William Horsley-Beresford, 3rd Baron Decies

William Robert John Horsley Beresford, 3rd Baron Decies (June 1811 – 3 July 1893) was an Anglo-Irish soldier and peer.

Early life Beresford was born on 12 January 1865. He was the only son born to John Beresford, 2nd Baron Decies, the Rector of Tuam, and Charlotte Philadelphia Horsley (only daughter and heiress of Robert Horsley of Bolam House, Northumberland. He also served as an Irish representative peer.

"His lordship took no active part in public affairs, but was an enlightened agriculturalist, and took a warm interest in the development of the Bolam estate, which under his personal direction, has become one of the richest, from an agricultural point of view, in the country." Together, they were the parents of: Hon. Louisa Horsley-Beresford (1863–1866), who died young. who married Maria Gertrude Willoughby, a daughter of Sir John Willoughby, 4th Baronet, and sister to Maj. Sir John Willoughby, Bt. John Graham Hope Horsley de la Poer Beresford, 5th Baron Decies (1866–1944), aide-de-camp to the Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught who married Helen Vivien Gould, a daughter of railroad executive George Jay Gould I, in 1911. After her death in 1931, he married Elizabeth Wharton Drexel (widow of Harry Lehr) in 1936. Hon. Seton Robert de la Poer Horsley Beresford (1868–1928), who married actress Delia Dorothy O'Sullivan, a daughter of Daniel John O'Sullivan, in 1899. (After their divorce, Delia Dorothy ( O'Sullivan) (1876–1966) married Sir Charles Huntington, 3rd Baronet and Sir Edward Lucas, 3rd Baronet.) They divorced in 1909 and he married Joan Rosemary Graves-Sawle, eldest daughter and coheiress of Rear Admiral Sir Charles John Graves-Sawle, 4th Baronet, in 1915. Hon. Catherine Elizabeth Ellen Horsley Beresford (1870–1948), who married Lt.-Col. Edward J. M. Lumb, in 1902. who married Constance ( Blades) Levenston- better known as the actress Kitty Gordon and newly widowed of theatre manager Michael Levenston- in October 1904. They divorced in 1919 and he married Laura Coventry, eldest daughter of Capt. St John Halford Coventry, in 1919. They divorced in 1928 and he married oil heiress Georgina Leonora ( Mosselmans) de Saurigny, only daughter of Richard Frederick Hendrick Mosselmans, in 1933. They divorced in 1940 and he married Ida Kaye in 1941.

Lord Decies died on 3 July 1893 at Bolam House, Northumberland. After his death, Lady Decies, who survived him almost fifty years until her death on 27 February 1941, lived at Heworth Hall in York.

Sporting interests "Like all the Beresfords, Lord Decies was a supporter and admirer of true English sports and pastimes. Of late years the penalties of ripened age prevented him taking an active part in those field sports for which when a captain in the Grenadier Guards he was distinguished, his light, spare figure giving him an advantage in the hunting field, and which in his younger days brought him into distinction as one of the best men to hounds of his time. Of a retiring disposition, he was deemed of eccentric habits, and perhaps this character was justifiable, particularly in his affection for the old style of dress. But beneath the resreved exterior there was a warm, kindly heart, and marked traits of the English nobleman. In the palmy days of the Newcastle Wrestling Society, his figure was conspicuous in the pavilion, and no spectator was better versed or took a keener interest in the mysteries of the inside and outside 'click' or the 'cross buttock,' as illustrated in manly rivalry by the sturdy athletes of the northern counties as the famous sports and border games annually celebrated at the Forth Banks."