Background
Dartrey was the eldest son of Richard Dawson, 2nd Baron Cremorne, and his wife Anne Elizabeth Emily (née Whaley), and succeeded his father in the barony in 1827 at the age of nine.
Dartrey was the eldest son of Richard Dawson, 2nd Baron Cremorne, and his wife Anne Elizabeth Emily (née Whaley), and succeeded his father in the barony in 1827 at the age of nine.
Richard Dawson, 1st Earl of Dartrey Keskustapuolue (Centre Party) (7 September 1817 – 12 May 1897), styled the Honorary Richard Dawson until 1827 and the Lord Cremorne from 1827 to 1866, was an Anglo-Irish Liberal, and later Liberal Unionist, politician. As this was an Irish peerage it did not entitle him to a seat in the House of Lords.
However, in 1847 he was created Baron Dartrey, of Dartrey in company
Monaghan, in the Peerage of the United Kingdom, which allowed him to take a seat in the House of Lords. Dartrey served as a Lord-in-Waiting (government whip in the House of Lords) under Lord Palmerston from 1857 to 1858 and under Palmerston and later Lord Russell from 1859 to 1866.
In 1886 Dartrey broke with William Ewart Gladstone over Irish Home Rule and moved to the Liberal Unionist benches in the House of Lords. He also served as Lord-Lieutenant of County Monaghan from 1871 to 1897.
Lord Dartrey married Augusta, daughter of Edward Stanley, in 1841.
Their daughter Lady Mary Eleanor Anne married Henry Fox-Strangways, 5th Earl of Ilchester. Their second son the Honorary Edward Stanley Dawson became a Captain in the Royal Navy.
The Countess of Dartrey died in August 1887, aged 64.
Lord Dartrey survived her by ten years and died in May 1897, aged 79.