James Lowther, 7th Earl of Lonsdale
Encyclopedia
James Hugh William Lowther, 7th Earl of Lonsdale (November 3, 1922 – May 23, 2006) was the elder son of Anthony Lowther, Viscount Lowther
, and Muriel Frances Farrar, the daughter of Sir George Herbert Farrar
Bt
of Chicheley Hall
, Bucks., a South African Randlord
.
Educated at Eton College
he went up to Cambridge University in October 1940 to read Mechanical Engineering but abandoned his course after three months and joined the Army
in 1941. They sent him to Oxford University, where he completed a degree in Electricity and Magnetism in just six months, and he was commissioned into the Royal Armoured Corps
in September 1942. As a Regimental Technical Adjutant with the rank of Captain
in the East Riding Yeomanry
, he was responsible for the upkeep of fifty-two tanks, two hundred soft vehicles and fifty soldiers, and helped put the first tanks ashore on the Normandy beaches on D-Day
. He was later wounded at Caen following the landings, but subsequently returned to the front.
After being demobilised in 1946 he managed a steel erection and sheeting company in Newcastle until his father died somewhat prematurely in 1949. He accepted his grandfather's, Lancelot Lowther, 6th Earl of Lonsdale
, invitation to take over the running of the family estates which he subsequently inherited four years later with his death in 1953. By this time the Lowther Estates, which comprised some 90000 acres (364.2 km²) in Westmorland
and Cumberland
, were largely run down and burdened by debt, and the Inland Revenue was demanding the payment of death duties amounting to some £2 million. Much of the estate's property in Whitehaven
, a town largely built by earlier generations of Lowthers, was disposed of as part of his rescue plan, as indeed was the sale of acres of timber on the estates, felled to raise ready cash, although in this case the Earl replanted half as many trees again. He also established a string of new businesses, Lowther Construction, Lowther Forestry Group, Lowther Park Farms and the Lowther Wildlife Park which helped restore the family's fortunes, but was however unable to find any alternative use for the ancestral pile at Lowther Castle
, and he reluctantly decided in 1957 to remove the roof, buttress the walls and leave it as a romantic ruin. He also established the annual Lowther Horse Driving Trials and Country Fair which has attracted thousands of visitors to Cumbria
each year, including amongst their number Prince Philip, a regular competitor at the former and the royal couple often stayed with Lonsdale and his family at Lowther in Askham Hall during the trials.
Therefore regarded as the saviour of his family estates, he resisted inclusion in the Sunday Times Rich List
on the grounds that he was virtually penniless. However after many years prevarication, he was eventually forced to admit his wealth and appeared in the 2006 Rich list with an estimated net worth of £80 million and later admitted that he anticipated that his death would result in the payment of "somewhere between £3 million and £5 million to the Treasury because it's high time society had its chunk".
He briefly came to public prominence in 1962 when Manchester Corporation proposed turning Ullswater
into a reservoir to serve the people of Manchester. Having made a speech against the proposal in the House of Lords
, the Earl became a leading figure in the Ullswater Preservation Society which campaigned against the scheme and eventually forced the Corporation to adopt a drastically revised scheme. He thereafter became passionately concerned with the issue of the conservation of the Lake District and an opponent of the modern notion of building wind turbines on any available piece of windswept moor. When one of his sons struck a deal to place wind turbines on part of the estates that he controlled, the Earl openly opposed the construction at the subsequent public inquiry, and was no doubt gratified when the inquiry duly rejected the proposal.
The 7th Earl was a founder director of Border Television
, and was chairman of that company from 1985 to 1990. He also served as a chairman of the Northern Sports Council and a member of the UK Sports Council, spent six years on the Northern Economic Planning Council and was a member of the English Tourist Board. In addition he was president of Grasmere Sports, the Patterdale Dog Day, and the Cumberland and Westmorland Playing Fields Association, and served on a number of bodies such as the Hill Farming Advisory Committee, Westmorland Agricultural Committee, Northern Arts and the Rosehill Theatre at Whitehaven.
He eventually retired as head of the Lowther estate in 1993, having reached the age of seventy, and handed the business over to his second son. In later life he developed an interest in horse racing and was a part-owner of Motivator, the 2005 Derby winner and died at the Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle on the 23rd May 2006.
The 7th Earl was married a total of four times. He married his first wife Tuppina Cecily Bennet in 1945; they were to have a daughter and a son before their divorce in 1954, and in that year he married his cousin Hon Jennifer Lowther granddaughter of James William Lowther, 1st Viscount Ullswater, with whom he had a son and two daughters. That marriage ended in 1962 and in the following year he married his third wife Nancy Ruth Stephenson (née Cobbs), originally of Pacific Palisades, California, with whom he had a son. They were divorced in 1975 following which he married his fourth and final wife Caroline Sheila Ley on the 3rd December 1975, who bore him a further son and a daughter. The Earl had eight children, and thirteen grandchildren by the time of his death.
As well as being the 7th Earl of Lonsdale (UK, 1807) he was also the 8th Viscount and 8th Baron Lowther (GB, 1797) (by special remainder) and the 8th Baronet Lowther of Little Preston (GB, 1764).
His eldest son Hugh Clayton Lowther
succeeded him as the 8th Earl of Lonsdale.
Anthony Lowther, Viscount Lowther
Anthony Edward Lowther, Viscount Lowther, DL, JP , English courtier and soldier, was the eldest son of Lancelot Lowther, 6th Earl of Lonsdale by his first wife, Gwendoline....
, and Muriel Frances Farrar, the daughter of Sir George Herbert Farrar
George Herbert Farrar
Sir George Herbert Farrar, 1st Baronet, DSO Sir George Herbert Farrar, 1st Baronet, DSO Sir George Herbert Farrar, 1st Baronet, DSO (17 June 1859 Chatteris, Cambridgeshire – 20 May 1915 Kuibis, South West Africa, was a South African mining magnate, politician and soldier - Colonel and assistant...
Bt
Baronet
A baronet or the rare female equivalent, a baronetess , is the holder of a hereditary baronetcy awarded by the British Crown...
of Chicheley Hall
Chicheley Hall
Chicheley Hall, in Chicheley, Buckinghamshire, was built in the first quarter of the 18th century in the Baroque style. It is one of the finest country houses in Buckinghamshire, described by Marcus Binney in The Times as "one of the dozen finest and loveliest English country houses that will...
, Bucks., a South African Randlord
Randlord
Randlord is a term used to denote the entrepreneurs who controlled the diamond and gold mining industries in South Africa in its pioneer phase from the 1870s up to World War I....
.
Educated at Eton College
Eton College
Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....
he went up to Cambridge University in October 1940 to read Mechanical Engineering but abandoned his course after three months and joined the Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
in 1941. They sent him to Oxford University, where he completed a degree in Electricity and Magnetism in just six months, and he was commissioned into the Royal Armoured Corps
Royal Armoured Corps
The Royal Armoured Corps is currently a collection of ten regular regiments, mostly converted from old horse cavalry regiments, and four Yeomanry regiments of the Territorial Army...
in September 1942. As a Regimental Technical Adjutant with the rank of Captain
Captain (British Army and Royal Marines)
Captain is a junior officer rank of the British Army and Royal Marines. It ranks above Lieutenant and below Major and has a NATO ranking code of OF-2. The rank is equivalent to a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy and to a Flight Lieutenant in the Royal Air Force...
in the East Riding Yeomanry
East Riding of Yorkshire Yeomanry
The East Riding of Yorkshire Yeomanry was a unit of the British Army from 1794–1956.The regiment was formed as volunteer cavalry in 1794 during the French Revolutionary Wars. It was converted to an armoured role in 1920. In 1956 it merged with two other Yorkshire yeomanry regiments to form...
, he was responsible for the upkeep of fifty-two tanks, two hundred soft vehicles and fifty soldiers, and helped put the first tanks ashore on the Normandy beaches on D-Day
D-Day
D-Day is a term often used in military parlance to denote the day on which a combat attack or operation is to be initiated. "D-Day" often represents a variable, designating the day upon which some significant event will occur or has occurred; see Military designation of days and hours for similar...
. He was later wounded at Caen following the landings, but subsequently returned to the front.
After being demobilised in 1946 he managed a steel erection and sheeting company in Newcastle until his father died somewhat prematurely in 1949. He accepted his grandfather's, Lancelot Lowther, 6th Earl of Lonsdale
Lancelot Lowther, 6th Earl of Lonsdale
Lancelot Edward Lowther, 6th Earl of Lonsdale, OBE, DL was an English peer, the youngest son of Henry Lowther, 3rd Earl of Lonsdale.Lowther was educated at Malvern College and Magdalene College, Cambridge...
, invitation to take over the running of the family estates which he subsequently inherited four years later with his death in 1953. By this time the Lowther Estates, which comprised some 90000 acres (364.2 km²) in Westmorland
Westmorland
Westmorland is an area of North West England and one of the 39 historic counties of England. It formed an administrative county from 1889 to 1974, after which the entirety of the county was absorbed into the new county of Cumbria.-Early history:...
and Cumberland
Cumberland
Cumberland is a historic county of North West England, on the border with Scotland, from the 12th century until 1974. It formed an administrative county from 1889 to 1974 and now forms part of Cumbria....
, were largely run down and burdened by debt, and the Inland Revenue was demanding the payment of death duties amounting to some £2 million. Much of the estate's property in Whitehaven
Whitehaven
Whitehaven is a small town and port on the coast of Cumbria, England, which lies equidistant between the county's two largest settlements, Carlisle and Barrow-in-Furness, and is served by the Cumbrian Coast Line and the A595 road...
, a town largely built by earlier generations of Lowthers, was disposed of as part of his rescue plan, as indeed was the sale of acres of timber on the estates, felled to raise ready cash, although in this case the Earl replanted half as many trees again. He also established a string of new businesses, Lowther Construction, Lowther Forestry Group, Lowther Park Farms and the Lowther Wildlife Park which helped restore the family's fortunes, but was however unable to find any alternative use for the ancestral pile at Lowther Castle
Lowther Castle
Lowther Castle is a country house in the historic county of Westmorland, which now forms part of the modern county of Cumbria, England. It has belonged to the Lowther family, latterly the Earls of Lonsdale, since the Middle Ages.- History :...
, and he reluctantly decided in 1957 to remove the roof, buttress the walls and leave it as a romantic ruin. He also established the annual Lowther Horse Driving Trials and Country Fair which has attracted thousands of visitors to Cumbria
Cumbria
Cumbria , is a non-metropolitan county in North West England. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local authority, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumbria's largest settlement and county town is Carlisle. It consists of six districts, and in...
each year, including amongst their number Prince Philip, a regular competitor at the former and the royal couple often stayed with Lonsdale and his family at Lowther in Askham Hall during the trials.
Therefore regarded as the saviour of his family estates, he resisted inclusion in the Sunday Times Rich List
Sunday Times Rich List
The Sunday Times Rich List is a list of the 1,000 wealthiest people or families in the United Kingdom, updated annually in April and published as a magazine supplement by British national Sunday newspaper The Sunday Times since 1989...
on the grounds that he was virtually penniless. However after many years prevarication, he was eventually forced to admit his wealth and appeared in the 2006 Rich list with an estimated net worth of £80 million and later admitted that he anticipated that his death would result in the payment of "somewhere between £3 million and £5 million to the Treasury because it's high time society had its chunk".
He briefly came to public prominence in 1962 when Manchester Corporation proposed turning Ullswater
Ullswater
Ullswater is the second largest lake in the English Lake District, being approximately nine miles long and 0.75 miles wide with a maximum depth of slightly more than ....
into a reservoir to serve the people of Manchester. Having made a speech against the proposal in the House of Lords
House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....
, the Earl became a leading figure in the Ullswater Preservation Society which campaigned against the scheme and eventually forced the Corporation to adopt a drastically revised scheme. He thereafter became passionately concerned with the issue of the conservation of the Lake District and an opponent of the modern notion of building wind turbines on any available piece of windswept moor. When one of his sons struck a deal to place wind turbines on part of the estates that he controlled, the Earl openly opposed the construction at the subsequent public inquiry, and was no doubt gratified when the inquiry duly rejected the proposal.
The 7th Earl was a founder director of Border Television
Border Television
Border Television is the ITV franchise holder for the Border region, spanning the England/Scotland border and covering Dumfries & Galloway region, a small part of the south-west area of Ayrshire, the Scottish Borders, parts of north and west Northumberland and the majority of Cumbria...
, and was chairman of that company from 1985 to 1990. He also served as a chairman of the Northern Sports Council and a member of the UK Sports Council, spent six years on the Northern Economic Planning Council and was a member of the English Tourist Board. In addition he was president of Grasmere Sports, the Patterdale Dog Day, and the Cumberland and Westmorland Playing Fields Association, and served on a number of bodies such as the Hill Farming Advisory Committee, Westmorland Agricultural Committee, Northern Arts and the Rosehill Theatre at Whitehaven.
He eventually retired as head of the Lowther estate in 1993, having reached the age of seventy, and handed the business over to his second son. In later life he developed an interest in horse racing and was a part-owner of Motivator, the 2005 Derby winner and died at the Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle on the 23rd May 2006.
The 7th Earl was married a total of four times. He married his first wife Tuppina Cecily Bennet in 1945; they were to have a daughter and a son before their divorce in 1954, and in that year he married his cousin Hon Jennifer Lowther granddaughter of James William Lowther, 1st Viscount Ullswater, with whom he had a son and two daughters. That marriage ended in 1962 and in the following year he married his third wife Nancy Ruth Stephenson (née Cobbs), originally of Pacific Palisades, California, with whom he had a son. They were divorced in 1975 following which he married his fourth and final wife Caroline Sheila Ley on the 3rd December 1975, who bore him a further son and a daughter. The Earl had eight children, and thirteen grandchildren by the time of his death.
As well as being the 7th Earl of Lonsdale (UK, 1807) he was also the 8th Viscount and 8th Baron Lowther (GB, 1797) (by special remainder) and the 8th Baronet Lowther of Little Preston (GB, 1764).
His eldest son Hugh Clayton Lowther
Hugh Lowther, 8th Earl of Lonsdale
Hugh Clayton Lowther, 8th Earl of Lonsdale is the eldest son of James Lowther, 7th Earl of Lonsdale, and the only son by his first wife Tuppina Cecily Bennet, and is the current holder of the title, Earl of Lonsdale....
succeeded him as the 8th Earl of Lonsdale.
External links
- The Lowther Estates: History, second page. Retrieved 1 February 2010.