Name Benjamin 3rd | ||
Died June 18, 1992, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, United Kingdom | ||
The Rt. Hon. (Arthur Francis) Benjamin Guinness, 3rd Earl of Iveagh (20 May 1937 – 18 June 1992), styled Viscount Elveden between 1945 and 1967, was an Irish businessman and politician.
Lord Iveagh (often popularly known as Benjamin Iveagh) was born into the Anglo-Irish Guinness family, being the son of Arthur Onslow Edward Guinness, Viscount Elveden, and Lady Elizabeth Cecilia Hare, daughter of the Richard Hare, 4th Earl of Listowel. His father, Viscount Elveden, was a Major in the 55th (Suffolk and Norfolk Yeomanry) Anti-Tank Regiment of the Royal Artillery and was killed in action by a V-2 rocket while serving in Belgium on 8 February 1945. In 1947, his mother remarried Edward Rory More O'Ferrall.
Lord Iveagh was educated at Eton College, Trinity College, Cambridge, and the University of Grenoble. He inherited the title from his grandfather, The 2nd Earl of Iveagh, in September 1967. He lived at Farmleigh in the Phoenix Park in Dublin and was chairman of Guinness 1961–1992. He was a trustee of two charitable housing associations, the Iveagh Trust in Dublin and the Guinness Trust in London.
Uniquely at the time, he was a member of two upper houses simultaneously. He was in the British House of Lords in 1967–92, and was appointed an Irish Senator by Liam Cosgrave in 1973–77.
Personal life and family
Lord Iveagh married Miranda Daphne Jane Smiley, daughter of Major Michael Smiley, of Castle Fraser, Kemnay, Aberdeenshire, on 12 March 1963. They had four children before their divorce in 1984:
- Lady Emma Lavinia (born 7 December 1963)
- Lady Louis Jane (born 20 February 1967)
- Arthur Edward Rory Guinness, Viscount Elveden (born 25 August 1969)
- Hon. Rory Michael Benjamin Guinness (born 12 December 1974)
Lord Iveagh died of cancer in Kensington and Chelsea, London, in 1992 at the age of 55. His eldest son succeeded to the family titles.