Arthur Ponsonby, 11th Earl of Bessborough


Arthur Mountifort Longfield Ponsonby, 11th Earl of Bessborough, was a British peer.
He was the son of Maj. Hon. Cyril Myles Brabazon Ponsonby, second son of Edward Ponsonby, 8th Earl of Bessborough, and his wife Rita Narcissa Longfield, daughter of Lt. Col. Mountifort John Courtenay Longfield. He inherited the earldom on 5 December 1993 when his first cousin, Frederick Ponsonby, 10th Earl of Bessborough, died without a male heir.

Education and career

He was educated at Harrow School and Trinity College, Cambridge. Later he rose to the rank of captain in the service of the Welsh Guards and saw action in the Second World War. In his later years he farmed at Roche Court, Winterslow, Wiltshire.

Family

On 28 July 1939, he married Patricia Minnigerode, daughter of Col. Fitzhugh Lee Minnigerode of New York and Alexandria, Virginia. Together they had two children:
  • Hon. Myles Fitzhugh Longfield Ponsonby, later 12th Earl of Bessborough
  • Lady Sarah Ponsonby
Following the death of his first wife, he remarried, on 20 September 1956, Anne Marie Galitzine, former wife of Prince George Galitzine and daughter of Lt. Gen. Sir Rudolf Carl von Slatin. They were divorced in 1963.
He married for the third time on 17 December 1963, Madeleine Lola Margaret Grand, daughter of Maj. Gen. Laurence Douglas Grand, and together they had two children:
Lady Bessborough is the founder of the New Art Centre, formerly of Sloane Street, London, which runs the New Art Centre Sculpture Park and Gallery at Roche Court, Wiltshire. She is a trustee of the Roche Court Educational Trust charity. She was awarded a CBE in the 2023 New Year's Honours list.

Death and succession

He died on 5 April 2002 and was succeeded by his eldest son Myles Ponsonby, who became the 12th Earl of Bessborough.