William Legge, 10th Earl of Dartmouth

The Right Honourable
The Earl of Dartmouth
FCA MEP
Member of the European Parliament
for South West England
Assumed office
14 July 2009
Preceded by Roger Knapman
Personal details
Born (1949-09-23) 23 September 1949
London, United Kingdom
Political party Conservative (Before 2007)
UK Independence Party (2007–
present)
Alma mater Christ Church, Oxford
Harvard University
Religion Anglicanism
Website Official website

William Legge, 10th Earl of Dartmouth, FCA (born 23 September 1949), is a British politician and hereditary peer.

Dartmouth sits in the European Parliament as MEP for South West England, representing the UK Independence Party (UKIP). He is more usually known as William Dartmouth.

Legge arms

Early life

Dartmouth is the eldest son of the 9th Earl of Dartmouth by his marriage to Raine McCorquodale, the daughter of romantic novelist Dame Barbara Cartland. Thus, he became a stepbrother of Diana, Princess of Wales upon his mother's second marriage to the 8th Earl Spencer.

Education

Dartmouth was educated at Eton College before going up to Christ Church, Oxford (MA), where he was elected an officer of the Oxford University Conservative Association and later of the Oxford Union Society.[1] He studied further at Harvard Business School, graduating as MBA.

Life and career

Lord Dartmouth worked as a chartered accountant (FCA 1975), like his father whose titles he inherited in 1997. As Earl of Dartmouth he sat as Conservative peer in the House of Lords until 1999, when the Labour government of Tony Blair removed all but 92 hereditary peers from Parliament. In January 2007, Dartmouth announced he was leaving the Conservative Party in favour of UKIP, citing concerns about the policies of David Cameron (then Leader of HM Opposition).[2]

Dartmouth was elected as the second UKIP MEP for the South West England region in the European Parliament election of 2009 and re-elected in 2014, as the first UKIP MEP. In the European Parliament he sits with the Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy group and on the Committee on International Trade. He has been the UKIP National Spokesman on Trade since 2010.

In June 2009, Dartmouth married Melbourne-born former model Fiona Campbell, now socially styled Lady Dartmouth,[3] whose first husband, Matt Handbury, is a nephew of Rupert Murdoch.[4]

Dartmouth has a son, Gerald Glen Kavanagh-Legge (b. 2005), from his previous relationship with the BAFTA award-winning television producer Claire Kavanagh.[5] However, his son who was born out of wedlock is not entitled to inherit the earldom which passes only through legitimate male offspring, nor can he use the customary courtesy title of Viscount Lewisham.

The current heir presumptive to the earldom of Dartmouth, and other titles, is the present Earl's younger brother, the author the Hon. Rupert Legge.[6]

Titles and styles

Ancestry

References

  1. ↑ www.oxfordmail.co.uk
  2. ↑ Conservative peer defects to UKIP www.bbc.co.uk, BBC News, 20 January 2007. Accessed 14 May 2008.
  3. ↑ www.smh.com.au
  4. ↑ www.kittybrewster.com
  5. ↑ www.thepeerage.com
  6. ↑ www.burkespeerage.com

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to William Legge, 10th Earl of Dartmouth.
Peerage of Great Britain
Preceded by
Gerald Legge		 Earl of Dartmouth
1997–present
Member of the House of Lords
(1997–1999)		 Incumbent
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Tuesday, February 09, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.