John Moore-Brabazon, Lord Tara
John Theodore Cuthbert Moore-Brabazon became 1st Baron of Tara. Attracted to engineering and mechanics he spent his university vacations as unpaid mechanic to Charles S. Rolls. In October 19090 he won a prize for being the first English pilot to fly more than one mile. He was the first pilot to receive a certificate in March 1910. One of his first flights nearly killed him. In youth he had flown with a pig as his passenger in order to prove pigs could fly. After serving in World War I, Moore-Brabazon entered parliament as a Conservative M.P. and he became Parliamentary Secretary to Winston Churchill. He served under Churchill during World War II as Minister for Transport, 1940-41 and of Aircraft Production 1941-42. He was forced to resign in 1942 when he expressed the hope that German and Russia would destroy each other. Russia was then an ally of Britain and so Moore-Brabazon had to resign. The title, Baron Brabazon of Tara, was created for John Cuthbert Moore Brabazon in 1942. He died in 1964. Lord Brabazon of Tara took over the house and about sixty acres of land about the house. The remainder of the estate was taken by the Land Commission in the 1930s. The house then became uninhabited and soon fell to ruins. Lord Brabazon recalled his life in “The Brabazon Story” which was published in 1956. Lord Brabazon sold the house and it was pulled down to save on rates. The third Baron Brabazon of Tara served in various department of the British government in the 1980s and early 1990s.