Early Life and Family
Dufferin was the eldest child and only son of the 3rd Marquess of Dufferin and Ava. He was educated at Eton College and then at Balliol College, Oxford. Following his father's succession to the marquessate in 1918 he was known as the Earl of Ava. At Eton he won the coveted Rosebery Prize, the highest possible distinction for a history pupil, when aged sixteen. At Oxford he was friends with among others Frank Pakenham, 7th Earl of Longford. He was also a contemporary and close friend of the poet John Betjeman. Betjeman wrote of his friend as "the dark, heavy-lidded companion" in his poem Brackenbury Scholar of Balliol.
Read more about this topic: Basil Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, 4th Marquess Of Dufferin And Ava
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