Person

Dunraven, Windham Thomas Wyndham-Quin, Earl of, 1841-1926

1841-1926

Windham Thomas Wyndham-Quin, 4th Earl of Dunraven was born on February 12, 1841, in Adare, County Limerick, Ireland.

He was an Anglo-Irish journalist, landowner, entrepreneur, sportsman, and politician. He was educated at Christ Church, Oxford. After serving as a lieutenant in the 1st Life Guards, a cavalry regiment, in 1867, he became a war correspondent for the London newspaper The Daily Telegraph, covering the Abyssinian War in Africa (1868), the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871), the Russo-Turkish War (1877-1878), the Third Carlist War (1872-1876), and the Treaty of Versailles (1871). Dunraven succeeded his father in the earldom in 1871 and took his seat in the House of Lords. He served as Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies under Lord Salisbury (1885-1887). He recruited two regiments of sharpshooters, leading them in the South African War (1899-1902). He published "The Outlook in Ireland, the Case for Devolution and Conciliation" (1897). He also successfully presided over the 1902 Land Conference which resulted in the Wyndham Land (Purchase) Act (1903). It terminated the last vestige of absentee landlordism in Ireland and enabled tenants to purchase land from their landlords. He was also a founder of the Irish Reform Association. A big game hunter, in 1874, Dunraven claimed 15,000 acres in Colorado, United States, determined to make the area a game park. He built a tourist hotel there but sold the land in the early 20th century. He was a keen yachtsman and as a sportsman, he wrote a book "Canadian Nights … Reminiscences of Life and Sport in the Rockies etc. " (1914). In 1939, Norfolk Street in London, UK was renamed Dunraven Street in his honour. Dunraven Pass in Yellowstone National Park is named after Lord Dunraven, as is nearby Dunraven Peak, a 3,008 m mountain peak in the Washburn Range.

He married Florence Elizabeth Kerr. He died on June 14, 1926, in London, England.