Arthur Cairns, 2nd Earl Cairns

Arthur William Cairns, 2nd Earl Cairns (21 December 1861 – 14 January 1890) was a British aristocrat, succeeding to the title on the death of his father the first Earl Cairns on 2 April 1885.[1][2]

The Right Honourable The Earl Cairns
Earl Cairns as caricatured by Spy (Leslie Ward) in Vanity Fair, January 1886
Personal details
Born	Arthur William Cairns 21 December 1861 London, England
Died	14 January 1890 (aged 28) Mayfair, London
Spouse(s)	Olivia Elizabeth Berens ​ ​ (m. 1887; his death 1890)​
Relations	Herbert Cairns, 3rd Earl Cairns (brother)
Parents	Hugh Cairns, 1st Earl Cairns Mary Harriet MacNeile
Education	Wellington College Eton College
Alma mater	Trinity College, Cambridge

Early life

Born in London in 1861, he was the second but eldest surviving son of Mary Harriet (née MacNeile) and Hugh MacCalmont Cairns, 1st Earl Cairns, a British statesman who served as Lord Chancellor of the United Kingdom during the first two ministries of Benjamin Disraeli.

Arthur Cairns was educated at Wellington College in Berkshire. Between 1875 and 1876 he attended Eton College,[3] going on to study at Trinity College, Cambridge.[4]

Career

Cairns became Private Secretary to the President of the Board of Trade.[3] He succeeded to the titles of 2nd Baron Cairns of Garmoyle, County Antrim, and 2nd Viscount Garmoyle, County Antrim upon the death of his father on 2 April 1885.[2]

Personal life

On 20 November 1884 Cairns was successfully sued for £10,000 for breach of promise of marriage by Emily Mary Finney (an actress with the stage name of May Fortescue).[5] He had seen her on stage in Gilbert and Sullivan's opera Iolanthe and the two struck up a relationship. He proposed marriage, and she accepted, leaving the Savoy Theatre at the end of August 1883. Although his family accepted Fortescue, according to The New York Times, Cairn's friends could not accept his engagement to an actress, and he broke off the engagement in January 1884, leaving the country to travel in Asia. Fortescue, assisted by W. S. Gilbert's solicitors, sued him for breach of promise, receiving £10,000 in damages.[6]

He was also engaged to the New York heiress Adele Grant, but she broke off the engagement shortly before their wedding (and later married George Capell, 7th Earl of Essex in 1893).[7]

Marriage and issue

On 19 December 1887, he was married to Olivia Elizabeth Berens OBE at St. Mary's Church, Bryanston Square, Marylebone, London. His wife was a daughter of Alexander Augustus Berens and Louisa Winifred Stewart.[3] Together, they were the parents of:[8]

• Lady Louise Rosemary Kathleen Virginia Cairns MBE (1889–1962), who married Wyndham Portal, 1st Viscount Portal in 1909.[8]

Cairns died of pneumonia on 14 January 1890, aged 28, at 18 Queen Street, Mayfair, London. He was buried at Bournemouth in Hampshire. He died intestate, and his estate was administered in April 1890 at £5,135.[3] Having only a daughter, his titles passed to his younger brother, Herbert John Cairns, 3rd Earl Cairns.[8] After his death, his widow remarried to Maj. Roger Cyril Hans Sloane-Stanley of Paultons in 1899 (the High Sheriff of Hampshire in 1913),[9] before her own death on 20 June 1951.[8]

References

1. Cairns on The Peerage website
2. Charles Mosley, editor, Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes (Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003), volume 1, page 640
3. G .E. Cokayne; with Vicary Gibbs, H.A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, Duncan Warrand and Lord Howard de Walden, editors, The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant, new ed., 13 volumes in 14 (1910-1959; reprint in 6 volumes, Gloucester, U.K.: Alan Sutton Publishing, 2000), volume II, p. 471
4. "Cairns, Arthur William, Viscount Garmoyle (CNS880AW)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
5. Peter W. Hammond, editor, The Complete Peerage or a History of the House of Lords and All its Members From the Earliest Times, Volume XIV: Addenda & Corrigenda (Stroud, Gloucestershire, U.K.: Sutton Publishing, 1998), p. 132
6. "Miss Fortescue's Broken Heart; Trial of the Actress's Suit Against Lord Garmoyle Begun", The New York Times, 21 November 1884, p. 1, accessed 30 October 2009
7. "COUNTESS OF ESSEX DIES IN HER BATH; Former Adele Grant of New York Stricken With Heart Attack After Dinner Party.TRIED TO SUMMON HELPDowager, Once Famous Beauty,Was Model for Herkomer's"A Lady in White."" (PDF). The New York Times. 29 July 1922. Retrieved 13 March 2020.
8. "Cairns, Earl (UK, 1878)". www.cracroftspeerage.co.uk. Heraldic Media Limited. Retrieved 13 March 2020.
9. "No. 28701". The London Gazette. 6 April 1913. p. 2058.

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by the Earl Cairns
• Arthur Cairns on The Peerage website