Guillaume Edington Armit, later William Edington de Marguerittes (de Margrat) Armit, was born in Liege, Kingdom of Belgium on 10 May 1848, to John Lees Armit Esq of Kildare St, Dublin, formerly an army agent, and Elizabeth Yeldham. William’s father’s first wife, Noemie Augustine Eugenie de Teissier, was a granddaughter of Jean-Antoine Teissier de Marguerittes, Baron de Marguerittes, guillotined in 1794, during the French Revolution. This explains the later addition to Armit’s name. Armit had four half-siblings from his father’s first marriage and five full siblings from the second. William went on to have a large family of his own.

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