Life
Leinster was the youngest of the three sons born to 5th Duke and his wife, the former Lady Hermione Duncombe. His biological father, however, was Hugo Charteris, 11th Earl of Wemyss.
He inherited the Dukedom in 1922, upon the death of his eldest brother, Maurice FitzGerald, 6th Duke of Leinster, who never married and was confined to a mental institution at the time of his death.
An addicted gambler, Leinster had already signed away his possible reversionary rights to the family's ancestral seat, Carton House, near Maynooth in County Kildare, not expecting that he would inherit the property and his title. He moved to live in England.
In the 1936, Leinster testified, in a bankruptcy hearing, that he had traveled to the United States in 1928 order to find an heiress to marry and that during his trip he "entertained lavishly on borrowed money in efforts to find an American wife who would pay off his debts". Two heiresses appeared to be interested but eventually declined to become Duchess of Leinster.
Unable to repay his debts, the duke spent the final years of his life living in a small bedsit in Pimlico. He died by suicide in 1976 by taking an overdose of pentobarbital.
Read more about this topic: Edward FitzGerald, 7th Duke Of Leinster
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