Dominick Browne, 4th Baron Oranmore and Browne


Dominick Geoffrey Edward Browne, 4th Baron Oranmore and Browne, 2nd Baron Mereworth, was a British peer and legislator.

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 1921-22 as a second lieutenant.
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, although he primarily used his Irish title. He had the rare distinction of sitting 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 and 150 employees gave him the chance to breed race horses and farm on a large scale. Lord Oranmore and Browne was also an aviator.
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 :
Lord Oranmore and Browne died in London on 7 August 2002 at the age of 100.