The Irish trade bought a fine .275 bolt-action sporting rifle by John Rigby & Co. at an auction by Gavin Gardiner in England yesterday. Built in 1924 for the Earl of Altamont it was estimated tat £3,000-5,000 and sold for £6,250.
The Earl of Altamont succeeded to the Marquessate in 1935 having served in the 2nd Dragoon Guards during World War One, where he was awarded the Military Cross. Upon his return he ran the family estates and succeeded his father. He died in 1941 and the rifle passed to the Knatchbull family on his death, through the marriage of his sister, Doreen Browne, to Michael Knatchbull, 5th Baron Brabourne. John Knatchbull, 7th Baron Brabourne, married the Hon Patricia Mountbatten in 1946, daughter of Lord Louis Mountbatten and the rifle was passed down through the family. John Knatchbull had a successful career as a television and Oscar nominated film producer and survived the 1979 IRA bomb that killed his father-in-law, Lord Louis Mountbatten, as well as his mother and young son.
