George Petty-FitzMaurice, 8th Marquess of Lansdowne

George John Charles Mercer Nairne Petty-FitzMaurice, 8th Marquess of Lansdowne , PC (birth name: George John Charles Mercer Nairne ; born November 27, 1912 - † August 25, 1999 ) was a British politician of the Conservative Party , who won the title in 1944 as 8.  Marquess of Lansdowne inherited and thus until his death as a member of the upper house ( house of Lords ) belonged. Between 1962 and 1964 he served as Minister of State in the Department of Affairs of the Commonwealth of Nations and the Colonies .

Life

Family origin

George John Charles Mercer Nairne Petty-FitzMaurice was the only son of Lord Charles George Francis Mercer Nairne Petty-FitzMaurice, who served as a major in the 1st King's Dragoon Guards Cavalry Regiment , and his wife, Lady Violet Mary Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound . His paternal grandfather was Henry Petty-FitzMaurice, 5th Marquess of Lansdowne , who was Governor General of Canada between 1883 and 1888, Governor General and Viceroy of India from 1888 to 1894, and Foreign Minister between 1900 and 1905 . His paternal grandfather was Gilbert Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, 4th Earl of Minto , who was also Governor General of Canada from 1898 to 1904 and also Governor General and Viceroy of India between 1905 and 1910. His only sister Lady Mary Margaret Elizabeth Petty FitzMaurice was with Lieutenant Colonel Ririd Myddelton, among other things, in 1951 High Sheriff of County Denbighshire was. His mother, Violet Mary Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, was married to John Jacob Astor, 1st Baron Astor of Hever , after the death of his father on October 30, 1914 , making him a half-brother of Gavin Astor, 2nd Baron Astor of Hever as well of the House of Commons John Astor . His uncle and older brother of his father was Henry William Edmund Petty-FitzMaurice was a member of the House of Commons between 1908 and 1918 and inherited the title of 6th Marquess of Lansdowne from his father in 1927.

George Petty-FitzMaurice himself completed a degree at Christ Church at the University of Oxford after attending the renowned Eton College . During the Second World War he did military service in the Scots Guards regiment and was most recently promoted to major and awarded the Croix de guerre .

House of Lords and Junior Minister

Coat of arms of the Marquess of Lansdowne

After the death of his cousin Charles Petty-Fitzmaurice, 7th Marquess of Lansdowne on August 20, 1944, George John Charles Mercer Nairne inherited the title of 8th  Marquess of Lansdowne , in the County of Somerset, as the 7th Marquess of Lansdowne died childless and his younger brother Lord Edward Norman Petty-Fitzmaurice had died nine days earlier on August 11, 1944 in the war. At the same time he inherited the related and subordinate titles as 8th Earl Wycombe of Chepping Wycombe, 8th Viscount Calne and Calston, in the County of Wiltshire, 9th Baron Wycombe, Baron of Chepping Wycombe, in the County of Buckinghamshire, in the Peerage of Great Britain as well as 9th Earl of Shelburne, in the County of Wexford, 9th  Earl of Kerry , 9th Viscount FitzMaurice, 9th Viscount Clanmaurice, 27th Baron of Kerry and Lixnaw and 9th Baron Dunkeron each in the Peerage of Ireland . Thus he became a member of the upper house ( House of Lords ) , where he remained until his death. He changed his name legally in 1947 George John Charles Mercer Nairne Petty-FitzMaurice and was also in 1950 a magistrate (justice of the peace) of the County of Perthshire and in 1951 Deputy Lieutenant (DL) of the county of Wiltshire .

In the cabinet of Prime Minister Harold Macmillan , the Marquess of Lansdowne acted initially as Lord in Waiting between June 11, 1957 and October 23, 1958 and was then Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the State Department from October 23, 1958 to April 20, 1962 (Parliamentary Under- Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs ) , before last on 20 April 1962, the office of Minister of State in the colonial Office (Minister of State for the Colonies ) took over. This office he held from October 18, 1963 to October 16, 1964 in the cabinet of Prime Minister Alec Douglas-Home , where he was formally Minister of State in the Ministry of Commonwealth and Affairs after the amalgamation of the Ministry of Colonial Affairs with the Ministry of Affairs of the Commonwealth of Nations of the Colonies (Minister of State, Commonwealth and Colonial Affairs) . In this role, he was also on January 20, 1964. Member of the Secret Privy Council ( Privy Council ) appointed. He was also a member of the Royal Company of Archers , the ceremonial bodyguard of the British monarch in Scotland . In addition, he acted between 1967 and 1968 as a master (Prime Warden) of the fishmongers guild of the City of London ( Worshipful Company of Fishmongers ) .

Marriages and offspring

George John Charles Mercer Nairne Petty-FitzMaurice was married four times. His first marriage to Barbara Chase on March 18, 1938 had four children. The eldest daughter, Lady Caroline Margaret Petty-FitzMaurice, died on September 27, 1956 at the age of only 17. The eldest son Charles Maurice Petty-FitzMaurice inherited after his death on August 25, 1999 the title of 9th Marquess of Lansdowne as well as the subordinate and associated nobility titles. In addition to another son, Lord Robert Harold Mercer Nairne, a second daughter, Lady Georgina Elizabeth Petty-FitzMaurice, emerged from this first marriage.

After the death of his first wife Barbara Chase on February 17, 1965, the Marquess of Lansdowne married Selina Polly Dawson Eccles on December 22, 1969, her father David Eccles, 1st Viscount Eccles, among others from 1943 to 1962 a Member of the House of Commons, a member of the House of Lords and others was minister several times. After the divorce of this marriage in 1978, he married Gillian Anna Morgan for the third time on October 15, 1978, although she died in 1982. Most recently, he married Penelope Eve Bradford on July 12, 1995, fourth marriage, who was married to his half-brother John Astor from 1982 until his death in 1987 . The third to fourth marriages of the Marquess of Lansdowne remained childless.

Web links

• George Petty-FitzMaurice, 8th Marquess of Lansdowne at the Hansard (English)
• Entry in Cracroft's Peerage
• Entry in Leigh Rayment Peerage
• George John Charles Mercer Nairne Petty-FitzMaurice, 8th Marquess of Lansdowne on thepeerage.com , accessed January 10, 2019.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ PRIVY COUNSELLORS 1915 - 1968 (leighrayment.com)

predecessor	Office	successor
Charles Hope Petty-FitzMaurice	Marquess of Lansdowne 1944-1999	Charles Maurice Petty-FitzMaurice