Arthur O'Neill

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The Honourable Arthur Edward Bruce O'Neill (19 September 1876 – 6 November 1914), was an Irish Ulster Unionist Party politician who was the first Member of Parliament to be killed in World War I.

Early life

O'Neill was the second but eldest surviving son of Edward O'Neill, 2nd Baron O'Neill, and his wife Lady Louisa Katherine Emma (née Cochrane). Hugh O'Neill, later Baron Rathcavan, was his younger brother.

Career

Military career

O'Neill joined the British Army in 1897. He saw active service in South Africa between 1899 and 1900, during the Second Boer War. He was awarded the Queen's South Africa Medal with three clasps.[1] In January 1902, he was temporary appointed Adjutant to the 2nd Regiment of Life Guards.[2]

O'Neill fought in the First World War as a Captain in the 2nd Life Guards and was killed in action at Klein Zillebeke ridge, 6 November 1914, aged 38, the first MP to be killed in the conflict.[3]

Political career

He was elected to the House of Commons for Mid-Antrim in 1910, succeeding his uncle Robert Torrens O'Neill. His brother Hugh succeeded him as MP for Mid-Antrim.

Personal life

O'Neill married, at St Paul's Church, Knightsbridge, on 21 January 1902, Lady Annabel Crewe-Milnes, daughter of Robert Crewe-Milnes, 1st Marquess of Crewe. The Archbishop of Armagh, Primate of All Ireland, performed the ceremony.[4] Lady Annabel O'Neill later remarried and died in 1948.

O'Neill and his wife had five children; three boys and two girls. Their youngest child, Terence, was less than two months old at the time of his father's death.[5] Their eldest son Shane succeeded his grandfather in the barony in 1928, while their third son Terence O'Neill was Prime Minister of Northern Ireland between 1963 and 1969.

Children:[6][7]

Notes

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  2. The London Gazette: no. 27403. p. 716. 4 February 1902.
  3. CWGC entry
  4. "Court circular" The Times (London). Wednesday, 22 January 1902. (36671), p. 10.
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  6. The London Gazette: no. 33567. p. 45. 3 January 1930. Retrieved 27 November 2014.
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References

External links

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Mid Antrim
January 19101914
Succeeded by
Hugh O'Neill