Jenico Preston, 14th Viscount Gormanston

Jenico William Joseph Preston, 14th Viscount Gormanston, GCMG (1 June 1837 – 29 October 1907), was an aristocratic Anglo-Irish colonial administrator.

The Right Honourable The Viscount Gormanston GCMG
35th Governor of the Leeward Islands
In office 1885–1887
Monarch	Victoria
Preceded by	Charles Monroe Eldridge
Succeeded by	Charles Mitchell
14th Governor of British Guiana
In office 1887–1893
Monarch	Victoria
Preceded by	Charles Bruce
Succeeded by	Charles Bruce
7th Governor of Tasmania
In office 8 August 1893 – 14 August 1900
Monarch	Victoria
Preceded by	Robert Hamilton
Succeeded by	Arthur Havelock
Personal details
Born	1 June 1837 Gormanston Castle, County Meath, Ireland
Died	29 October 1907 (aged 70) Dublin, Ireland
Spouse(s)	Ismay Louisa Ursula Bellew & Georgina Jane Connellan

Born at Gormanston Castle, County Meath, he was son and heir of Edward Preston, 13th Viscount Gormanston by his wife Lucretia, daughter of William Charles Jerningham.[1]

He joined the 60th King's Royal Rifle Corps in 1855, and served as a Lieutenant during the Indian Rebellion of 1857, before retiring from the British Army in 1860.

Jenico Preston then held the ceremonial posts of High Sheriff of County Dublin (1865), County Meath (1871) before being appointed Chamberlain to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, the Marquess of Abercorn, between 1866 and 1868. He succeeded his father as viscount in 1876, and entered the House of Lords in the subsidiary title of Baron Gormanston, created for his father in the Peerage of the United Kingdom in 1868.

In 1885 Gormanston was appointed Governor of the Leeward Islands, a post he held until 1887, and then served as Governor of British Guiana from 1887 to 1893 and as Governor of Tasmania from 1893 to 1900.[2]

Lord Gormanston married firstly Hon. Ismay Louisa Ursula Bellew, daughter of Patrick Bellew, 1st Baron Bellew, in 1861; they had no children. After his first wife's death in 1875 he married secondly Georgina Jane Connellan, daughter of Major Peter Connellan, in 1878; they had three sons and one daughter. Lord Gormanston died at Dublin in October 1907, aged 70, and was succeeded in his titles by his eldest son Jenico Edward Joseph Preston, 15th Viscount Gormanston.[2]

See also

• Peerage of Ireland

Notes

1. Burke's Peerage & Baronetage
2. Davis, R. P. (1983). "Gormanston, 14th Viscount (1837 - 1907)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Melbourne University Press. ISSN 1833-7538. Retrieved 16 October 2008 – via National Centre of Biography, Australian National University.

Further reading

• Kidd, Charles, Williamson, David (editors). Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage (2015 edition).