Earl of Enniskillen - The Title Since 1963

The Title Since 1963

The 5th Earl was succeeded by his nephew, Captain David Lowry Cole, M.B.E., M.L.C., who became the 6th Earl. He was the son of The Hon. Galbraith Lowry Egerton Cole, third son of the 4th Earl. David was also a nephew of The Hon. Berkeley Cole and a nephew-in-law to The 3rd Baron Delamere, as well as being a first-cousin of The 4th Baron Delamere. The Cholmondeley family, Barons Delamere, owned (and, in 2012, still own) the vast Soysambu Ranch in Kenya. David Enniskillen (as he was usually known to his family and friends) had been born and raised in the Colony of Kenya. He attended Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge, and then served with the Irish Guards during the Second World War, rising to the British Army rank of Captain. Following the war, the young Capt. D.L. Cole returned to Kenya, serving as a Provisional Commandant in the Kenya Police Reserve (the K.P.R.), 1953-1955. He was appointed a M.B.E. for his services to the British Crown during the Mau Mau Uprising.

Capt. D.L. Cole became very involved in colonial politics in Kenya in the late 1950s, serving as a Member of the Legislative Council (M.L.C.) in the final Legislative Council of Kenya, 1961-1963. He also took part in the conferences at Lancaster House leading up to Kenya's independence, which was achieved within the Commonwealth in December 1963. It was on February 19, 1963, while still serving as an M.L.C., and only a few months before Kenyan independence, that Capt. Cole succeeded as The 6th Earl of Enniskillen. Shortly after succeeding to the Peerage, the new Lord Enniskillen returned to Ulster in Ireland. He and his American second wife Nancy (a former junior diplomat with the United States Foreign Service) lived at Florence Court (newly restored by the National Trust) in south-west County Fermanagh from 1963 until 1972, when they moved over to Kinloch House in Kinloch in Perthshire, Great Britain.

David Enniskillen served as a Captain in the Ulster Defence Regiment (the U.D.R.), 1971-1973, during the very early years of The Troubles in Northern Ireland. He also served as Deputy Lieutenant of County Fermanagh, 1963-1978. He lived at Kinloch House until his death in 1989, when he was buried in the grounds of Killesher Parish Church, the Church of Ireland neo-Gothic family church near the village of Florencecourt in south-west County Fermanagh. Nancy, Dowager Countess of Enniskillen (née Nancy MacLennan), formerly of Bridgeport, Connecticut, was also buried at Killesher Parish Church in 1998.

The 6th Lord Enniskillen had only two children, both by his first wife, Sonia Mary Syers, whom he married on July 31, 1940. They were divorced early in 1955. The two children were Andrew Cole (born April 28, 1942) and Linda Mar Cole (born March 26, 1944). From February 1963 until 1989, Andrew held the courtesy title Viscount Cole. Since the death of his father in 1989, Andrew has been The 7th Earl of Enniskillen (usually known to his family and friends as Andrew Enniskillen). Since February 1963, Linda has been known as Lady Linda Mar Cole. She married Richard Muir (possibly 'Sir' Richard), the presumed 4th Bt., in August 1975. Thus she is also known as Lady Linda Muir. The 7th Lord Enniskillen lives on his 40,000 acre estate near Lake Naivasha in the former 'White Highlands' in southern Kenya.

The ancestral seat, certainly from the late 1750s, of the Cole family was Florence Court in south-west County Fermanagh. The house has been in the care of the National Trust since 1953. The last Earl to live in the country house was David, 6th Earl of Enniskillen (born 1918-d. 1989), who left in 1972.

Michael Cole, ancestor of the Earls of Enniskillen, was the brother of Sir John Cole, 1st Baronet (see Baron Ranelagh).