Frank Peard
Frank Peard (1919–2019) was an Irish badminton player who represented Ireland in the 1940s and 1950s. He was born on 5 October 1919 and grew up in Mountmellick, County Laois, before his family moved to Listowel, County Kerry in 1932. He attended St Michael’s secondary school in Listowel. In 1960 he married fellow badminton player Susan Devlin, and they had two children, Mark and Pam.
Peard started playing badminton when he was about 9 or 10. He joined the Ailesbury Badminton Club in the early 1940s, partnering with Ham Lambert and Eileen Goulding. In 1946 he helped found The Knights Badminton Club with Raymund Egan, Dick Bell, Colin Maidment and Geoff Trapnell. He credited studying David Guthrie Freeman’s singles games with improving his own play in the late 1940s.
From 1946 to 1957, Peard played for Ireland 20 times. He won 3 Irish Open titles, 16 Irish Close titles and 6 Scottish titles. He reached two All-England semi-finals with Noel Radford and Jim FitzGibbon, and played in European tournaments with FitzGibbon. In 1948 he took part in the first match of the inaugural Thomas Cup against Denmark.
Peard was a strong promoter of badminton in Ireland, organizing and taking part in many exhibition events. He had a long coaching career and spoke at the 1985 World Coaching Conference in Calgary. He served on the Leinster Branch executive, helping move the branch to the Terenure Centre in 1954. He was Director of the European Championships when Dublin hosted them in 1976, and helped establish the Badminton Museum of Ireland, donating funds and items.
Outside badminton, Peard worked for Guinness in Dublin from 1939 to 1981. He began in the Accountant’s Department, spent 18 months in the United States, and wrote about business topics for The Irish Times and the Irish Management Institute. One article, “How to Get There: An Emigrant’s Guide to New York,” helped new Irish arrivals. Back in Dublin he rose to Assistant Chief Accountant, became Director of Guinness in 1972, and then Deputy Managing Director of Guinness Ireland in 1977. He also served as a Trustee of the Iveagh Trust from 1981 and, in 1993, became the first non-member of the Guinness family to chair the Trust.
Frank Peard died on 22 September 2019 at Mount Hybla Nursing Home in Dublin, aged 99.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 14:39 (CET).