Lot Essay
Sir Arthur Hugh Smith-Barry (1843-1925), 1st Baron Barrymore, was an Anglo-Irish Conservative politician, son of James Hugh Smith-Barry of Marbury, Cheshire and Fota House, Fota Island, County Cork, Ireland. He was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, and entered Parliament as one of two representatives for County Cork in 1867, a seat he held until 1874. Between 1886 and 1900, he represented the constituency of Huntingdon. He was also High Sheriff of County Cork in 1886 and was tasked by Arthur Balfour to organise landlord resistance to the tenant Plan of Campaign movement of the late 1880s. He was sworn of the Irish Privy Council in 1896. In 1902 the Barrymore title held by his ancestors was revived when he was raised to the peerage as Baron Barrymore, of Barrymore in the County of Cork.