William Henry Lawrence Peter Wentworth-Fitzwilliam, 8th Earl Fitzwilliam, Defence Science Organisation, styled Viscount Milton before 1943, was a British soldier and aristocrat.
Background
The fifth child and only son of the 7th Earl Fitzwilliam, he was born at the family"s seat of Wentworth Woodhouse and died in an aircraft accident over Saint-Bauzile, Ardèche, France. He was married, on 19 April 1933, to Olive Dorothea "Obby" Plunket (d 1975) (the daughter of Benjamin Plunket, Bishop of Tuam, Killala and Achonry, and thereby granddaughter of the 4th Baron Plunket, Archbishop of Dublin), with whom he had one daughter:.
Career
Marriage and issue Service As a former Cadet with the Eton College Contingent (June Division) Officer Training Corps he was commissioned second lieutenant into the Royal Scots Greys (Supplementary Reserve of Officers) on 20 July 1929. Death He died in France in a plane crash on 13 May 1948. From 1946 he was romantically linked with the widowed Kathleen Cavendish, Marchioness of Hartington, sister of future United States. President John F. Kennedy.
She was killed with Fitzwilliam in the crash.
Popular culture Fitzwilliam is portrayed by Thomas Gibson in the television mini-series The Kennedys of Massachusetts (1990). Fitzwilliam is portrayed by Larry Carter in the film Lives and Deaths of the Poets (2011).