Series 1 - Field Marshal The Earl of Lucan GCB Military Papers

A group of papers originally contained in a box labelled as above. These papers were in envelopes numbered 1-86, with a brief description of the contents on the outside. This box is referred to in a letter dated 11 April 1954, from Patrick, 6th Earl, to Brigadier E.C. Anstey [P48/400], which states that it was Mrs. Cecil Woodham-Smith who 'classified and dated' the papers. Some of the papers by Mrs. Woodham-Smith are now missing [see Appendix].

The papers not only relate to George Charles 3rd Earl but also contain records concerning earlier generations of the Lucan family and other family associates. They are by no means exclusively military papers, as there are papers relating to the family estates in Co. Mayo and in Middlesex and to legal and family matters. They have been preserved, however, because they all have a link with George Charles, 3rd Earl.

George Charles Bingham, succeeded his father as 3rd Earl of Lucan in 1839. As Lord Bingham he had been active in Ireland in the mid-1820s and he contested the 1826 election and was returned as MP for County Mayo. In the autumn of 1837 he was in Castlebar and it may have been at this time that he alerted his father to the misdemeanours of the Earl's agents in Castlebar, St. Clair O'Malley. St Clair O'Malley was dismissed as the Lucan estate agent and the enmity between the two men was publicly displayed when they were both removed from the magistracy of Co Mayo in 1842.

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10/12/2015
29/07/2025