DE COURCY-IRELAND, Patrick (Paddy) Gault CVO (Aug)1933-2026
Richard R
From the Times of 8 May 2026: DE COURCY-IRELAND Patrick Gault CVO (Paddy), passed away peacefully on 2nd May 2026, aged 92, in Montreal. Devoted husband of Margaret for 60 years, father of Kiki, Jonathan, Joanna and Gail, grandfather of Laurie, Felix, Roxanne and Jemima, brother of Nick and Rod, beloved spouse of Marie-Antoinette (Minou) since 2018. Private memorial to be held at a later date at Mount Royal Cemetery, Montreal. If desired, donations to Parkinson’s UK.
He was s of Lawrence Kilmain DE COURCY-IRELAND 1897-1968 scion of that gentry family of Abington Pigotts by his c1933 m reg Q1 London to Elizabeth Pentland GAULT 1901-77. He m first 1957 Margaret GALLOP 1934-2017 and had a son and three daus as above. He m second 2018 (Who’s Who) Marie-Antoinette (Minou) ENGELHARD.Richard R
Obit in the Times of 7 July 2026:
E X T R A C T
Patrick de Courcy-Ireland obituary: diplomat in Jerusalem
Consul-general who brokered Margaret Thatcher’s historic meeting with Palestinian delegates in 1986, dies aged 92
… Patrick Gault de Courcy-Ireland was born in 1933, the eldest of three sons of Lawrence de Courcy-Ireland and Elizabeth (née Gault), who was Canadian. During the Second World War the family was evacuated to Canada, returning to Britain in 1943.
… He and his wife Margaret (née Gallop), a nurse whom he first met aged 11 and married in 1957, had early experience of the brutalities of Middle East politics and tensions in Arab-British relations…
… a post of his own, if a small one, as consul-general in Casablanca, the largest city and commercial centre in Morocco. He arrived with a few months to prepare for Queen Elizabeth’s first state visit to the country…
… A keen lover of opera, he became chairman of the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem and a board member of the Palestine Exploration Fund and of the Society of Moroccan Studies. One journalist remembered him as “a learned, humorous and kind figure”.
De Courcy-Ireland and his wife lived happily in retirement, first in London and latterly in the West Country. She predeceased him in 2017: a year later he married Marie-Antoinette Engelhard, a Frenchwoman who ran a Montessori school. She survives him, along with his son Jonathan and three daughters, Caroline, Joanna and Gail, from his first marriage.
Beyond a CVO awarded in his first year in Casablanca, British honours eluded him, but in 1985 he received the gloriously named appointment of Great Commander of the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre.
Patrick de Courcy-Ireland CVO, diplomat, was born on August 19, 1933. He died on May 2, 2026, aged 92
https://www.thetimes.com/uk/obituaries/article/patrick-de-courcy-ireland-obituary-diplomat-in-jerusalem-kh8g8059j