ACCIDENTAL DEATH

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22934, 12 January 1938, Page 11

ACCIDENTAL DEATH

AGED BRITISH PEER THROWN AT HUNT MEET LONDON, Jan. 10 The Marquess of Abergavenny was killed at a children's meet of the Eridge Hunt, Groombridge, Sussex. His horse caught a hoof in a wire and the Marquess was thrown and broke his neck. Henry Gilbert Ralph NeviU. third Marquess of Abergavenny, was born in September, 1854, and educated at Eton and Oxford. He was the second son of the first Marquess, who owned about 50,000 acres in Sussex, Kent, Warwick, Worcester, Monmouth, Hereford and Norfolk, and was patron of 24 church livings. The family had been nobles for centuries, the founder having entered England with William the Conqueror and obtained large grants of land. The first was the fifth Earl and the 19th Baron. The inclinations of the late peer were toward every phase of country life, but chiefly hunting. Spending much of his time at Eridge Castle near Tunbridge Wells, Kent, where he had a

fine estate, he followed hounds enthusiastically for more than 50 years. At the same time he took a keen interest in the development of the local volunteer forces, being a captain in the West Kent Yeomanry from 1882 to 1899 and a major of the Sussex Imperial Yeomanry from 1901 to 1905, when he retired with the rank of lieutenant-colonel.

On the outbreak of the Great War the Marquess offered his services and was lieutenant-colonel of the West Kent Yeomanry until 191"7, when he was placed on the Reserve of Officers. In 1915 his father died and the elder son succeeded to the title. The latter dying in 1927 childless, his vounger brother became Marquess. He was master of the Eridge Hunt for 36 years. A keen race-goer, he attended most of the big meetings. Deceased was married three times. His first wife, a daughter of Colonel H. D. Streatfield, died in 1889. His second, whom he married in 1896, was a sister of the second Lord Grirnthorpe. She died in 1927. Next year he married the widow of the third Viscount Hardinge. He had two daughters, but no sons.

The heir to the title is Major Guy T. Larnach-Nevill, a director of the Sun Life Assurance Society, who was born in July, 1883, son of the late Lord George Mont acute Nevill. His wife is a daughter of the late Mr. James W. Larnach.