Sheridan Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, 5th Marquess of Dufferin and Ava - Legacy

Legacy

Lord Dufferin died on May 29, 1988 from an AIDS-related illness, aged 49. As there were no other living descendants in the direct male line from the 1st Marquess, the marquessate and the other peerages created for the 1st Marquess in the Peerage of the United Kingdom became extinct. The Barony of Dufferin and Clandeboye, the family's older title in the Peerage of Ireland, passed to a distant kinsman.

His sister married Robert Lowell in 1972, and they named their son Sheridan after his uncle.

In the years immediately before, and especially after, her husband's death, Lady Dufferin developed new initiatives at Clandeboye, and today the estate has associations with a number of environmental organisations and projects, being a home for Conservation Volunteers Northern Ireland]'s biodiversity projects, training centre and tree nursery (in the old walled garden). The Northern Ireland branch of the Woodland Trust was established in 1998 in partnership with the Dufferin Foundation, and Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew have developed a blossoming relationship with Clandeboye since 2003. Lady Dufferin also returned to the art world, and has exhibited in galleries in London and New York under the name Lindy Guinness. She was also the inspiration behind the opening of the Ava Gallery at Clandeboye in 2004, which exhibits works by leading contemporary Northern Irish artists and an annual exhibition of museum-standard work by a major artist or group of artists.