RANCHER TO EARL

Shannon News, 24 August 1926, Page 4

RANCHER TO EARL

AMERICAN* CITIZENSHIP RENOUNCED. The title of American citizen and Wyoming rancher which Mr. Oliver Henry Wallop, of Sheridan (Wyo.) and Whitchurch (Hampshire), has retained for more than forty years have been relinquished in favour of a British earldom and a seat in the House of Lords. The renunciation of the American titles to assure the British' was announced v r hen the rancher '. arrived from London to visit his western properties. It reversed his decision of a 1 year ago, When Mr. Wallop .inherited ' the title of Earl of Portsmouth from t his elder brother. At that time, he j declared he did not intend to give up ! his American citizenship, despite the 1 inheritance. j Now he has decided it is his duty i to his sons and family tradition to resume the ancestral earldom at Whitchurch, Hampshire, and take his seat in the House of Lords. The restoration of his British citizenship is contingent only upon five years' residence in that country and ' the oath of allegiance to the King, since he was botn a Briton. “I shall be very sorry to go away,” he said in announcing his decision. “The happiest years of my life have been spent in Wyoming.’ The new earl was one of six Englishmen who went to Wyoming in 1883. The fertile and prospering 3,000-acre : horse ranch in Little Goose Canyon, near Sheridan, was then a wild land of hills and sage. The six adventurers prospered in the new land, and all of them became American citizens. Mr. Wallop took an active part in State affairs, and_served two term. 3 in the Legislature. The ranch, with its rambling rustic house, broad lawns, and green shrubbery, has become one of the show places of the State. Mrs. Wallop, the' new Countess of Portsmouth, was Miss Marguerite Walker, or Louisville (Ky.). She returned with her husband. They were met at the pier by their second son, Oliver ,-who is a student at Yale. An elder son,; Viscount Lymington, married Miss Mary Post, of Bayside (N.Y.), last year. The earl will return to England in October.