Rupert had by this time established his
reputation as an able politician and enthusiastic supporter of science. Lord Iveagh had earlier persuaded his father to endow the Lister Institute of
Preventive medicine and served on the governing board; he became interested
in the Wright-Fleming Institute of microbiology.
Rupert also helped form the Tuberculin Tested Milk Producers Association
researching into the eradication of T.B. infected cattle. and was
instrumental in establishing the National Institute for Research into
Dairying, at Shinfield, Berkshire.
In 1927 several of the most able students came from the Chadacre
Agricultural Institute, to assist in the transformation of the Elveden
Estate and help him with his revolutionary ideas. The brightest was a 21
year old Victor Harrison, who arrived in 1933. Chadacre finally closed in
1989, but the Trust continues to this day, chaired by the present Lord
Iveagh, its income is used to support agricultural research work.
Lord
Iveagh realised the land had to be made more profitable and manure would be
needed and therefore, in 1932 commenced to buy in dairy cattle, keeping only
those which passed the TB Test. In 1927 there were 120 cows, by 1962 there
were 715 plus 816 young stock. Lord and Lady Iveagh took a keen interest in
their Dairy Herds and prepared a 'family tree', which was regularly up
dated, for every animal in their possession.
He donated generous sums to Dublin hospitals and in 1939 presented to the
Government his Dublin residence, Iveagh House (80 St Stephen's Green), now
the Department of Foreign Affairs, and gave the gardens to UCD.
At the outbreak of war the Ministry of Agriculture instigated a
ploughing-up campaign as part of the 'War Effort'. Lord Iveagh agreed to
increase the arable acreage as requested. 600 acres were ploughed, 200 of
which were Lucerne leys and the rest old lands which had been used for game
and had gone out of cultivation. This proved discouraging, the crops failing
to cover the expense of growing them. The following year Lord Iveagh was
asked to plough another 1000 acres and agreed to make the attempt even
though the previous efforts had proved unsuccessful. All had to be fenced
against rabbits and the wire was difficult to obtain. 
The new ground yielded more crops than anticipated, but later the whole
project was dealt a severe blow. The War Office announced its intention of
using a large area of the estate as a tank training ground and despite the
need for food production, many of the new crops were ruined, and fences torn
down, allowing the ingress of rabbits which were more destructive than the
tanks. After a great deal of damage had been done it was agreed to fence off
small areas of the land for cultivation which were later harvested. The
value of the ploughing-up experiment had been largely lost and an enormous
amount of much needed food had gone to waste. Undeterred, Lord Iveagh
obtained permission from the War Office to cultivate portions of the
requisitioned lands which were hardly used and by the end of the war had
regained much of the lost ground - which was successfully cropped. Leys had
also been increased by another thousand acres. Some of the extra acreage had
been obtained from old pasture land but most of it was gained from
previously untouched heath.
His only son, Viscount Elveden, was killed in action in 1945.
For
several years the Forestry Commission had coveted parts of Elveden Estate
for extending Thetford Forest, but Lord Iveagh's success with farming
brought a settlement in his favour in 1952.
It was during Rupert's management that the
Guinness World Records started. The brewery was always on the look-out
for good promotional ideas to bring the Guinness name to the public’s
attention. One of these ideas came about when Sir Hugh Beaver, then the
managing director, went on a shooting party in 1951. He became involved in
an argument about which was the fastest game bird in Europe, the golden
plover or the grouse, and he realized that a book, published by Guinness,
that supplied answers to this sort of question might prove popular. He was
right!
Sir Hugh’s idea
became reality when the McWhirter twins, Norris and Ross, who had been
running a fact-finding agency in London, were commissioned to compile what
became The Guinness Book of Records. The first edition was published in 1955
and went to the top of the British bestseller lists by Christmas that same
year.
Since then
Guinness World Records has become a household name and the book has sold
more than 80 million copies in 77 different countries and 38 different
languages. It has also prompted successful television shows around the
world, and the launch of the guinnessworldrecords.com website in the year
2000
Rupert served as chancellor of the University of Dublin 1927-63.
He retired from Guinness in 1962 in favour of his
grandson, Lord Elveden and was elected FRS in March 1964 at ninety for his services
to science and agriculture. Died in his sleep at his house in Woking,
Surrey, 14 September 1967.
