Mervyn Horatio Herbert, 17th Baron Darcy de Knayth, styled Viscount Clive (7 May 1904 – 23 March 1943), was a British peer and Royal Air Force officer.
In 1929, at the death of his mother, he inherited the title of Baron Darcy de Knayth, making him a peer in his own right (while retaining the higher title of Viscount Clive by courtesy).
He died in 1943, aged thirty-eight, while flying on active service, and was buried in the churchyard of Christ Church, Welshpool.[3] He was participating in a training night exercise when his Mosquito intercepted a Stirling bomber returning from a leaflet dropping raid in Europe, following which the Mosquito crashed into the ground near Manningtree, Essex, killing both Herbert and his navigator Albert Eastwood.[4] There were suggestions friendly fire from the Stirling or anti-aircraft guns caused the crash.[5]
Personal life
In 1934, he married Vida Cuthbert (1910–2003), daughter of Capt. James Cuthbert DSO, later lady-in-waiting to the Duchess of Gloucester. They had a daughter, Davina (1938–2008). Upon his death, Lord Clive's barony passed to his four-year-old daughter. His father was left without a son so on his death his earldom passed to a distant cousin. In 1946, the widowed Lady Clive remarried, to Brigadier Derek Schreiber, chief of staff to the Governor-General of Australia.[6]
References
^ ab"Death of Viscount Clive – On Active Service with the RAF – Son and Heir of the Earl of Powis". Shrewsbury Chronicle. 26 March 1943. p. 5.
^Who Was Who, 1941-1950. C and A Black. 1952. p. 226.
^"Looking to resolve war crash mystery". Shropshire Star. 8 October 2016. p. 18. Report by Toby Neal, regarding appeal by Bill Maclean of Manningtree Museum and Local History Group for information into the circumstances of the plane crash.