# Marcus Beresford, 7th Baron Decies

Marcus Hugh Tristram de la Poer Beresford, 7th Baron Decies (born 5 August 1948), is an Anglo-Irish hereditary peer.

## Early life

Beresford is the only son of Arthur Beresford, 6th Baron Decies and Diana (née Turner-Cain) Galsworthy. His mother, a widow of Maj. David W. A. Galsworthy, was a daughter of W/Cdr George Turner-Cain. He has two sisters, Sarah Ann Vivien de la Poer Beresford and model Clare Antoinette Gabrielle de la Poer Beresford.
His paternal grandfather was John Beresford, 5th Baron Decies, an Irish representative peer who married two American heiresses, his grandmother Helen Gould (daughter of American railroad executive George Jay Gould I), and after her death, Elizabeth Wharton Drexel (a daughter of Joseph William Drexel, who had previously been married to Harry Lehr). When asked how to pronounce his name, his grandfather Lord Decies told The Literary Digest: "With ci as in conscience it is dee-shees, and Beresford is berysford."

## Education and career

He was educated initially at Aiglon College, Chesières-Villars, Switzerland, and from 1962 to 1967 at St Columba's College, Dublin. He graduated from Trinity College Dublin, with a Master of Letters (M.Litt.). Beresford practiced as a solicitor and rose to be Chairman of A&L Goodbody, the leading Irish corporate law firm. He was a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators.
He succeeded to the title of 7th Baron Decies, of Decies, County Waterford in 1992.

### Other activities

Lord Decies was a trustee of the Alfred Beit Foundation from 1999 to 2014 and chairman from 2008 to 2014. He is also a trustee of the Apollo Foundation. He has also been involved in the world of education being a member of the boards of Alexandra College in Dublin, Hewetson's School in Millicent, Ireland (of which he was chairman from 1992 to 1995), and St Columba's College, Dublin, Ireland.

## Family

He married, firstly, Sarah Jane Gunnell, daughter of Colonel Basil Gunnell on 11 April 1970. They divorced in 1974. He remarried in 1981 to Edel Jeannette Hendron. Since 1989 the couple have resided in Straffan, County Kildare, and have three children:
* Hon. Louisa Katherine de la Poer Beresford (b. 1984)
* Hon. Robert Marcus Duncan de la Poer Beresford (b. 1988)
* Hon. David George Morley Hugh de la Poer Beresford (b. 1991)

### Interests

The couple are equine enthusiasts, and trained racehorses locally with Arthur Moore for many years. His wife is a keen sportswoman who fly-fishes for Ireland and is involved with charitable causes, including the Irish Haemophilia Society.
He has an interest in history stimulated by his ancestors, William Beresford, 1st Baron Decies (1743–1819), who was the Archbishop of Tuam, and General William Carr Beresford, 1st Viscount Beresford, 1st Marquis of Campo Maior, GCB, GCH, PC (1768–1854), who was a general in the British Army and a Marshal in the Portuguese Army; he fought alongside The Duke of Wellington in the Peninsular War and held the office of Master-General of the Ordnance in 1828 in Wellington's first ministry. In 2019 the Irish Academic Press published his biography of the general.
Beresford is a member of both the Irish and British Commissions for Military History. He is chairman of the trustees of the British Cemetery, Elvas, a member of the Friends of the Lines of Torres Vedras and the Waterford Historical Society.

## Arms

Coat of arms of Marcus Beresford, 7th Baron Decies :
* CrestA Dragon's Head erased Azure transfixed in the neck with a broken Tilting Spear Or the Point broken off Argent transfixing the upper jaw charged with a Mullet for difference.
* EscutcheonQuarterly: 1st and 4th, Argent semée of Cross Crosslets fitchée three Fleurs-de-lis within a Bordure engrailed all Sable (Beresford); 2nd and 3rd, Argent a Chief indented Sable (de la Poer); a Mullet Argent for difference.
* SupportersOn either side an Angel proper vested Argent crined and winged Or each holding in the exterior hand a Sword erect of the first pommelled and hilted of the second and charged on the breast with a Mullet for difference.
* MottoNIL NISI CRUCE Nothing without the Cross.