Aubrey Herbert - Family Life and Premature Death

Family Life and Premature Death

Aubrey Herbert married Mary, daughter of the 4th Viscount de Vesci, a member of the Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland. Lord de Vesci and his wife had converted to Roman Catholicism and raised their children accordingly. Herbert's mother-in-law gave the family a fine house in London. Herbert's mother gave him both a country estate at Pixton Park in Somerset with 5,000 acres (20 km²) of land and a substantial villa on the Gulf of Genoa at Portofino.

Aubrey and Mary Herbert had four children, a son named Auberon who died unmarried and three daughters, Gabriel Mary, Bridget, and Laura, the last of whom married the novelist Evelyn Waugh. Waugh featured the Herberts' Italian villa in his war trilogy Sword of Honour, although he moved it to an imaginary location on the Bay of Naples. Herbert was thus the grandfather of the journalist Auberon Waugh (who was named after Herbert's own son) and the great-grandfather of Daisy and Alexander Waugh.

Herbert was a slim man of more than average height and contemporaries described him as having perfect manners. Towards the end of his life, he became totally blind. He was given very bad advice to the effect that having all his teeth extracted would restore his sight. The dental operation resulted in blood poisoning from which he died in London on 26 September 1923. Herbert's estate was probated in 1924 at 49,970 pounds sterling. His son Auberon inherited the Pixton Park and Portofino properties.