Canning, Albert Stratford George

Canning, Albert Stratford George (1832–1916), author and landowner, was born 24 August 1832, second son of George Canning (qv), 1st Baron Garvagh, and Rosabelle Canning (née Bonham); his father had estates at Garvagh, Co. Londonderry. After his father's death, Albert Canning inherited about 4,000 acres, and eventually lived at The Lodge, Rostrevor, Co. Down. He was a JP of Co. Down, and JP and DL of Co. Londonderry, but was mainly notable for his many publications. These included novels such as Kilsorrel Castle (2 vols, 1863), of which the Saturday Review said: ‘We may yet see worse books. . . but that depends on the author being encouraged [to produce] a three-volume novel’. Another novel dealt with the life of his great-uncle George Canning (qv) (d. 1771). He also wrote on religion, Irish politics, and history, deploring religious animosity in Ireland, and published many volumes on Shakespeare, Scott, Dickens, and other novelists. Towards the end of his career, the Spectator judged him ‘an incurable bookmaker of the most terrible sort’. One of his hobbies was acclimatising foreign birds and animals into Co. Down. He died, unmarried, on 22 April 1916.