- Peter Kerr, 12th Marquess of Lothian
Peter Francis Walter Kerr, 12th Marquess of Lothian, KCVO (
8 September 1922 –11 October 2004 ) was a British peer, politician and landowner.Kerr's father and grandfather were officers in the
Royal Navy . He was educated atAmpleforth College andChrist Church, Oxford , and joined theScots Guards . He succeeded his cousin,Philip Kerr, 11th Marquess of Lothian , in 1940, and married a distant cousin Antonella Newland (d. 2007), daughter ofMajor General Sir Foster Newland, on30 April 1943 . [According to his wife's [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,60-2535987,00.html "Times"] obituary, their mothers were cousins, and they had first met as children.] Lord and Lady Lothian had six children: two sons and four daughters. His wife pursued her own career as a journalist, and founded theWomen of the Year Lunch . The family were mainly based at their estates in the Borders, atNewbattle Abbey andMonteviot . The 11th Marquess had leftBlickling Hall in Norfolk to the National Trust. Another family house atMelbourne Hall in Derbyshire was opened to the paying public in 1952. [ Melbourne Hall was inherited via his great-great-grandmother Emily Cowper, sister of the 2ndViscount Melbourne and mistress of Palmerston whom she later married. See [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20041019/ai_n12816774"Independent" obituary] (2004) by James Stourton for details.]Lothian took part in the
Wolfenden inquiry into the UK's laws on homosexuality and prostitution in 1954. He joined the UK's delegation to theUnited Nations General Assembly during theSuez crisis in 1956, and was later sent as a delegate to theCouncil of Europe in 1959 and theWestern European Union . He served asParliamentary private secretary to theForeign Secretary ,Lord Home , from 1960, and was also a whip in the House of Lords. He served as a junior minister at theMinistry of Health during the short period of Lord Home's term as Prime Minister in 1964. He returned to the Foreign Office with Lord Home in 1970, serving as parliamentary under-secretary for 2 years. He was nominated as amember of the European Parliament in 1973, when the UK joined theEuropean Economic Community .He retired from politics in 1977, and Lord Lothian served as
Lord Warden of the Stannaries , Keeper of the Privy Purse to the Duke of Cornwall, and Chairman of the Prince's Council for theDuchy of Cornwall . He was appointed KCVO in 1983. He was also a member of theRoyal Company of Archers , commandant of theSpecial Constabulary in theScottish Borders , and aKnight of Malta .He returned the
Franciscan monastery ofSan Damiano , nearAssisi , to theFranciscan friars minor in 1979, and he ceded control of Monteviot and Melbourne House to his elder and younger son, respectively, in the 1980s, to take on the restoration ofFerniehirst Castle inRoxburghshire .His elder son, the Conservative politician
Michael Ancram , succeeded to the Marquessate on his death, while his second, third and fourth daughters married the XXVII Chief of the Clan Cameron, the Heir Apparent to theDuke of Grafton , and the Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry respectively. Owing to changes in the composition of theHouse of Lords to exclude hereditary peers, the current Lord Lothian is able to continue his career in the House of Commons.Notes
References
* [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/10/13/db1303.xml Obituary] , "
The Daily Telegraph ",12 October 2004
* [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20041019/ai_n12816774 Obituary] , "The Independent ",19 October 2004
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