2nd Lieutenant Frederick William Burton Conyngham, 6th Marquess Conyngham
Frederick William Conyngham, on Slane Castle, County Meath, was born at 41 Dover Street, Picadilly, on 26 June 1890, son of Henry Francis Conyngham, 4th Marquis Conyngham, and Frances Elizabeth Sarah (nee De Moleyne).
Educated at Winchester, he was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Westmorland and Cumberland Yeomanry on 25 April 1910, but resigned on 24 May the following year.
On 30 September 1911 he was commissioned in the 2nd Dragoons (Royal Scots Greys), but resigned the following year after he became ill with scarlet fever.
On the outbreak of war he was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 3rd (Reserve) Battalion, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers. He went to France on 30 December 1914, attached to the 2nd Battalion, Royal Munster Fusiliers, but returned home sick in February 1915. According to a medical board report he:
... returned from Queen Mary's Convalescent Home, Cirniez a week ago, where he was sent from the Front to recover from an attack of Influenza. He is very much run down and 'nervy' and requires a complete rest which he has been advised to take before undertaking any treatment for nasal obstruction.
On 18 July 1915 he was transferred to the North Irish Horse. However his ill-health continued and on 16 March 1916, after a medical board found him permanently unfit for general service, he resigned his commission.
However in February 1917 he was called up and posted as an ordinary soldier (No.254602) to the Signal Depot, Royal Engineers, Bletchley, and then the 71st Divisional Signal Company, where he worked as a despatch rider.
In April he applied for a commission in the Royal Scots Greys, and later that year was transferred to No.1 Officer Cadet School. On 11 March 1918 he was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Labour Corps under paragraph 392 xix(a) of King's Regulations, "for the benefit of the public service". He relinquished his commission, again on the grounds of ill-health, on 19 January 1919.
Lord Conyngham died on 1 April 1974.
I am grateful to the National Portrait Gallery for giving me permission to reproduce the image of Lord Conyngham (details below):
Frederick William Burton Conyngham, 6th Marquess Conyngham
by Bassano Ltd
whole-plate film negative, 11 May 1937
Given by Bassano & Vandyk Studios, 1974
Photographs Collection
NPG x152844