Charles Stourton, 26th Baron Mowbray

Charles Edward Stourton, 26th Baron Mowbray CBE (born March 11, 1923 in London , † December 12, 2006 in Dundee ) was a British nobleman and politician . From 1965 to 1983 he was the senior baron in the Peerage of England . He sat for the Conservative Party in the House of Lords and was a Conservative Whip in the government and in the opposition from 1967 to 1980. He was one of 92 nobility who were elected to keep their seat when the House of Lords Act 1999 was introduced .

family

He was the eldest son and apparent marriage of William Stourton, 25th Baron Mowbray . His mother, Sheila Gully, was a granddaughter of William Gully, 1st Viscount Selby , who was Speaker of the House of Commons from 1895 to 1905 .

Education and military service

He was a student at Benedictine boarding school Ampleforth College in Yorkshire and studied at Christ Church College of Oxford University . During the Second World War he served as a lieutenant in the Grenadier Guards , was wounded near Caen in 1944 and lost his right eye as a result. He left the army in 1945 and ran a pig farm on the family estate in Yorkshire.

He was of Roman Catholic faith and was inducted into the Order of Malta in 1947 as Knight of Honor and Devotion .

Marriage and children

He was married twice. He married Jane de Yarburgh-Bateson in 1953, the only child of Stephen Nicholas de Yarburgh-Bateson, 5th Baron Deramore . The couple had two sons:

• Edward William Stephen Stourton, 27th Baron Mowbray (born April 17, 1953)
• Hon. James Alastair Stourton (born July 3, 1956)

His wife died in 1998 and in 1999 he married Joan, Lady Holland, née Street, the widow of Sir Guy Holland, 3rd Baronet .

Political career

In 1953 he was the Gold Stick Officer at Queen Elizabeth II's coronation . From 1954 to 1959 he was a parish councilor in the Nidderdale Rural District Council .

He took his mother's side when his parents divorced in 1961, a case that caused quite a stir. His father has been portrayed as self-centered and his mother received judicial separation because of his cruelty. After the divorce, he sued his father over a dispute over the management of the family estate, which was settled.

On the death of his father in 1965 he inherited his three baron titles as 26th Baron Mowbray , 27th Baron Segrave and 23rd Baron Stourton . The title Baron Mowbray is the third oldest surviving barony in the Peerage of England, after the Baron de Ros and Baron le Despencer . But because Georgiana Maxwell, 27th Baroness de Ros was female and the Baron le Despencer was also Viscount Falmouth , he followed his father as the highest-ranking Baron of England ( Premier Baron of England ) until Baroness de Ros died in 1983, and was inherited by her son has been. His father bequeathed a large part of the estate to his 12-year-old grandson, Edward Stourton , with little shares for his wife and son. The family estate of Allerton Park near Knaresborough in Yorkshire is considered one of the most important Gothic Revival buildings in England and was bequeathed to a foundation until Edward turned 30. The house was leased in 1983 and an American businessman.

He was easily recognizable through his eye patch on the Conservative bench and rarely left the conservative party line. He became a whip of the opposition in 1967 and performed that task for 13 years until stepping down in 1980. As Lord-in-Waiting , he was often called to greet foreign heads of state at Heathrow Airport . He was 1975-1979 and 1981-1984 twice Chancellor of the Primrose League . In addition, he was 1970 to 1974 environmental spokesman for the government of Edward Heath and 1979-1980 environmental, transportation and art spokesman for the Margaret Thatcher government . In 1982 he was named Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). After the introduction of the House of Lords Act 1999 he was one of the 92 hereditary nobility who remained in the reformed House of Lords as representatives of the hereditary nobility. He was on the Committee of Privileges and was captain of the House of Lords shooting team .

He was a member of several clubs and associations. He was Vice President of the British Association of the Order of Constantine and was also their longest serving knight. From 1975 to 2000 he was President and Delegate of the British and Irish Association of the Order of Constantine under their Grand Master Carlo, Duke of Castro .

In the 1960s he became director of Securicor . He was also Chairman of the Thames Estuary Airport Company from 1993 .

Web links

• Charles Edward Stourton, 27th Baron Segrave on thepeerage.com
• [1] , The Daily Telegraph , December 15, 2006
• Obituary , The Independent , December 19, 2006
• Obituary , Yorkshire Post , December 23, 2006
• Obituary , The Times , Jan. 3, 2007

predecessor	Office	successor
William Stourton	Baron Mowbray Baron Segrave Baron Stourton 1965-2006	Edward Stourton