John Lyttelton, 11th Viscount Cobham

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John William Leonard Lyttelton, 11th Viscount Cobham (15 June 1943–13 July 2006) was a nobleman and political adviser in the United Kingdom. He was known as "Johnny Lyttelton" to his friends and family.

He was educated at Eton, where his father had been before him, and at Christ's College, Christchurch, while his father was Governor-General of New Zealand. He later attended the Royal Agricultural College in Cirencester.

He married Penelope Ann Cooper in 1974, and inherited the family's titles and 200-year-old Worcestershire mansion, Hagley Hall, on his father's death in 1977. Facing steep death duties and high maintenance costs, he auctioned his family's 700-year archive for £164,000. The hall was converted into a conference venue, although it also remained the family home.

He was a member of the Conservative Party, but shyness prevented him from taking the seat in the House of Lords that his hereditary peerage entitled him to. He left the Conservatives in 1992, in protest at Michael Heseltine's announcement that many coal mines would be closed. His first wife was a special adviser to David Mellor when Mellor was Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport in 1992. Lady Cobham was later to leave her husband for Mellor, and they were divorced on 30 August 1995.

Lord Cobham remarried on 1 August 1997, to Lisa Clayton, the first British woman to have sailed single-handed and non-stop around the world.

He died in Spain. He had no children, and his titles were inherited by his younger brother, Christopher.

[edit] References

• Obituary, The Guardian, 22 July 2006

Peerage of Great Britain
Preceded by Charles Lyttelton	Viscount Cobham 1977–2006	Succeeded by Christopher Lyttelton

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NAME
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DATE OF DEATH	2006
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