Notes:

Excerpts from - Obituaries - Yorkshire Post 14/02/04

Viscount Mountgarret
Landowner and former president of Yorkshire County Cricket Club.

Long before his sudden death at the age of 67 at the wheel of his car,the 17th Viscount Mountgarret had established himself as a legendarycharacter, and one who had endeared himself to a wide circle of friendswhile profoundly antagonising a great many others, including some membersof his own family.
Irascible, sometimes outrageous, sometimes stunningly rude, he could alsobe charming, entertaining and brilliant company. One of his friendsdescribes him as a character out of PG Wodehouse.
Richard Henry Piers Butler was born on Nov 8, 1936, the only son of the16th Viscount, Piers Henry Augustine, and Eglangtine Marie Elizabeth(Christie) of Jervaulx Abbey, and while he claimed to be directlydescended from Henry VII, his demeanour, especially towards servants andpetty officials, could sometimes be that of a nobleman more attuned tothe manners of Tudor England than that of Elizabeth II.
It did have it's uses, for it took a certain robustness to bring order,as it undoubtedly did, to Yorkshire County Cricket Club of which he waselected president in 1984 when it was riven with ill tempered disputessurrounding the role of Geoffrey Boycott. He had said he would "bang afew heads together" in the interests of common sense, but in the event hebanged a cricket bat on the committee table instead.
It worked just as well, and had the advantage of not resulting in a courtappearance, of which he made a few.
The most famous followed his peppering a hot air balloon as it driftedover the heads of his shooting party, for which he was fined ?1000 with?600 costs.
That was in 1983 , but the family fortune would be more seriouslydepleted in 1999 after an industrial tribunal ordered him to pay ?19,484compensation to a former gamekeeper for wrongful dismissal, and in 1966he was fined ?1000 for driving through two red traffic lights.
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Viscount Mountgarret went to Eton and the Royal Military College,Sandhurst, and was commissioned into the Irish Guards. He left with therank of Captain in 1964 and inherited two Irish earldoms - those ofOrmonde and Ossory - the barony of Kells and the Mountgarret Viscountancyat the death of his father in 1968. In 1968 he sold the ancestral homeNidd Hall , near Knaresborough to pay off death duties.
In Who's Who he listed shooting, stalking, cricket and golf as hisrecreation, and in each sphere he attained fame.
Several golf clubs refused to hire him golf buggies because of hisreputation, friends claim, for driving them with the same disregard forlife and limb as when he drove his 4 wheel drive.
His shooting parties were enjoyed as much for their entertainment valueas for the sport they offered, and his friends never ceased to marvel athis ability to manoeuvre himself into the best position in the line bywhatever means possible.
He added a sense of cabaret by always bringing with him a whistle and redcard, blowing the one and waving the other and sending home any guest whomisbehaved - usually by bagging a bird he considered belonged to him.
Once driving across his 3000-acre estate to shoot with guests in his 4X4,he came across a gate which was closed. He roared: "I told that man toleave this gate open!" and drove straight through it, with bits of theshattered gate hanging off the bumper and draped across the bonnet, heshouted triumphantly: "That will teach him. He won't do that again!" andit was his own gate.
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He loved travelling abroad, but hated foreigners, and guests travellingwith him always knew not to unpack when they first arrived in townbecause it was certain he'd have a row with the hotel management, andthat the party would soon be on the move again in search of somewheremore congenial to him.
He was also famous for his conflicts with local traffic police at whichtimes he would adopt the classic English ploy of shouting at them inEnglish, followed by gesticulating ulatations of utter despair at theirrefusal to understand him.
He travelled extensively in pursuit of the English Cricket XI, and thestory is told how a travel agency once tried to book a hotel for him butwas told he couldn't stay there.
When he asked why not, he was reminded that on a previous visit he hadset fire to another guest's newspaper over the breakfast table.
A recreation not mentioned in his Who's Who entry was identifying vintageport, an art at which he excelled. Blind tastings were a feature when hewas among his friends, and he invariably won.

Piers + Eglangtine Marie Elizabeth (Christie) of Jervaul. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]