Dictionary of National Biography, 1927 supplement/McDonnell, Schomberg Kerr
McDONNELL, Sir SCHOMBERG KERR (1861–1915), civil servant, the fifth son of Mark, fifth Earl of Antrim, of the second creation, by his wife, Jane Emma Hannah, daughter of Major Turner Macan, of Carriff, co. Armagh, was born at Glenarm Castle, co. Antrim, 22 March 1861. He was educated at Eton and at University College, Oxford, and afterwards gained experience as private secretary to the fourth Earl of Carnarvon [q.v.] and to the sixth Duke of Buccleuch. These appointments, and his own natural gifts, fitted him admirably for intimate contact with the high officials of state, and in 1888 he became principal private secretary to the prime minister, the Marquess of Salisbury. In 1892, when Lord Salisbury left office and headed the conservative opposition, he retained the services of McDonnell as his political private secretary, and McDonnell took a prominent part in party organization and especially in the work of the Central Conservative Association. Three years later the conservatives returned to power, and McDonnell again took up the duties of principal private secretary to Lord Salisbury, and for four years filled that arduous office with distinction. The outbreak of the Boer War called him from this post to active service; and, as a captain in the City of London Imperial Volunteers, he took part in that campaign until 1900, when he returned to England. After a short rest, necessitated by a slight breakdown in health, he resumed his secretarial duties with Lord Salisbury; and two years later (1902), on the latter's retirement, McDonnell was appointed secretary to the Office of Works in succession to Viscount Esher, and created K.C.B.
In his new post McDonnell found great scope for his discriminating artistic taste, and he effected many striking improvements in the royal parks. The erection of the Queen Victoria Memorial (1911), the coronation of King George V (1911), and the investiture of the Prince of Wales at Carnarvon Castle in the same year, cast a great burden of additional work upon his shoulders; and the strain of these duties, which seemed at one time to threaten his life, caused him to retire in 1912. For ten crowded years he had carried out the exacting duties of his difficult post with conspicuous success, and during that time, as indeed throughout his life, he showed a genius for friendship which endeared him to all with whom he came into close contact. In the European War McDonnell, graded as staff captain, acted for some months as chief intelligence officer of the home district at the Horse Guards. He desired, however, a more active participation in the struggle than this appointment afforded, so he quietly threw up the post and joined the 5th Cameron Highlanders. Within three weeks he was mortally wounded on the Western front in Flanders, and died 23 November 1915 at Abeele, where his remains were interred. He married, in 1913, Ethel Henry, daughter of Major Alexander H. Davis, of La Floridiana, Naples. There were no children of the marriage.
[The Times, 27 November 1915; private information.]