Dictionary of National Biography, 1927 supplement/Guinness, Arthur Edward
GUINNESS, Sir ARTHUR EDWARD, second baronet, and first Baron Ardilaun (1840–1915), philanthropist, the eldest son of Sir Benjamin Lee Guinness, first baronet, M.P. [q.v.], by his wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Edward Guinness, of Dublin, was born at St. Anne's, Clontarf, co. Dublin, 1 November 1840. He was educated at Eton and at Trinity College, Dublin, where he graduated in 1862. Upon the death of his father in 1868 he succeeded to the title as second baronet and became the head of the famous brewery at St. James's Gate, Dublin, founded by his grandfather, from which he retired in 1877. He was at once returned unopposed in the conservative interest as member of parliament for Dublin city in his father's place. At the next election in 1869 he lost the seat. He re-entered parliament for the same constituency at the general election in 1874 and held the seat until 1880, when he was raised to the peerage under the title of Baron Ardilaun, of Ashford, co. Galway. In 1871 he married Lady Olivia Charlotte White, daughter of the third Earl of Bantry.
Guinness's generous devotion to the interests of the city of Dublin was conspicuous from the beginning of his public life. In 1872, with his younger brother, Edward Cecil, afterwards Earl of Iveagh, he originated, and took financial responsibility for, the Dublin Exhibition of Arts and Science. He completed the restoration, begun by his father, of the fabric of Archbishop Marsh's Library, Dublin. In 1877 he rebuilt the Coombe Lying-in Hospital; while the building by the government of the Science and Art Museum in Dublin was due to his advocacy in the House of Commons. He took a practical interest in the improvement of working-class dwellings and was president of the artisans' dwellings company, the first company inaugurated in Dublin for this purpose. It was entirely due to his munificence that the beautiful public park of some twenty-two acres in the centre of the city, known as St. Stephen's Green, was acquired, laid out, and handed over under a special act of parliament to the Board of Works for the use of the citizens of Dublin. As a mark of the general appreciation in which he was held, a bronze statue of Lord Ardilaun was erected in St. Stephen's Green by public subscription in 1891. In 1899 he purchased the Muckross estate, co. Kerry, which adjoins the lakes of Killarney, in order to save it and the lakes from falling into the hands of a commercial syndicate.
Lord Ardilaun was a generous supporter of the Church of Ireland. At the time of its disestablishment he contributed largely to its capital funds, and up to his death he bore half the expense of the choir of St. Patrick's Cathedral.
From 1897 to 1913 Lord Ardilaun was president of the Royal Dublin Society, which for close on two centuries has taken the leading part in the development of the resources of Ireland; the publication of the Society's history was due to his initiative and liberality. When he retired from the presidency, owing to failing health, he received a presentation and address, and the Society commissioned Sir William Orpen, R.A., to paint his portrait, which hangs in the board-room.
In 1900 Lord Ardilaun became the proprietor of the Dublin Daily Express and the Dublin Evening Mail which were carried on in the unionist interest. He was so staunch a conservative that in 1898 he declined to accept the lieutenancy of the county of Dublin, because it was offered to him by a conservative lord-lieutenant of Ireland (Earl Cadogan) at a moment when the loyalists of Ireland felt bitterly that their cause had been betrayed by Lord Salisbury's government.
Lord Ardilaun's principal seat was at St. Anne's, Clontarf, where he and Lady Ardilaun entertained generously and received in 1900 a visit from Queen Victoria. A large part of each year he spent on his Galway estate at Ashford, where he gave employment on a large scale, making roads and planting trees. He was an expert in forestry, and by his judicious choice of trees transformed and beautified the countryside for miles round. He also maintained for many years a steamer on Lough Corrib between Cong and Galway for the benefit of his tenants and the neighbourhood.
Lord Ardilaun died, without issue, 20 January 1915 at St. Anne's, Clontarf, and was buried in the mortuary chapel attached to the church of All Saints which he had built on his county Dublin estate. He was succeeded, as third baronet, by his nephew, Sir Algernon Arthur Guinness (born 1883).
[The Times, 12 June 1874, 28 November 1899, 21 January 1915; Irish Times, 20 June 1892, 11 May 1898; Dublin Evening Mail, 13 November 1913; personal knowledge.]