 In April 1923, he married Miss Lila Hapell (died July 1976), daughter of William Alexander Happell, who had been in the Indian Civil Service.She had been governess to his niece.Initially he lived in an estate called Ballyteigue in Bruree and then another called Ardvullen in Killmallock before inheriting a small estate called Summerville from a cousin in County Limerick which the Irish Republican Army tried to burn down in 1922; he persuaded it to go away, though he himself was unarmed.