Aristocratic deaths, February, 2004

[Michael Rhodes]

Baron Bullock (Alan Louis Charles Bullock), historian and university
administrator: born Trowbridge, Wiltshire 13 December 1914; Fellow,
Dean and Tutor in Modern History, New College, Oxford 1945-52; Censor,
St Catherine's Society, Oxford 1952-62; Chairman, Research Committee,
RIIA 1954-78; Master, St Catherine's College, Oxford 1960-80, Honorary
Fellow 1980-2004; Chairman, National Advisory Council on the Training
and Supply of Teachers 1963-65; Chairman, Schools Council 1966-69; FBA
1967; Vice-Chancellor, Oxford University 1969-73; Kt 1972; Chairman,
Committee of Inquiry into Reading and the Use of English 1972-74;
Chairman, Trustees, Tate Gallery 1973-80; Chairman, Committee of
Inquiry on Industrial Democracy 1976; created 1976 Baron Bullock;
married 1940 Hilda Handy (three sons, one daughter, and one daughter
deceased); died Oxford 2 February 2004.

--

Michael Rhodes (Please delete x to e-mail me)

[Michael Rhodes]

The Hon. Francis Charles Sackville Tufton, VRD, younger brother of the
5th Baron Hothfield, TD (1904-91), and uncle of the 6th Baron, died 1
February, 2004. He was aged 90.

He was born 8 October, 1913, the second son of the Hon. Charles Henry
Tufton, CMG (1879-1923),(third son of the 1st Baron Hothfield), by his
wife Stella Josephine Faudel-Phillips, (d. 1958), daughter of Sir
George Faudel-Phillips, 1st Baronet.

His ancestor, Richard Tufton was born at Verdun, France in 1813; and
succeeded by devise to the estates of his reputed natural father
Henry, 11th and last Earl of Thanet; and was naturalized with his
family in 1849, and created a baronet two years later. This
gentleman's son, the 2nd Baronet, was created 1st Baron Hothfield in
1881, and served as a Lord in Waiting to Queen Victoria.

Francis Tufton was educated at Eton & Trinity College, Oxford;
admitted a solicitor in 1946; served in World War II, as
Lieutenant-Commander, RNVR; Chevalier of the Danish Order of
Dannebrog.

He married 10 September, 1942, Joyce Clara, the younger daughter of
Sir Edward Henry Goschen, 2nd Baronet, and had issue, a son Edward,
and a daughter Josephine.

The funeral takes place 11 February, 2004, at All Saints Church,
Sandon.


--

Michael Rhodes (please delete x to e-mail me)

[Michael Rhodes]

Malcolm Archibald James St. Clair , Conservative MP for Bristol South
East, 1961-63, a farmer, died 1 February, 2004. He was aged 76.

He was born 16 February, 1927, the only son of Major-General George
James Paul St Clair, CB, CBE, DSO (1885-1955), by his wife Charlotte
Theresa Orme Little, a descendant of the Earls of Shrewsbury &
Waterford.

Mr St. Clair was descended paternally from the Lords Sinclair, who
were granted a peerage circa 1449, but confirmed forty years or so
later as the Lords Sinclair. The 1st Lord Sinclair fell at Flodden
Field.

Malcolm St. Clair was educated at Eton.

Career: served with the Royal Scots Greys, 1944-48; formerly Honorary
Secretary to Sir Winston Churchill; contested Bristol SE for the
Conservatives at the General Election 1959 unsuccessfully;
Conservative MP for Bristol SE, 1961-63; Lieutenant-Colonel
Commanding, Royal Gloucestershire Hussars (TA), 1967-69; High Sheriff
of Gloucestershire, 1972.

St. Clair, of Long Newnton Priory, Tetbury, Gloucestershire, married
in 1955, Mary-Jean Rosalie Alice, daughter of Wing Commander Caryl
Liddell Hargreaves, of Sunningdale, a descendant of the Barons
Ravensworth (and kin of the girl on whom Lewis Carroll based his
_Alice in Wonderland_) by whom he had two sons, Hugh and Andrew, and
one daughter, Vanessa.


--

Michael Rhodes (Please delete x to e-mail me)

[Michael Rhodes]

Michael Christopher Alfred Codrington, late Major 16th/5th Lancers; b.
19 April, 1926, son of the late Colonel Sir Geoffrey Ronald
Codrington, KCVO, CB, CMG, DSO, OBE, TD (1888-1973), of the Codrington
Baronets (created in 1721), by his wife, Cecilia Mary Wythes
(descended from the Thorold Baronets); married firstly, 1953,
(divorced 1986), Irene Margaret, who died 1994, daughter of Colonel
Mark Edward Makgill-Crichton-Maitland, CVO, DSO (of the Earls of
Lauderdale); married secondly, 1986, Alma Patricia, widow of Norman G.
Batcheller, and a daughter of Patrick Sheridan; has issue from his
first marriage, Camilla, Bridget and Kate; died 1 February, 2004.

-- Michael Rhodes (Please erase x to e-mail me)

[Michael Rhodes]

The 17th Viscount Mountgarret, an eccentric peer once famously
arraigned before a magistrate for peppering a hot air ballon with
gunshot from his fowling piece, collapsed and died at the wheel of his
car near his home in North Yorkshire, 7 February, 2004. He was 67.

Richard Henry Piers Butler was the 17th holder of the peerage of
Ireland created in 1550; and was Baron Mountgarret in the peerage of
the UK (created in 1911). He was also the senior co-heir to the
Earldoms of Ormonde & Ossory and title Chief Butler of Ireland
(dormant since the demise of the last Marquess of Ormonde), but chose
not to pursue his claim stating that he was leaving that expensive
task to his son and heir, Piers.

He was born 8 November, 1936, son of the 16th Viscount, of Nidd Hall,
North Yorkshire, by his first wife Eglantine Marie Elizabeth Christie,
of the landed family of the Jervaulx Abbey estate.

Eton educated Mountgarret had a career in the Irish Guards, and
retired with the rank of Captain in 1964. He was President of
Yorkshire County Cricket Club, 1984-90. He succeeded to the peerages
on the demise of his father, 1966.

His home was Stainley Hall, South Stainley, near Harrogate.

He married three times, (i) in 1960, Gillian Margaret Buckley
(divorced 1970, she later married the 9th Baron Howard De Walden), by
whom he had three children; (ii) 1970 (divorced 1983), Mrs Jennifer
Susan Fattorini, a member of the Wills tobacco family; (iii) 1983, Mrs
Angela Ruth Waddington.

The peerages now devolve on his elder son, Piers James Richard Butler,
born 15 April, 1961.

Post by Michael Rhodes
-- Michael Rhodes (Please erase x to e-mail me)

[Gary Jenkins]

Post by Michael Rhodes
Malcolm Archibald James St. Clair , Conservative MP for Bristol South
East, 1961-63, a farmer, died 1 February, 2004. He was aged 76.

He was a participant in the Benn/Stansgate peerage renunciation drama.
Antony Wedgwood Benn defeated St Clair in the 1959 General Election
but became Viscount Stansgate on his father's death the following year
and so ineligible to sit in the Commons.

As part of his campaign to allow peers to disclaim their titles,
Wedgwood Benn stood in the ensuing bye-election and again defeated St
Clair. He was however disqualified and the seat awarded to St Clair.
As the Conservative Party had a large majority in Parliament at the
time this wasn't of much significance nationally. In 1963
legislation was passed allowing peers to disclaim their title in
certain circumstamces. Benn/Stansgate did so and St Clair did the
honourable thing, resigning his seat and so precipitating another
bye-election which Wedgwood Benn again won.

[Michael Rhodes]

Sir David Meyrick, 4th Baronet, of Gumfreston, Tenby, Dyfed, Wales,
died 6 February, 2004. He was aged 77.

David John Charlton Meyrick was born 2 December, 1926, son of Colonel
Sir Thomas Frederick Meyrick, 3rd Baronet, TD, DL, JP (1899-1983), by
his wife Ivy Frances, daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel Frederick Charles
Pilkington, DSO, of that landed family.

His great-grandfather, Sir Thomas Charlton Meyrick, KCB, DL, JP, was
Conservative MP for the Pembroke District, 1868-74, and was created a
Baronet in 1880.

He was educated at Eton and Trinity Hall, Cambridge (BA, 1948; MA,
1956).

Career: a Chartered Surveyor; Fellow, Royal Institute of Chartered
Surveyors; Fellow, Chartered Land Agents' Society, &c.

He married 29 September, 1962, Penelope Anne, elder daughter of the
late Commander John Bertram Aubrey Marsden-Smedley, RN, by whom he had
issue, three sons Timothy, Simon and Christopher.

He is succeeded in the baronetcy by his eldest son, Timothy Thomas
Charlton Meyrick, born 5 November, 1963.

--

Michael Rhodes (please erase x to e-mail me)

[Michael Rhodes]

Glynne William Gladstone Wickham, drama scholar: born Cape Town, South
Africa 15 May 1922; a great-grandson of William Ewart Gladstone,
Victorian Statesman, of the Gladstone Baronets; married 1954 Hesel
Mudford (two sons, one daughter); died Bristol 27 January 2004.

--

Michael Rhodes (Please delete x to e-mail me)

[Michael Rhodes]

Eleanor Sarah Chichester (nee Riddell-Blount), who died 7 February,
2004, aged 88, was a daughter of Edward Riddell-Blount, of
Mapledurham, Oxon, and Cheeseburn Grange, Northumberland, and married
4 Aug, 1945, Commander Michael Guy Chichester, RN (scion of the
Chichesters of Hall, Barnstaple, Devon), third son of Capt Cecil
George Chichester, DSO, RN, by his wife, Katharine Elizabeth
Cottrell-Dormer (of that landed family); one son, Julian Michael
Edward, born in 1949, and one daughter, Isabelle Anne Frances, born in
1947.

--

Michael Rhodes
(Please delete x to e-mail me)

[Michael Rhodes]

Brigadier Henry Lawrence Savill Young, DSO, late the Irish Guards,
scion of the Young Baronets (of North Dean, created 1769); born 19
October, 1915, son of Major George Edward Savill Young, Irish Guards
(1884-1917), by his wife Alison Jane, daughter of the Rev. Frederick
John Poole, Vicar of Bishop Monckton, Ripon, North Yorkshire; served
in WW2, mentioned in despatches and received the DSO; married 19
September, 1939, Noreen de Vere Brabazon Ponsonby (b. 14 August,
1917), scion of the Earls of Bessborough, daughter of Thomas Brabazon
Ponsonby (1878-1946), by his wife, Frances May Paynter; two children,
Savill, and Verona; died at Glastonbury, Somerset, 9 February, 2004,
aged 88.

He also leaves a granddaughter, Sophie Young, and two grandsons,
Richard and Peter Fraser-Mackenzie.

--

Michael Rhodes (Please erase x to e-mail me)

[Michael Rhodes]

Captain Reginald Anthony Alston-Roberts-West, MC, late the Royal
Sussex Regiment, scion of the landed family of Alscot Park,
Stratford-upon-Avon, died 7 February, 2004, aged 83.

One of his kinsmen William Alston-Roberts-West, [killed in action in
1940] married Constance Grosvenor, a granddaughter of a Duke of
Westminster, and another relation is Lt-Col George West, CVO, who was
Comptroller, Lord Chamberlain's Office, and married to the former
Hazel Cook, Lady-in-Waiting to Diana, Princess of Wales.

According to Debrett's the surname Alston was added to the patronymic
of Roberts-West in 1918, and another ancestor had added Roberts to the
patronymic of West in 1808. An ancestor married Sarah Wren, a
descendant of the great architect, Sir Christopher Wren.

--Michael Rhodes (please delete x to e-mail me)

[Michael Rhodes]

Lady McAlpine, who died 9 February, 2004, aged 66, was the wife of the
Hon. Sir William Hepburn McAlpine, 6th Baronet (son of Sir Robert
Edwin McAlpine, 5th Bt, a life peer as Baron McAlpine of Moffat, and
elder brother of another life peer, Baron McAlpine of West Green).

She was born 5 October, 1937 as Jill Benton Jones, only daughter of
Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Peter Fawcett Benton Jones, 3rd Baronet, OBE,
by his wife, Nancy, only child of Warley Pickering, of Hutton Hall,
Guisborough-in-Cleveland, by his wife Beryl Kemp-Welch, of that landed
family.

She married William McAlpine in 1959 on her 22nd birthday. Her husband
is a member of the family which owns one of Britain's biggest
construction firms. He succeeded to the baronetcy on the death of his
father in 1990. The family estate is at Fawley Hill, near
Henley-on-Thames, which boasts its own private zoo.

Lady McAlpine is survived by her husband and by a son, Andrew William,
and a daughter, Lucinda Mary Jane.

The Mail on Sunday (15 Feb) reports that Sir William used his
christmas cards to announce to his friends that his 44-year marriage
was over and that his girlfriend, Judie Davies, would be the new lady
of the manor. Lady McAlpine was said to be heartbroken.

A celebration for Lady McAlpine's life takes place at Fawley Church,
Friday 20 February, 2004.

Post by Michael Rhodes
--Michael Rhodes (please delete x to e-mail me)

[Michael Rhodes]

Baron Constantine of Stanmore, CBE, DL, life Baron, former Chairman
and President of the National Union of Conservative & Unionist
Associations, died in hospital, 13 February, 2004. He was aged 93.

Theodore Constantine was born 15 March, 1910, son of Leonard and Fanny
Louise Constantine, and was educated at Acton College.

Career: Personal Assistant to the chairman of a public company,
1926-28; Executive in industry, 1928-38; Managing Director of a public
company subsidiary, 1938-39; served in the Second World War, 1939-45,
AAF [AEA 1945]; Director of an Industrial holding company, 1956-59;
Chairman of Public Companies, 1959-86; Organizational work for the
Conservative Party as constituency chairman, Area Chairman, Member of
the National Executive Committee, Policy Committee, National Advisory
Committee on Publicity; Chairman of the National Union of Conservative
and Unionist Associations, 1967-68, President, 1980; Trustee, Sir John
Wolstenholme Charity; Master of the Worshipful Company of Coachmakers'
1975; Freeman of the City of London, 1949; High Sheriff of Greater
London, 1967; Deputy Lieutenant of Greater London, 1967-85.

Constantine was appointed CBE in 1956; knighted in 1964; and raised to
the peerage as Baron Constantine of Stanmore, of Stanmore in Greater
London, 1981.

He married in 1935, Sylvia Mary, younger daughter of Wallace Henry
Legge-Pointing, by whom he had one son, Roy, and one daughter, Jill
(deceased).

Baroness Constantine of Stanmore died in 1990.

Post by Michael Rhodes
--Michael Rhodes (please delete x to e-mail me)