Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 7th Marquess of Salisbury

Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 7th Marquess of Salisbury

Robert Michael James Gascoyne-Cecil, 7th Marquess of Salisbury KG , KCVO , PC , DL (born September 30, 1946 in Sutton Courtenay , Oxfordshire ) is a British peer and politician ( Conservative Party ). Until 2003 he was known by his courtesy title of Viscount Cranborne .

life and career

Gascoyne-Cecil was born the eldest child and firstborn son of the Honorable Robert and Mollie Gascoyne-Cecil, who became Viscount and Viscountess Cranborne in 1947 when his great-grandfather, the 4th Marquess of Salisbury, died; the son and heir of the 3rd Marquess of Salisbury died on April 4, 1947. His father, the 6th Marquess of Salisbury, succeeded his father, the 5th Marquess of Salisbury (1893-1972), and devoted himself to no political career in the spirit of his father, grandfather and great-grandfather.

Gascoyne-Cecil attended Eton College and then studied at Christ Church College at the University of Oxford . He first worked in the banking sector before taking on tasks in the management of the family-owned companies and lands.

In 1976 he was surprisingly selected as a Conservative Party candidate for the South Dorset parliamentary constituency , where his family owned land, although the list included several previous MPs. When he won the constituency in the next election in 1978, he represented the seventh successive generation of his family to hold a seat in the House of Commons and in his first speech called on Ian Smith to step down in favor of Abel Muzorewa . Also in 1978, at the Conservative Party conference, he spoke out against sanctions against Rhodesia .

Gascoyne-Cecil, then Viscount Cranborne, quickly gained a reputation there for belonging to the right wing of his party. This particularly concerned questions of the Church of England and its anti-communism , but took it to absurdity when he was working on a paper in 1981 which stated that the fight against unemployment should be given more priority than the fight against inflation . On the Northern Ireland issue, he was against any form of influence from the Republic of Ireland . Due to the Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1987, which he rejected, Gascoyne-Cecil then resigned from his offices. He was previously the Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to Cranley Onslow , then Minister of State, from April to May 1982 . When Jim Prior announced his "Rolling Devolution" policy, Gascoyne-Cecil resigned from his paid assistantship to Douglas Hurd .

He became known as an anti-communist in the early 1980s through activities in support of Afghan refugees in Pakistan and sending food parcels to Poland . He also supported the Afghan resistance. Until the early years of the 21st century, a charity shop operated on the Hatfield estate, solely for this purpose and for funds for Polish orphanages.

Membership in the House of Lords

Coat of arms of Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 7th Marquess of Salisbury

After the 1992 election, John Major used the seldom used means of raising the eldest son of a peer prematurely to the nobility by granting a minor title to his father ( Writ of Acceleration ) to appoint Gascoyne-Cecil to the House of Lords . He received the title of 13th Baron Cecil in his own right , but continued to use his higher-ranking courtesy title Viscount Cranborne.

After initially serving as Parliamentary State Secretary in the Ministry of Defense for two years from 1992 , Gascoyne-Cecil became Lord Seal Keeper and Chairman of the Leader of the House of Lords (until 1997) and the government faction there. At the same time he was admitted to the Privy Council . During his presidency, financial support to opposition parties began in the House of Lords, known as Cranborne Money .

When Major resigned and fought for his re-election as Conservative Party leader in July 1995, Gascoyne-Cecil led the election campaign. He was seen as one of the few cabinet members loyal to Major, but continued to lead the Conservative Peers after the Labor Party won the election .

After the change of government in 1997 he remained chairman of the Conservative Peers. Two years later he negotiated structural reform of the upper house with Prime Minister Tony Blair . Since he had not previously involved his party leader William Hague , he subsequently lost his office. From 1997 to 1998 he was a member of the shadow cabinet as opposition spokesperson for the public service and was also the opposition leader.

Gascoyne-Cecil , like all other Chairs of the House of Lords, remained a Life Peer as Baron Gascoyne-Cecil , of Essendon in the County of Rutland . He was initially still active as a backbencher until the financial disclosure rules were significantly tightened in 2001, which he refused. He last spoke up on May 10, 2001. He last took part in a vote on May 9, 2001. Since November 1, 2001, he has been on leave of absence from the House of Lords . Therefore, he was not active in the House of Lords when he succeeded his father on July 11, 2003 as the 7th Marquess.

In January 2010, Gayscone-Cecil and Owen Paterson had secret talks at Hatfield House involving the DUP , UUP and the Conservative Party. This led to speculation that the Conservative Party would attempt to build a pan-unionist front to reduce the chances of Sinn Féin and the SDLP in the 2010 general election .

As topics of political interest, he lists constitutional issues, the European Union and foreign policy on the House of Lords website . He mentions the states of Central Asia , the USA and France as states of interest .

Origin and family

Gascoyne-Cecil comes from one of the most important families of the British nobility. The progenitor of the family is William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley , the most important advisor to Queen Elizabeth I. His son Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury was then also a minister under Queen Elizabeth I. The great-grandfather of Gascoyne-Cecil, Robert Gascoyne- Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, was British Prime Minister three times between 1885 and 1902 .

The Marquesses of Salisbury descend from the 1st Marquess, a courtier and favorite of King George III. And even a descendant of Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury and one of the men to the throne of James I contributed. Robert Cecil was himself a younger son of Elizabeth I's adviser William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley , the descendant of Welsh soldier David Cyssell .

The family name is still pronounced "Siss-el" and not "Sess-il". His mother, Marjorie "Mollie" Olein Wyndham-Quin, was a descendant of Windham Wyndham-Quin, 5th Earl of Dunraven and Mount-Earl on his father's side, and of George Bridgeman, 4th Earl of Bradford through her maternal grandmother. Lady Salisbury is a well-known gardener who advised several other gardeners, such as Prince Charles . His parents had seven children, of whom four sons and one daughter survived and two sons died. Robert Gascoyne-Cecil began using "Robert" as his preferred baptismal name from his 21st birthday.

On January 7, 1970, he married Hannah Stirling, a niece of Lieutenant Colonel David Stirling , founder of the Special Air Service . The couple have two sons and three daughters. Gascoyne-Cecil and his wife live in the ancestral home of the Hatfield House family near Hatfield in Hertfordshire . This was given to the family of Jakob I in exchange for the Theobald's family seat. Until recently they lived at Cranborne Manor, Dorset . The heir is his older son Robert Edward "Ned" William Gascoyne-Cecil, called Viscount Cranborne (* 1970). He is currently not married but has a daughter who was born in 2001. The younger son, Lord James, recently married and has one son.

The family is very wealthy; she has properties in Dorset , Hertfordshire and London . With an estimated fortune of around £ 250 million, she ranks 288th on the Sunday Times Rich List 2008 . In 2003 Gascoyne-Cecil's father, Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 6th Marquess of Salisbury , died, so that he inherited the title of Marquess of Salisbury as the eldest son .

Further offices and honors

Gascoyne-Cecil was Deputy Lieutenant of Dorset from 1987 (or 1998) to 2006 and of Hertfordshire from 2006 .

From 1998 to 2007 he was Chairman ( Chairman ) Board of Directors ( Council ) of the Royal Veterinary College ; from 2007 to 2008 President of the Royal Agricultural Society of England (RASE).

He was also Chairman ( Chairman ) of the Combined Clinical Science Foundation, President of the Friends of the British Library , Chairman ( Chairman ) of the Friends of Lambeth Palace Library and Chairman of the Committee of Patrons of the Thrombosis Research Institute, as well as Governor of The Charterhouse and President of Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust .

He has been Chancellor of the University of Hertfordshire since 2005 . In 2019 he was inducted into the Order of the Garter as a Knight Companion .

Web links

• Viscount Cranborne at Hansard (English)
• Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 7th Marquess of Salisbury at theyworkforyou
• Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 7th Marquess of Salisbury at The Public Whip
• Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 7th Marquess of Salisbury - Official website of the House of Lords
• The Most Hon the Marquess of Salisbury, PC, DL - Biography at Debretts

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h} Robert Michael James Gascoyne-Cecil, 7th Marquess of Salisbury on thepeerage.com , accessed September 18, 2016.
2. ↑ The young elite 1-10 article in The Guardian of March 12, 2010
3. ↑ Members of the House of Lords granted leave of absence FAQs ( Memento of the original dated February 2, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. List of members on leave from the House of Lords website , accessed May 16, 2013 
4. ↑ The Guardian, November 3, 2001
5. ↑ Peter Robinson voices doubts over deal to save Northern Ireland power-sharing Article in: The Guardian, May 16, 2013
6. ↑ Debrett's Peerage 2008
7. ^ The Times , Announcements 2007
8. ^ Sunday Times Rich List 2008
9. ^ The Charterhouse (Governance)
10. ↑ New appointments of the Order of the Garter announced royal.uk, February 27, 2019

predecessor	Office	successor
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil	Marquess of Salisbury 2003 – present	current title holder
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil	Baron Cecil (through Writ of Acceleration) 1992 – present	current title holder