John Harbord, 8th Baron Suffield (1 July 1907–23 June 1945), of Gunton Park, near Norwich

Norwich

Norwich is a city in England. It is the regional administrative centre and county town of Norfolk. During the 11th century, Norwich was the largest city in England after London, and one of the most important places in the kingdom...

, Norfolk

Norfolk

Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...

, was briefly a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 peer

Peerage

The Peerage is a legal system of largely hereditary titles in the United Kingdom, which constitute the ranks of British nobility and is part of the British honours system...

 and baronet

Baronet

A baronet or the rare female equivalent, a baronetess , is the holder of a hereditary baronetcy awarded by the British Crown...

, between 1943 and 1945.

Background and early life

John Harbord was the younger of the two sons of Charles Harbord, 6th Baron Suffield

Charles Harbord, 6th Baron Suffield

Lt. Col Charles Harbord, 6th Baron Suffield CB MVO , was a British Army officer and British Conservative politician....

 (and also seventh baronet Harbord) and his wife Evelyn Louisa Wilson-Patten. His mother was the daughter of Captain Eustace John Wilson-Patten and Emily Constantia Thynne (1840–1926) (a granddaughter of Thomas Thynne, 2nd Marquess of Bath

Thomas Thynne, 2nd Marquess of Bath

Thomas Thynne, 2nd Marquess of Bath KG , styled Viscount Weymouth from 1789 until 1796, was a British peer.-Background and education:...

, who later married again and became Marchioness of Headfort

Marquess of Headfort

Marquess of Headfort is a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created in 1800 for Thomas Taylor, 2nd Earl of Bective. Despite the official title, the family unfailingly use the alternative rendering Marquis of Headfort, and this is the spelling more commonly encountered in references to family...

). John Harbord's paternal grandparents were Charles Harbord, 5th Baron Suffield

Charles Harbord, 5th Baron Suffield

Charles Harbord, 5th Baron Suffield GCVO, KCB, PC, JP, DL , was a British peer, courtier and Liberal politician. A close friend of Edward VII, he served as a Lord of the Bedchamber and Lord-in-Waiting to the King...

 (1830–1914) and Cecilia Annetta Baring, Lady Suffield, (1834–1911), a daughter of Henry Baring (1776–1848), of the Barings Bank

Barings Bank

Barings Bank was the oldest merchant bank in London until its collapse in 1995 after one of the bank's employees, Nick Leeson, lost £827 million due to speculative investing, primarily in futures contracts, at the bank's Singapore office.-History:-1762–1890:Barings Bank was founded in 1762 as the...

 family. She was a Lady of the Bedchamber

Lady of the Bedchamber

This is an incomplete list of those who have served as Lady of the Bedchamber in the British Royal Household...

 to Queen Victoria

Victoria of the United Kingdom

Victoria was the monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she used the additional title of Empress of India....

.

He had one elder brother, Victor Alexander Charles, and two sisters, Doris Cecilia and Lettice Evelyn.

John Harbord was educated at Gresham's School

Gresham's School

Gresham’s School is an independent coeducational boarding school in Holt in North Norfolk, England, a member of the HMC.The school was founded in 1555 by Sir John Gresham as a free grammar school for forty boys, following King Henry VIII's dissolution of the Augustinian priory at Beeston Regis...

, Holt

Holt, Norfolk

Holt is a market town and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. The town is north of the city of Norwich, west of Cromer and east of King's Lynn. The town is on the route of the A148 King's Lynn to Cromer road. The nearest railway station is in the town of Sheringham where access to the...

.

Titles

Harbord's father, the sixth Lord Suffield and seventh baronet, died in 1924, and his elder brother Victor (1897–1943) inherited the titles. In 1943, Victor (who had married the Hon. Olwen Gwynne Phillips in 1925 but had been divorced from her in 1937) died childless, and his younger brother John inherited the titles. However, John failed to marry, and in 1945 he also died without issue and was succeeded by a distant and elderly cousin, Geoffrey Harbord, 9th Baron Suffield (1861–1946), son of the Hon. William Harbord, third son of Edward Harbord, third Baron Suffield (1781–1835). However, the ninth baron died after holding the titles for only a year, and they next passed to another elderly cousin, Admiral

Admiral

Admiral is the rank, or part of the name of the ranks, of the highest naval officers. It is usually considered a full admiral and above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet . It is usually abbreviated to "Adm" or "ADM"...

Richard Morden Harbord-Hamond, 10th Baron Suffield (1865–1951), only son of the Rev. and Hon. John Harbord (1832–1900), fourth son of the third Baron. His son Anthony Philip Harbord-Hamond (born 1922) became the 11th and present Lord Suffield and 12th baronet in 1951.