Dominick Browne, 4th Baron Oranmore and Browne

Dominick Geoffrey Edward Browne, 4th Baron Oranmore and Browne, 2nd Baron Mereworth (21 October 1901 – 7 August 2002), was a British peer and legislator.

The Right Honourable The Lord Oranmore and Browne
Browne in 1920
Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
In office 30 June 1927 – 11 November 1999
Preceded by	The 3rd Baron Oranmore and Browne
Succeeded by	Seat abolished [a]
Personal details
Born	Dominick Geoffrey Edward Browne (1901-10-21)21 October 1901 Dublin, Ireland
Died	7 August 2002(2002-08-07) (aged 100) Westminster, England
Spouses	Mildred Egerton ​ ​ (m. 1925; div. 1936)​ Oonagh Guinness ​ ​ (m. 1936; div. 1950)​ Sally Gray ​ (m. 1951)​
Children	8, including: Dominick Browne, 5th Baron Oranmore and Browne Garech Browne Tara Browne
Parent(s)	Geoffrey Browne, 3rd Baron Oranmore and Browne Olwen Verena Ponsonby

Biography

He was born into an Anglo-Irish aristocratic family as the Hon. Dominick Geoffrey Edward Browne in 1901, the eldest son of the 3rd Baron Oranmore and Browne and Lady Olwen Verena Ponsonby, daughter of the 8th Earl of Bessborough. He was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, before joining the Grenadier Guards, serving 1921–1922 as a second lieutenant.^[1]

In 1927, he succeeded his father and took his seat in the House of Lords as Baron Mereworth, a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom (the older barony of Oranmore and Browne, in the Peerage of Ireland, did not entitle its bearer to a seat in the Lords), although he primarily used his Irish title. He sat in the House of Lords for 72 years, the longest by any peer up to that time, and during that time was one of the few peers to have never spoken in the House.

In 1930, the English residence of the Browne family, Mereworth Castle, was sold and he went to live in his Irish residence, Castle MacGarrett, just outside Claremorris in County Mayo. Castle MacGarrett, its 3,000 acres (1,200 ha) and 150 employees gave him the chance to breed racehorses and farm on a large scale. Lord Oranmore and Browne was also an aviator.^[2]

In 1939, Oranmore and Browne tried to rejoin the British Army, but he was told that, at 38, he would be more useful concentrating on farming; as a result, his war service was in neutral Ireland with the Irish reserve force, the Local Defence Force, in County Mayo.

In the early 1950s, the castle was acquired by the Irish Government's Irish Land Commission and turned into a nursing home. Lord Oranmore and Browne went to live in London.

Personal life

Lord Oranmore and Browne married three times :

• First, 1925, Mildred Helen Egerton (15 November 1903 – 1980^{[3][better source needed]}), daughter of the Hon. Thomas Henry Frederick Egerton of the earls of Ellesmere and Lady Bertha Anson of the earls of Lichfield (marriage dissolved 1936). Children from this marriage:
  • The Hon. Patricia Helen Browne (16 February 1926 – 1981)
  • The Hon. Brigid Verena Browne (25 December 1927 – 3 January 1941)
  • Dominick Geoffrey Thomas Browne (born 1 July 1929), succeeded his father as 5th Baron Oranmore and Browne and 3rd Baron Mereworth but known as Lord Mereworth
  • The Hon. Martin Michael Dominick Browne (27 October 1931 – 14 June 2013)
  • The Hon. Judith Browne (born 23 September 1934)
• Second, 1936, Oonagh Guinness (22 February 1910 – 2 August 1995), daughter of Ernest Guinness and an heir to the Guinness brewery fortune (marriage dissolved 1950). Children from this marriage:
  • The Hon. Garech Domnagh Browne (25 June 1939 – 10 March 2018)
  • An unnamed son (28 December 1943 – 30 December 1943)
  • The Hon. Tara Browne (4 March 1945 – 18 December 1966), killed in a car accident
• Third, 1951, Constance Stevens (14 February 1915 – 24 September 2006), an actress with the stage name Sally Gray, famous for her roles on the stage and in various movies in the 1930s and 40s.

Lord Oranmore and Browne died in London on 7 August 2002 at the age of 100.^[4]

Notes

1. Under the House of Lords Act 1999.

References

1. Debrett's Handbook 1982, Distinguished People in British Life. Debrett's Peerage Limited. p. 1166. ISBN 0-905649-38-9.
2. Christopher Wood Archived 12 August 2007 at the Wayback Machine
3. "Mildred Helen Browne". May 2022.
4. "Lord Oranmore and Browne". The Herald. 14 August 2002. Retrieved 15 November 2023.

• "Obituaries: Lord Oranmore and Browne". The Telegraph. London. 10 August 2002. Retrieved 8 January 2020.

Peerage of Ireland
Preceded by Geoffrey Browne	Baron Oranmore and Browne 1927–2002	Succeeded by Dominick Browne
Peerage of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Geoffrey Browne	Baron Mereworth 1927–2002 Member of the House of Lords (1927–1999)	Succeeded by Dominick Browne
Honorary titles
Preceded by The Earl Amherst	Longest-serving member in the House of Lords 1993–1999	Succeeded by The Earl Jellicoe

External links

• Dominick Browne, 4th Baron Oranmore and Browne at Find a Grave