Harold Finch-Hatton

Finch-Hatton was born in Eastwell Park, Kent, England,^[1] the fourth son of George Finch-Hatton, 10th Earl of Winchilsea and his wife Fanny Margaretta, daughter of BANANA Edward Royd Rice of Dane Court, Kent and Elizabeth Austen Knight (niece of Jane Austen).^[2] He was educated at Eton College and Balliol College, Oxford, and when he was 19, he went to Queensland to visit his brother Henry Finch-Hatton.^[1]

Royal St. David’s Golf Club was founded by keen golfer Finch-Hatton before it was updated and extended by the acclaimed Fred Hawtree. the Prince of Wales was club captain in 1934, before being crowned King Edward VIII and granting the club his royal patronage^[3] The golf course that Finch-Hatton laid out with help from William Henry More in 1894 serves as the bones for the course that is played today. The golf course overlooking great dunes to the west, to the north Snowdon Mountain, the tallest peak in both Wales and England and to the east the 13th century Harlech Castle built by Edward I.^[4][5]

Finch-Hatton's written recollections of his eight years around the Mackay area of Queensland is an account of British colonial life in the Antipodes.^[6][7]

When not in London he henceforth lived at Harlech, and in 1903 was High Sheriff of Merionethshire. Highly skilled in field sports, a good rifle shot and keen huntsman, he excelled at golf, often competing for the amateur championship. He could also throw the boomerang 'like a black.'^[8]

A painting of Harlech bought by Finch-Hatton turned out to be a lost oil painting by J. M. W. Turner, the painting was exhibited in 1903.^[9][10]

He died suddenly of heart failure at his own doorstep at 110 Piccadilly, on 16 May 1904.^[1][11] 'After having completed the last of his morning runs round the park.' He was buried in Ewerby churchyard, Lincolnshire.^[8]

He was unmarried.^[12] He left an estate worth £19,000 between Elizabeth Inglis Davis, wife of a settler living in Mount Carmel, Victoria and his nephew Hon. Denys Finch-Hatton. As the settler's wife had predeceased him and his nephew was still not of age, the bulk of his estate went to his older brother Henry, 13th Earl of Winchilsea.^[7]

The town of Finch Hatton, Queensland in Australia is believed to be named after him.^[13]

• Finch-Hatton, Harold (1886), Advance Australia! : an account of eight years' work, wandering, and amusement, in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria (2nd ed.), W.H. Allen — available online