Gerald FitzGerald, 8th Duke of Leinster

Gerald FitzGerald, 8th Duke of Leinster (27 May 1914 – 3 December 2004) was Ireland's Premier Peer of the Realm.

Gerald FitzGerald was the only child of Edward FitzGerald, 7th Duke of Leinster and his first wife, May Juanita Etheridge, a chorus girl.

Due to his parents' separation in 1922 and their subsequent divorce eight years later, the future duke spent most of his childhood being cared for by his grandaunt, Lady Adelaide FitzGerald, at Johnstown Castle, County Wexford. Lady Adelaide (1860-1942) was the widow of his granduncle, Lord Maurice FitzGerald, and a daughter of the 7th Earl of Granard. He used the courtesy title of Marquess of Kildare from 1922 when his father acceded to the Leinster titles.

Educated at Eton, he became a cadet at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, and took a commission in the 5th Royal Inniskilling Dragoon Guards, with whom he served as a major in the Second World War. He was invalided out of the Army after being wounded in Normandy.

After the war the future duke tried to farm the estate at Kilkea Castle, County Kildare, Ireland, but it proved unprofitable, and in the early 1960s he moved to Oxfordshire and worked in the aviation industry. It was at his Oxfordshire home that, in 1976, the police were called to prevent his father making off with over £100,000 by way of a painting by Joshua Reynolds and a tapestry. The 7th Duke died the same year; however the 8th Duke was prevented from receiving his title momentarily due to an American who claimed to be the son of his father's elder brother Lord Desmond FitzGerald (d. 1916).

Similarly, in 1999, the Duke failed in his attempts to prevent a half-brother being formally recognized by both Debrett's Peerage and Burke's Peerage. This man, Adrian FitzGerald, was the illegitimate son of the 7th Duke by Yvonne Probyn (later surnamed FitzGerald by deed poll, who was the daughter of Captain Percy John Probyn, RAMC, who was the eldest son of Frederick Probyn, JP, of Cambridge House, Treverthen, Monmouthshire.

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