Emma Kennedy

Emma Andalusia Frere Portman, Viscountess Portman ( Kennedy, formerly Dawson-Damer, Countess of Portarlington; (20 October 1861 – 13 May 1929), styled Viscountess Carlow from 1881 until 1892, was an English aristocrat known for her marriages to two different peers.

Early life Emma was born on 20 October 1861. She was the only daughter of Catherine Anne May and Lord Nigel Kennedy. She had two brothers, Fergus de Carrick Frere Kennedy and James Archibald Frere Kennedy, both of whom died unmarried.

Her paternal grandparents were Archibald Kennedy, Earl of Cassillis, heir apparent to Marquess of Ailsa until his death, and the former Eleanor Allardyce (daughter of Alexander Allardyce). Among her family was uncle Archibald Kennedy, 2nd Marquess of Ailsa. Her maternal grandfather was Maj. James Frere May.

Personal life Photograph of her eldest son, Lionel, at the Coronation of King George V, 1911. On 25 October 1881, Emma married George Dawson-Damer, Viscount Carlow, the eldest son of Lionel Dawson-Damer, 4th Earl of Portarlington and Hon. Harriet Lydia Montagu (daughter of the 6th Baron Rokeby, Major-General commanding the Brigade of Guards). After his father's death on 17 December 1892, he became the 5th Earl of Portarlington and Emma became the Countess of Portarlington. Together, they were the parents of: Lady Aline Mary Seymour Dawson-Damer (1884–1953), who married Lt.-Col. Valentine Vivian, son of William Vivian, in 1904. After he was killed in 1915 during World War I, she married Capt. William Frederick Martin, a son of Charles William Wall Martin, in 1919.

After his death, Emma widow married Army officer Henry Portman, 3rd Viscount Portman (1860–1923), son of William Portman, 2nd Viscount Portman and Hon. Mary FitzWilliam (daughter of William Charles Wentworth-FitzWilliam, Viscount Milton), on 25 September 1901. From her marriage to Lord Portman, she was the mother of:

Through her daughter Lady Christian, she was a grandmother of Rosemary Lusia Bowes-Lyon (1915–1989), a first cousin of Queen Elizabeth II who married Edward Wilfred George Joicey-Cecil, youngest son of Col. Lord John Joicey-Cecil, MP for Stamford (a son of the 3rd Marquess of Exeter), in 1945.