John Crichton, 5th Earl Erne


John Henry George Crichton, 5th Earl Erne, briefly styled Viscount Crichton in 1914, was an Anglo-Irish peer, soldier and politician.

Early life

Erne was the only son of Henry William Crichton, Viscount Crichton His mother was Lady Mary Cavendish Grosvenor. On 31 October 1914, his father, a Major in the Royal Horse Guards, was killed in action, aged 42, during the Great War.. Only a month later, aged seven, Erne succeeded his grandfather as the fifth Earl Erne. His mother later married Col. the Hon. Algernon Francis Stanley, with whom she had one son and a daughter.
His father was the eldest son, and heir apparent, of John Crichton, 4th Earl Erne and Lady Florence Cole. His maternal grandparents were the former Hon. Katherine Cavendish and Hugh Grosvenor, 1st Duke of Westminster, who was considered to be the richest man in Britain at this death. His paternal aunt, Lady Mabel Crichton, married his maternal uncle, Lord Hugh Grosvenor, and was the mother of Gerald and Robert, the 4th and 5th Dukes of Westminster.
From 1921-24, he serve as Page of Honour to King George V and, later, a Lord-in-Waiting to King George VI.

Career

Erne trained for a military career at the Royal Military College and was commissioned into the Royal Horse Guards in 1927. He was promoted Lieutenant in 1930 and resigned his commission in 1934. Becoming an active member of the House of Lords, he served as a Lord-in-waiting, or government whip in the House of Lords, from 1936 to 1939 in the National Government under Stanley Baldwin and later under Neville Chamberlain.
When the Second World War broke out, he was commissioned as a Major into the Royal Horse Guards and in the North Irish Horse. He was killed in action on 23 May 1940 and was buried at Wormhoudt Communal Cemetery in France.

Personal life

On 1933, Lord Erne married Lady Davidema Katharine Cynthia Mary Millicent Bulwer-Lytton, daughter of Victor Bulwer-Lytton, 2nd Earl of Lytton, and Pamela Plowden. Together, they lived at Knebworth, Hertfordshire, and were the parents of:
Upon his death in 1940, aged 32, he was succeeded in his titles by his two-year-old only son Henry. His widow, Lady Erne, later married the Conservative politician "Monty" Woodhouse, with whom she had three more children, including Christopher Woodhouse, 6th Baron Terrington.