I noticed today that Edward, Duke of Kent, has held his title since August 25, 1942, when his father, the previous Duke, died in a plane crash. He’s held the title of Duke of Kent now for over eighty years.
Is there anyone in the history of the British peerage who has held a title (Duke or otherwise) for as long a time period as Edward?
Zev Steinhardt
Probably not. The 4th duke of Gordon is up there with ~75 years and I’d give him a little extra credit for making into his 80’s despite 19th century medical care, but he can’t beat him.
ETA: Aha! Wait - I found the actual winner. The 7th marquess Townshend at ~88 years and apparently the number 2 made it to 87. Pretty remarkable.
Thank you, Tamerlane!
Zev Steinhardt
I’ve got nothing on the question but wanted to say “Welcome back Zev!”
It seems Duke Edward is still in the running. Just needs to eke out another ~7 years.
Nicholas Dudley Preston, 17th Viscount Gormanston (born 19 November 1939), is a British hereditary peer who sat (as Baron Gormanston) in the House of Lords until 1999.
He inherited the title when he was one year old after his father was killed in action at Dunkirk.
Kent has been shoved down to number 41 in the line of succession, though.
According to various online sources, his father the 16th Viscount of Gormanston died at Dunkirk at the age of 25 on June 9, 2023, which coincidentally is exactly 83 years ago today. That was a few days after the evacuation of Dunkirk concluded, so he may have been one of the 40,000 or so British troops captured by the Germans there. The current viscount was not even a year old at the time. If he lives another 4 years and 105 days, he’ll break the record of the 7th Maquess Townshend. Let’s meet back here on September 22, 2027.
Yes, glad to see a familiar name from the early days of the Dope.
40000 healthy Brits left behind at Dunkirk ?? No. ZERO thousand healthy brits were left behind at Dunkirk There were 40 ,000 odd healthy French captured at Dunkirk, but the Brits were given priority in Operation Dynamo (Dunkirk ). Dynamo rescued 338,000 allied troops, despite a lot of interference from the Kriegsmarine and Luftwaffe.
The Deutch “race to the sea” had left 138,000 allied troops in the rest (south west and south) of France…
So actually the Viscounts brigade, the 2/4th of the KOYLI ,was a Line of Communication unit Territorial Army aka “Army Reserve”, a part time volunteer unit… assigned to Major General Henry Curtis of the 46th division .
Its recorded that the 2/4th KOYLI evacuated from Cherbourg in midJune, as part of operation Aerial … Operation Cycle had rescued 10000 odd from Le Havre area, as an adhoc rapid response emergency rescue operation, but operation Aerial took over as an organised departure of 200,000 odd in a far less hazardous way ,and with much of their equipment… where it fitted. Only the Luftwaffe attacked them a bit. The Kriegsmarine didn’t trouble Operation Aerial any.
Actually this means we do not get a clue why the Viscount is said died /buried at Dunkirk June 6. The Viscounts Brigade, … being Lines of Communications, tells me they were truck drivers, with trucks. Indeed, they were said to have been the rear guard holding up the germans on the bridge at Pont L’arche (arch bridge) on the Seine west of Paris, during mid June, and so they must have had trucks to carry the machine guns and mortars, and operate as a brigade on their own… far from Rennes where they were late May… very independent lot, mobile too. well trained,enough to shoot at germans attempting to cross the bridge, and then drive themselves west to drive their equipment onto a ship,
So I guess the Viscount was a truck driver and up near the border when the germans approached late may, and ended up dead at Dunkirk early June… they say his dead, no known grave. they did sometimes promote MIA to KIA to give the family closure… more likely for a Viscount’s family…if they were certain MIA was KIA… The dunkirk evacuations had a number of ships and boats sunk… so quite a few MIA…
The viscount was a captain so unlikely to be a truck driver.