Maj. John Frederick Foley, Baron de Rutzen

Major John Frederick Foley, Baron de Rutzen

• Married Sheila Victoria Katrin Philipps, daughter of Sir Henry Erasmus Edward Philipps, 2nd Bt., circa 1932.
• Died in 1944 at Italy, killed in action.
• He lived at Slebech Park, Pembrokeshire, Wales.
• Gained the rank of Major in the service of the Welsh Guards.
• Held the office of

• Deputy Lieutenant (D.L.).
  
• Justice of the Peace (J.P.).
  * Gained the title of Baron de Rutzen [Poland].

• Fought in the Second World War. Child of Major John Frederick Foley, Baron de Rutzen and Sheila Victoria Katrin Philipps
• Victoria Ann Elizabeth Gwynne Foley+2 d. 26 Jun 1976

http://www.thepeerage.com/p9125.htm#i91248

DE RUTZEN, Baron JOHN FREDERICK FOLEY

• Rank: Major
• Service No: 72466
• Date of Death: 11/10/1944
• Age: 36
• Regiment/Service: Welsh Guards 3rd Bn. Grave Reference: II, C, 7.
• Cemetery: SANTERNO VALLEY WAR CEMETERY
• Additional Information: Son of Lt. Alan Frederick James, Baron de Rutzen, Pembrokeshire Yeomanry (killed in action, 1916), and Eleanor Etna Audley, Baroness de Rutzen, of Ridgeway, Pembrokeshire; husband of Sheila Victoria Katrin, Baroness de Rutzen, of Picton Castle, Pembrokeshire. J.P., D.L.

http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/1715571/DE%20RUTZEN,%20B...

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http://welshjournals.llgc.org.uk/browse/viewpage/llgc-id:1277425/ll... - Francis Jones

Page 349

John Frederick Foley de Rutzen, born on 27 January 1909, educated at Eton College and in the University of Cambridge. On 23 May 1918 he received Royal Licence for himself and the heirs male of his body, on succession, to use the title Baron de Rutzen within His Majesty's Dominions.

A talented man, he had an original turn of mind and a gift of expression. Widely read, particularly in history, he also wrote poetry of no mean order. He believed in the traditional virtues associated with the life and conduct of a country gentleman, namely attachment to the lands he owned and to the tenants who rented them, and the discharge of those public duties that custom had long imposed on leading families in the community. Accordingly, he had a deep and practical interest in agriculture and estate management, was in the Commission of the Peace for the town and county of Haverfordwest, and for some time a member of the Pembrokeshire County Council. Stimulating, always sincere and frank, his mere presence made one feel more alive. During the second World War he served in the Welsh Guards, and saw active service in North Africa and Italy. I met him in Hunts Gap before Beja when his battalion came to re-inforce the brigade in which I was serving, at a very critical moment, and later, on the banks of the Medjerda. Our paths crossed again in Italy when my regiment supported the Welsh Guards in the fighting for Cerasola. I never saw him again.

Major the Baron de Rutzen fell in action near Battaglia in the Gothic Line on 11 October 1944. By his wife Sheila Victoria Katrin, daughter of Sir Henry Philipps, Baronet, of Picton Castle, whom he married on 28 July 1932, he had an only child, Victoria Anne Elizabeth Gwynne de Rutzen. She married on 3 May 1957 to Francis Dashwood eldest son of Sir John Lindsay Dashwood, Baronet. The widowed Baroness de Rutzen married on 8 October 1947 Lieut.-Col. the Hon. Randal Plunket who afterwards succeeded as the 19th Lord Dunsany.