Viscount Lismore

A carte-de-visite portrait of Viscount Lismore (1815-1898).

The title Baron Lismore of Shanbully [county Tipperary] was created in the Peerage of Ireland in 1785. The 2nd Baron was created Viscount Lismore in 1806 and was made Baron Lismore in the Peerage of the United Kingdom in 1838.

George Ponsonby O'Callaghan was born on 16 March 1815, the son of Cornelius O’Callaghan, 1st Viscount Lismore and Lady Eleanor née Butler. On 25 July 1839 he married Mary Norbury, daughter of George Norbury. He had two sons, both of whom predeceased him.

He served as an officer in the service of the 17th Lancers. He held the office of High Sheriff of County Tipperary in 1853. He succeeded his father on 30 May 1857, becoming 2nd Viscount Lismore of Shanbally in the County of Tipperary.

He died on 29 October 1898 at the age of 83. His peerages became extinct.

Photographed by Camille Silvy of London on 1 March 1861.

The sitter's coat-of-arms appears on the side of the plinth next to him, surmounted by a viscount's coronet. The prop must have been specially prepared for this sitting after Viscount Lismore made an appointment to visit Silvy's studio.