John Crichton, 5th Earl Erne

John Henry George Crichton, 5th Earl Erne (22 November 1907 – 23 May 1940), briefly styled Viscount Crichton in 1914, was an Anglo-Irish peer, soldier and politician.

Early life Erne was the only son of Henry William Crichton, Viscount Crichton. His mother was Lady Mary Cavendish Grosvenor. On 31 October 1914, his father, a Major (brevet Lt. Colonel) in the Royal Horse Guards, was killed in action, aged 42, during the Great War. (He was awarded a DSO and a MVO, and is buried at Zantvoorde British Cemetery in Flanders. ) Only a month later, aged seven, Erne succeeded his grandfather as the fifth Earl Erne. His mother later married Col. the Hon. Algernon Francis Stanley (a son of Frederick Stanley, 16th Earl of Derby), with whom she had one son and a daughter.

He was educated at Ludgrove School. From 1921 to 1924, he serve as Page of Honour to King George V and, later, a Lord-in-Waiting to King George VI.

When the Second World War broke out, he was commissioned as a major into the Royal Horse Guards (attd. 12th Royal Lancers, Royal Armoured Corps) and in the North Irish Horse. He was killed in action on 23 May 1940 and was buried at Wormhoudt Communal Cemetery in France.

Personal life

In 1931, Lord Erne married Lady Davidema Katharine Cynthia Mary Millicent Bulwer-Lytton (1909–1995), daughter of Victor Bulwer-Lytton, 2nd Earl of Lytton, and Pamela Plowden. Together, they lived at Knebworth, Hertfordshire, and were the parents of:

Lady Rosanagh Mary Crichton (1932–2019), who married Baron Michael Paul Raben-Levetzau, second son of Count Siegfried Victor Raben-Levetzau, of Denmark, in 1956.

Upon his death in 1940, aged 32, he was succeeded in his titles by his two-year-old only son Henry. His widow, Lady Erne, later married the Conservative politician "Monty" Woodhouse, with whom she had three more children, including Christopher Woodhouse, 6th Baron Terrington.