Arthur Patrick Hastings Forbes, 9th Earl of Granard, AFC (10 April 1915 – 21 November 1992), was a British peer.

Early life

Born on 10 April 1915, he was the son of Bernard Forbes, 8th Earl of Granard (1874–1948), and Beatrice (née Mills) Forbes, Countess of Granard (1883–1972), an American socialite who was the daughter of Ogden Mills and a descendant of the Livingston and the Schuyler families from New York. He had one younger brother, the Hon. John Forbes, and two sisters, Eileen, Lady Bute, of Scotland, and Moira, Countess Rossi, of Switzerland. He was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge. He received a BA from Cambridge University in 1937.

Career

Early in the Second World War, on 31 October 1939, he was appointed Air Attaché to Romania, being given the rank of Wing Commander. He used his own aircraft, a Percival Q6, to fly, often secretly, British subjects and other diplomats who had escaped from Poland during the German invasion from Cernăuți in Northern Romania (now Chernivtsi in Ukraine) to Bucharest and on to Greece or Turkey. On 30 October 1940, he was appointed deputy Air Attaché to Greece. Later in the war, he acted as an adviser to the Minister of State for the Middle East. After the war, he was appointed Air Attaché to France. His decorations included the British Air Force Cross, the French Legion of Honor and the American Legion of Merit. From 1972 to 1990, he was a director of Texaco. Lord Granard also served as a director for other companies, including the Nabisco Group Ltd. and Martini & Rossi.

Personal life

Lord Granard was married to Marie-Madeleine Eugenie, Princess of Faucigny Lucinge, (d. 1990). She was the daughter of Jean Maurel and the first wife of Prince Humbert de Faucigny-Lucinge (a brother of Prince de Cystria, both descendants of Louis IX of France). Together, Marie and Lord Granard lived at Castleforbes demesne, the largest estate in County Longford, and were the parents of two children: The Earl of Granard died at his home in Morges, Switzerland, in 1992 at age 77. As he had no sons, his nephew Peter inherited the title and continues to be the holder.

Coat of arms