Editing Lord Dunsany (section)

==Biography==
===Early life===
Edward Plunkett (''Dunsany''), known to his family as "Eddie", was the first son of [[John William Plunkett, 17th Baron of Dunsany]] (1853–1899), and his wife, Ernle Elizabeth Louisa Maria Grosvenor [[Ernle]]-Erle-Drax (née Burton) (1855–1916).<ref>{{Cite web |date=24 July 1878 |title=Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany |url=https://www.geni.com/people/Edward-Plunkett-18th-Baron-of-Dunsany/6000000000629554702 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171201041933/https://www.geni.com/people/Edward-Plunkett-18th-Baron-of-Dunsany/6000000000629554702 |archive-date=1 December 2017 |access-date=12 July 2017 |website=geni_family_tree}}</ref>

From a historically wealthy and famous family, Lord Dunsany was related to many well-known Irish figures. He was a kinsman of the [[Roman Catholic|Catholic]] Saint [[Oliver Plunkett]], the martyred [[Archbishop of Armagh (Roman Catholic)|Archbishop of Armagh]] whose ring and [[crosier|crozier]] head are still held by the Dunsany family. He was also related to the prominent Anglo-Irish unionist and later nationalist / [[Irish Home Rule|Home Rule]] politician [[Sir Horace Plunkett]] and [[George Noble Plunkett|George Count Plunkett]], [[Papal Count]] and Republican politician, father of [[Joseph Plunkett]], executed for his part in the [[Easter Rising|1916 Rising]].

His mother was a cousin of [[Sir Richard Burton]], and he inherited from her considerable height, being 1.93 metres tall (6'4"). The Countess of Fingall, wife of Dunsany's cousin, the [[Earl of Fingall]], wrote a best-selling account of the life of the aristocracy in Ireland in the late 19th century and early 20th century called ''Seventy Years Young''.

Plunkett's only adult sibling, a younger brother, from whom he was estranged from about 1916, for reasons not fully clear but connected to his mother's will, was the noted British naval officer [[Reginald Drax|Sir Reginald Drax]]. Another younger brother died in infancy.

Edward Plunkett grew up at the family properties, notably Dunstall Priory in [[Shoreham, Kent|Shoreham]], Kent, and [[Dunsany Castle]] in County Meath, but also in family homes such as in London. His schooling was at [[Cheam School|Cheam]], [[Eton College]] and the [[Royal Military College, Sandhurst]], which he entered in 1896.

===Title and marriage===
[[File:Beatrice Child Villiers.jpg|thumb|upright=.70|Beatrice Child Villiers, Lady Dunsany]]
The title passed to him at his father's death in 1899 at a fairly young age. The young Lord Dunsany returned to [[Dunsany Castle]] after war duty, in 1901. In that year he was also confirmed as an elector for the [[List of Irish representative peers|Irish representative peer]]s in the [[House of Lords]].

In 1903, he met Lady Beatrice Child Villiers (1880–1970), youngest daughter of [[Victor Child Villiers, 7th Earl of Jersey|The 7th Earl of Jersey]] (head of the Jersey banking family), who was then living at [[Osterley Park]]. They married in 1904.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Maume |first=Patrick |title=Plunkett, Edward John Moreton Drax {{!}} Dictionary of Irish Biography |url=https://www.dib.ie/biography/plunkett-edward-john-moreton-drax-a7381 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210812213538/https://www.dib.ie/biography/plunkett-edward-john-moreton-drax-a7381 |archive-date=12 August 2021 |access-date=2024-03-16 |website=www.dib.ie |date=2009 |language=en |doi=10.3318/dib.007381.v1}}</ref> Their one child, Randal, was born in 1906. Lady Beatrice was supportive of Dunsany's interests and helped him by typing his manuscripts, selecting work for his collections, including the 1954 retrospective short story collection, and overseeing his literary heritage after his death.

The Dunsanys were socially active in [[Dublin]] and London and travelled between homes in Meath, London and [[Kent]], other than during [[World War I|the First]] and [[World War II|Second world wars]] and the [[Irish War of Independence]]. Dunsany circulated with many literary figures of the time. To many of these in Ireland he was first introduced by his uncle, the co-operative pioneer [[Sir Horace Plunkett]], who also helped to manage his estate and investments for a time. He was friendly, for example, with [[George William Russell]], [[Oliver St. John Gogarty]], and for a time, [[William Butler Yeats|W. B. Yeats]]. He also socialised at times with [[George Bernard Shaw]] and [[H. G. Wells]], and was a friend of [[Rudyard Kipling]].

In 1910 Dunsany commissioned a two-storey extension to Dunsany Castle, with a billiard room, bedrooms and other facilities. The billiard room includes the crests of all the Lords Dunsany up to the 18th.

===Military experience===
[[File:Edward Plunkett Lord Dunsany.jpg|thumb|left|upright=.45|Dunsany as captain, [[Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers]], in the First World War]]
Dunsany served as a second lieutenant in the [[Coldstream Guards]] in the [[Second Boer War]]. Volunteering in the First World War and appointed Captain in the [[Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers]], he was stationed for a time at [[Ebrington Barracks]] in Derry. Hearing while on leave of disturbances in Dublin during the [[Easter Rising]] of 1916, he drove in to offer help and was wounded by a bullet lodged in his skull.<ref>Leonard R. N. Ashley, "Plunkett, Edward John Moreton Drax, eighteenth Baron Dunsany (1878–1957)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2006 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/35547, accessed 26 November 2014]</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.irelandseye.com/aarticles/history/people/writers/dunsany.shtm |title=Edward Plunkett, Lord Dunsany |website=irelandseye.com |access-date=12 July 2017}}</ref> After recovery at [[Jervis Street Hospital]] and what was then the King George V Hospital (now [[St. Bricin's Military Hospital]]), he returned to duty. His military belt was lost in the episode and later used at the burial of [[Michael Collins (Irish leader)|Michael Collins]]. Having been refused forward positioning in 1916 and listed as valuable as a trainer, he served in the later war stages in the trenches and in the final period writing propaganda material for the War Office with MI7b(1). There is a book at Dunsany Castle with wartime photographs, on which lost members of his command are marked.

During the [[Irish War of Independence]], Dunsany was charged with violating the [[Restoration of Order in Ireland Act 1920|Restoration of Order in Ireland Regulations]], tried by court-martial on 4 February 1921, convicted, and sentenced to pay a fine of 25 pounds or serve three months in prison without labour. The Crown Forces had searched [[Dunsany Castle and Demesne|Dunsany Castle]] and had found two double-barrelled shotguns, two rook rifles, four [[Flare gun|Very pistols]], an automatic pistol and a large quantity of pistol ammunition, along with shotgun and rifle ammunition.<ref>[https://search.findmypast.co.uk/record/browse?id=ire%2fwo35%2f134%2f00225 ''search.findmypast.co.uk''] (subscription needed).</ref>

During the [[Second World War]], Dunsany signed up for the [[Irish Army Reserve]] and the [[British Home Guard]], the two countries' local defence forces, and was especially active in [[Shoreham, Kent]], the English village bombed most during the [[Battle of Britain]].
{{Clear}}

===Literary life===
[[File:Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron Dunsany.jpg|thumb|Photograph of Dunsany from the [[Bain News Service]]]]
Dunsany's fame arose chiefly from his prolific writings. He was involved in the [[Irish Literary Revival]]. Supporting the Revival, Dunsany was a major donor to the [[Abbey Theatre]] and he moved in Irish literary circles. He was well acquainted with [[W. B. Yeats]] (who rarely acted as editor but gathered and published a Dunsany selection), [[Lady Gregory]], [[Percy French]], [[George William Russell|George "AE" Russell]], Oliver St John Gogarty, [[Padraic Colum]] (with whom he jointly wrote a play) and others. He befriended and supported [[Francis Ledwidge]], to whom he gave the use of his library,<ref>{{cite book|first1=D.J.|last1=Hickey|first2=J.E.|last2=Doherty|title=A Dictionary of Irish History since 1800|publisher=[[Gill (publisher)|Gill & MacMillan]]|location=Dublin, Ireland|date=1980}}</ref> and [[Mary Lavin]].

Dunsany made his first literary tour to the United States in 1919 and further such visits up to the 1950s, in the early years mostly to the eastern seaboard and later, notably, to California.

Dunsany's own work and contribution to the Irish literary heritage were recognised with an honorary degree from [[Trinity College Dublin]].

===Early 1940s===
In 1940, Dunsany was appointed Byron Professor of English in [[Athens University]], Greece. Having reached Athens by a circuitous route, he was so successful that he was offered a post as Professor of English in [[Istanbul]]. However, he had to be evacuated due to the [[German invasion of Greece]] in April 1941, returning home by an even more complex route, his travels forming a basis for a long poem published in book form (''A Journey, in 5 cantos: The Battle of Britain, The Battle of Greece, The Battle of the Mediterranean, Battles Long Ago, The Battle of the Atlantic'', special edition January 1944). [[Olivia Manning]]'s character Lord Pinkrose in her [[novel sequence]] the ''[[Fortunes of War (novel series)|Fortunes of War]]'' was a mocking portrait of Dunsany in that period.<ref>{{Harvnb |Cooper |1989 |p=159}}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb |Braybrooke |Braybrooke |2004 |p=110}}</ref>

===Later life===
[[File:Portrait Lord Dunsany.jpg|thumb|Portrait of Lord Dunsany by Serge Ivanoff, San Francisco, 1953]]
In 1947, Dunsany transferred his Meath estate in trust to his son and heir [[Randal Plunkett, 19th Baron of Dunsany|Randal]] and settled in Kent at his [[Shoreham, Kent|Shoreham]] house, Dunstall Priory. He visited Ireland only occasionally thereafter, and engaged actively in life in Shoreham and London. He also began a new series of visits to the United States, notably California, as recounted in Hazel Littlefield-Smith's biographical ''Dunsany, King of Dreams''.

===Death===
In 1957, Lord Dunsany became ill while dining with the [[Earl of Fingall|Earl]] and Countess of Fingall at Dunsany, in what proved to be an attack of [[appendicitis]]. He died in hospital in Dublin, at the age of 79. He was buried in the churchyard of the ancient church of St Peter and St Paul, Shoreham, Kent. His funeral was attended by many family members (including Pakenhams, Jerseys and Fingalls), representatives of his old regiment and various bodies in which he had taken an interest, and figures from Shoreham. A memorial service was held at [[Kilmessan]] in Meath, with a reading of "[[Crossing the Bar]]", which coincided with the passing of a flock of geese.

Beatrice survived Dunsany, living mainly at Shoreham and overseeing his literary legacy until her death in 1970. Their son Randal succeeded to the barony and was in turn succeeded by his grandson, the artist [[Edward Plunkett, 20th Baron of Dunsany|Edward Plunkett]]. Dunsany's literary rights passed from Beatrice to Edward.{{cn|date=November 2022}}

===Interests===
Aside from his literary work, Dunsany was a keen [[chess]] player, setting chess puzzles for journals such as ''[[The Times]]'' of London, playing [[José Raúl Capablanca]] to a draw in a [[simultaneous exhibition]], and inventing [[Dunsany's Chess]], an asymmetrical [[chess variant]] notable for not involving any [[fairy pieces]], unlike the many variants that require the player to learn unconventional piece movements. He was president of both the [[Irish Chess Union]] and the Kent County Chess Association for some years and of Sevenoaks Chess Club for 54 years.  His short story ''[[The Three Sailors' Gambit]]'' is a classic work of suspense that incorporates a strong and unique chess element into its plot.

Dunsany was an avid horseman and hunter, for many years hosting the hounds of a local hunt and hunting in parts of Africa. He was at one time the [[pistol]]-shooting champion of Ireland. Dunsany also campaigned for animal rights, being known especially for his opposition to the [[docking (dog)|"docking"]] of dogs' tails, and presided over the West Kent branch of the [[Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals|RSPCA]] in his later years. He enjoyed [[cricket]], provided the local cricket ground situated near Dunsany Crossroads, and later played for and presided at Shoreham Cricket Club in Kent. He was a supporter of [[Scouting]] for many years, serving as President of the [[Sevenoaks]] district [[Boy Scouts Association]]. He also supported an amateur drama group, the Shoreham Players.

Dunsany provided support for the [[British Legion]] in both Ireland and Kent, including grounds in [[Trim, County Meath|Trim]] and poetry for the Irish branch's annual memorial service on a number of occasions.