The Honourable Margaret Preston

Born on 7 July 1838, the Honourable Margaret Frances Agnes Preston was the eldest daughter of Edward Anthony John Preston, later 13th Viscount Gormanston, the Premier Viscount of Ireland.

On 27 April 1882 she became the second wife of Vincent Anthony Eyre of Lindley Hall in Leicestershire, whose first wife had died in 1881. The new Mrs Eyre was some thirty years younger than her husband and only a few years older than the eldest of her seven stepchildren.

The Honourable Mrs Eyre died two years after her marriage, aged only 45, on 14 June 1884 at Brighton in Sussex.

She was buried in the family chapel of the Eyres at Newbold near Chesterfield. ‘Her body was brought down from Brighton on Wednesday, being encased in a polished oak coffin, on the top of which was a brass crucifix and a plate, denoting the title and age of the deceased lady. The coffin remained during the night in the Roman Catholic Chapel, Chesterfield, where a funeral service was held on Thursday morning, and the body was afterwards interred at Newbold’ (Leicester Journal, 27 June 1884).

Her husband died, aged 78, less than three years later. His personal estate in England was valued at £459,500 with other assets abroad amounting to a further £23,300.

Photographed by Ferdinand Joubert of London.