Born in 1892, he was only eighteen months old when his father, the 5th Duke of Leinster, died. His mother, "the beautiful tubercular Hermione", died in 1895. As there were two elder brothers, he had no prospects of the family inheritance. Handsome and adventurous, for him life was to be enjoyed. 

In 1913 at the Wandsworth Registry Office, he married May Etheridge, an actress, and in 1914 his only child was born. However, they ceased to live together in 1915 and divorced seventeen years 
later. Lord Edward later claimed that he had never been in love with May Etheridge. 

He served with distinction in the First World War and was wounded. In the same war his second eldest brother, Lord Desmond FitzGerald, was killed, bringing Lord Edward next in line to the Duchy of Leinster. During the war years his eldest brother, the 6th Duke of Leinster, developed a tumour on the brain which made him an invalid and incapable of managing the family affairs.

Aware of Lord Edward's life style, the trustees of the Leinster fortune were unwilling to grant him a lavish allowance as he would only waste it. Nevertheless, knowing that one day he would be Duke, he was still able to run up enormous debts. In 1919 he was taken to the bankrupty court. 

A wealthy businessman, Sir Harry Mallaby-Deeley, offered him œ60,000 immediately on condition that when Lord Edward became Duke of Leinster the income of the family estate, during Edward's lifetime, would go to Sir Harry and his heirs. As his brother was only thirty-two and expected to live many more years, he readily accepted and then gambled away his inheritance. However, Maurice FitzGerald, 6th Duke of Leinster, died in 1922, at which Lord Edward became the 7th Duke of Leinster but without any income.  As the money from Mallaby-Deeley had covered only his immediate needs, he had to fend for himself the rest of his life, the annual œ80,000 from the Leinster estate going to Mallaby-Deeley. However, Mallaby-Deeley granted him œ1,000 a year. 

In July 1922 he had laid a bet for œ3,000 that he could drive from London to Aberdeen in fifteen hours. He did it in fourteen-and-a-half but was fined œ2 for speeding. However, in 1923 he had again to appear in the bankrupty court as he had still learned nothing about money. This time he was listed as owing œ25,300 with his only source of income œ20 a week. A few months later when found guilty of obtaining credit on false pretences, he fled to America for a while, from then 
on he lived in obscurity, though marrying three more times, his last wife having been the housekeeper at the block of service flatlets where he lived.

As he had been an undischarged bankrupt for forty-five years, he had lost his right to sit in the House of Lords or participate in the coronation ceremonies of 1937 and 1953. For a while he and his Duchess ran a tea-shop in Rye. In 1964 he was finally discharged from bankruptcies and on 15 July 1975 took his seat in the House of Lords for the first time. On 8 March 1976 he died by his own hand. 
 

Source: Leo van de Pas