John Henry George Crichton, 5th Earl Erne (22 November 1907 – 23 May 1940), briefly styled Viscount Crichton in 1914, was an Anglo-Irish peer, soldier and politician.
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Early life
Erne was the only son of Henry William Crichton, Viscount Crichton. His mother was Lady Mary Cavendish Grosvenor. On 31 October 1914, his father, a Major (brevet Lt. Colonel) in the Royal Horse Guards, was killed in action, aged 42, during the Great War. (He was awarded a DSO and a MVO, and is buried at Zantvoorde British Cemetery in Flanders.) Only a month later, aged seven, Erne succeeded his grandfather as the fifth Earl Erne. His mother later married Col. the Hon. Algernon Francis Stanley (a son of Frederick Stanley, 16th Earl of Derby), with whom she had one son and a daughter.
His father was the eldest son, and heir apparent, of John Crichton, 4th Earl Erne, and Lady Florence Cole (a daughter of William Cole, 3rd Earl of Enniskillen). His maternal grandparents were the former Hon. Katherine Cavendish (third daughter of the 2nd Baron Chesham) and Hugh Grosvenor, 1st Duke of Westminster, who was considered to be the richest man in Britain at this death. His paternal aunt, Lady Mabel Crichton, married his maternal uncle, Lord Hugh Grosvenor, and was the mother of Gerald and Robert, the 4th and 5th Dukes of Westminster.
He was educated at Ludgrove School. From 1921 to 1924, he serve as Page of Honour to King George V and, later, a Lord-in-Waiting to King George VI.