Blazon of arms:
Shield: Quarterly, 1st and 4th, Azure a Fess Or in chief a Crescent Argent between two Mullets of the second and in base a Mascle of the third (Blackwood);
2nd, quarterly, 1st and 4th, Or an Eagle displayed Sable, 2nd and 3rd, Argent two Bars Sable each charged with three Martlets Or (Temple);
3rd, Gules three Cinquefoils pierced Ermine on a Chief Or a Lion passant of the field (Hamilton, Earl of Clanbrassill)
SOURCES, NOTES & CREDITS: The illustration for background and the text are adapted from the Wikipedia article.
Frederick Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, Marquess of Dufferin and Ava was born on 21 June 1826 an Anglo-Irish aristocratic family from Ulster of Scottish extraction who lightly settled in Ireland, as a part of the Protestant ascendancy.
He is best known as one of the most successful public servants of his time. His long career in public service began as a commissioner to Syria in 1860, where his skillful diplomacy maintained British interests while preventing France from instituting a client state in Lebanon. After his success in Syria, Dufferin served in the Government of the United Kingdom as the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster[2] and Under-Secretary of State for War.
In 1871 he was raised in the Peerage as Earl of Dufferin, in the County of Down, and Viscount Claneboye, of Clandeboye in the County of Down. In 1872 he became Governor General of Canada, bolstering imperial ties in the early years of the Dominion. In this position, he was Queen Victoria’s representative in Canada, promoting a British perspective and raising funds for Quebec City.
In 1884 he reached the pinnacle of his official career as Viceroy of India. On 17 November 1888, he was advanced in the peerage as Marquess of Dufferin and Ava, in the County of Down and the Province of Burma, and Earl of Ava, in the Province of Burma. Dufferin died on 12 Feb 1902, age 75.
The last Marquess of Dufferin and Ava was one Sheridan Frederick Terence Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, 5th Marquess of Dufferin and Ava born on 9 July 1938 and died on 29 May 1988 at age 49 when the Marquessate and Earldom went extinct. The older Barony of Dufferin and Clandeboye, the family’s title in the Peerage of Ireland, passed to a distant kinsman Sir Francis Blackwood, 7th Baronet who became the 10th Baron Dufferin and Clandeboye.
The artwork is an interpretation of John Hamilton Gaylor.
2025 0910
dqw266@gmail.com
