with his stepmother, while his mother continued to live at the castle with his two brothers (Simon and Patrick) and himself. By 1971, Frederick Conyngham had sorted out his arrangements and returned, but five years later, he found himself in a squeeze where he was paying more in income tax and wealth tax than he had in real income, and found he would have to dispose of assets annually to meet his tax liabilities, or he would have to sell Slane. Following meetings with numerous tax advisers, Henry Mountcharles recalled that there was a method of handing over Slane from father to son, but it would involve Conyngham having to leave Ireland and become a tax exile. He left for the Isle of Man, Henry Mountcharles left his job in Faber in London and returned to run the estate, and Slane Castle remained in the family. The seventh marquess was a regular visitor to Slane in subsequent years. He took ill while on a visit to Johannesburg in South Africa and passed away there on Tuesday of last week. The funeral service took place yesterday (Tuesday) at St Paul"s, Ramsey, Isle of Man, followed by a private cremation.