The Earl of Lucan | |
---|---|
8th Earl of Lucan | |
Predecessor | John Bingham, 7th Earl of Lucan |
Other titles | 4th Baron Bingham (UK) 8th Baron Lucan (IRE) 14th Baronet of Castlebar (NS) |
Born | George Charles Bingham 21 September 1967 London, England |
Residence | Belgravia, London |
Spouse(s) | Anne-Sofie Foghsgaard (m. 2016) |
Issue | 2, including Charles Lars John Bingham, Lord Bingham |
Parents | John Bingham, 7th Earl of Lucan Veronica Mary Duncan |
Occupation | Banker |
George Charles Bingham, 8th Earl of Lucan (born 21 September 1967), styled Lord Bingham until 2016, is a British hereditary peer.
George Charles Bingham, 8th Earl of Lucan, was born on 21 September 1967, the only son of Richard John Bingham, 7th Earl of Lucan, and Veronica Mary Duncan. [2]
He is the thrice great-grandson of Field Marshal The 3rd Earl of Lucan, who is remembered for his role in the Crimean War, leading the cavalry division which included the Heavy Brigade and the Light Brigade, the latter of which was involved in the Charge of the Light Brigade. The Binghams are an Anglo-Irish aristocratic family. [2]
Lucan was educated at Eton College and Trinity Hall, Cambridge. He married Anne-Sofie Foghsgaard (known as "Fie"; b. 1977) at St George's, Hanover Square, London, on 14 January 2016. She is the daughter of Danish industrialist Lars Foghsgaard, the former owner of the Spott Estate in East Lothian, Scotland. [2] They have two children, a daughter, Lady Daphne, born in 2017, and a son, Lord Bingham (Charles Lars John), born in 2020. [2] [3] Lady Lucan is a fashion designer. [4]
Lord Lucan has two sisters: Lady Frances Bingham (born 1964), and Lady Camilla Bloch KC (born 1970), who married Michael Bloch KC in 1998. [2]
Lucan's father, the 7th Earl, disappeared in November 1974 after the murder of the family nanny Sandra Rivett. The 8th Earl and his sister Lady Camilla are not convinced that their father was responsible for Sandra Rivett's death. [5] [6]
In the 1990s the Probate Registry (a division of the High Court of Justice) gave leave for the 7th Earl to be sworn dead by his trustees, and the family was granted probate over his estate in 1999, but no death certificate was issued. [7] In 1998, Bingham, supported by sworn statements from his entire living family save for his mother, and by the Metropolitan Police, applied for his father to be declared dead for House of Lords purposes. The Lord Chancellor, Lord Irvine of Lairg, decided he was unable to issue Bingham his writ of summons to the Lords without a death certificate for his father. [8] In October 2015, twelve months after the Presumption of Death Act 2013 came into effect, [9] Bingham sought for his father to be declared dead at the General Register Office (GRO), which issues death certificates; in this case, an application to the High Court was necessary. [10] On 3 February 2016, a judge declared the GRO could issue the certificate, allowing Bingham to inherit the peerages. [11] [12]
On 23 May 2016, Lucan formally petitioned the House of Lords to have his succession recognised. [13] On 7 June, the House declared that he had established his claims to the titles, and he was directed to be entered on the register of hereditary peers maintained in connection with the House of Lords Act 1999 by virtue of his subsidiary title Baron Bingham in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. [14] [15] As of March 2018 [update] , he had not stood in the internal Lords by-elections for replacing of the 92 electable hereditary representative peers (upon their retirements or deaths).
Peerages in the United Kingdom form a legal system comprising both hereditary and lifetime titles, composed of various ranks, and within the framework of the Constitution of the United Kingdom form a constituent part of the legislative process and the British honours system. The British monarch is considered the fount of honour and is notionally the only person who can grant peerages, though there are many conventions about how this power is used, especially at the request of the British government. The term peerage can be used both collectively to refer to the entire body of titled nobility, and individually to refer to a specific title. British peerage title holders are termed peers of the Realm.
Richard John Bingham, 7th Earl of Lucan, commonly known as Lord Lucan, was a British peer and an Anglo-Irish aristocrat, the eldest son of George Bingham, 6th Earl of Lucan, and Kaitlin Dawson. He was the great-great grandson of George Charles Bingham, 3rd Earl of Lucan, who led the disastrous Charge of the Light Brigade.
The order of precedence in the United Kingdom is the sequential hierarchy for Peers of the Realm, officers of state, senior members of the clergy, holders of the various Orders of Chivalry, and is mostly determined, but not limited to, birth order, place in the line of succession, or distance from the reigning monarch. The order of precedence can also be applied to other persons in the three legal jurisdictions within the United Kingdom:
Earl of Lucan is a title which has been created twice in the Peerage of Ireland for related families.
George Charles Bingham, 3rd Earl of Lucan,, styled Lord Bingham before 1839, was an Anglo-Irish peer and military officer. He was one of three men, along with Louis Nolan and Lord Raglan, responsible for the fateful order during the Battle of Balaclava in October 1854 that led to the Light Brigade commander, the Earl of Cardigan, leading the Charge of the Light Brigade. He was subsequently promoted to field marshal. He was also a ruthless landlord during the Great Famine in Ireland, evicting thousands of his tenants and renting his land to wealthy ranchers. He also came up with a solution that allowed Jews to sit in Parliament.
Marquess of Cholmondeley is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1815 for George Cholmondeley, 4th Earl of Cholmondeley.
Earl of Haddington is a title in the Peerage of Scotland. It was created in 1627 for the noted Scottish lawyer and judge Thomas Hamilton, 1st Earl of Melrose. He was Lord President of the Court of Session from 1616 to 1625. Hamilton had already been created Lord Binning in 1613 and Lord Binning and Byres, in the County of Haddington, and Earl of Melrose, in the County of Roxburgh, in 1619. These titles were also in the Peerage of Scotland. The title of the earldom derived from the fact that he was in possession of much of the lands of the former Melrose Abbey. However, Hamilton was unhappy with this title and wished to replace it with "Haddington". In 1627 he relinquished the earldom of Melrose and was instead created Earl of Haddington, with the precedence of 1619 and with limitation to his heirs male bearing the surname of Hamilton. This derived from the fact that he considered it a greater honour to take his title from a county rather than from an abbey. Hamilton was a member of the prominent Scottish family of that name and descended from John de Hamilton, younger son of Walter de Hamilton, who was granted the feudal barony of Cadzow and who is also the ancestor of the Dukes of Hamilton and Dukes of Abercorn.
The hereditary peers form part of the peerage in the United Kingdom. As of August 2023, there are 805 hereditary peers: 30 dukes, 34 marquesses, 189 earls, 110 viscounts, and 442 barons.
In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. Life peers are appointed by the monarch on the advice of the prime minister. With the exception of the Dukedom of Edinburgh awarded for life to Prince Edward in 2023, all life peerages conferred since 2009 have been created under the Life Peerages Act 1958 with the rank of baron and entitle their holders to sit and vote in the House of Lords, presuming they meet qualifications such as age and citizenship. The legitimate children of a life peer appointed under the Life Peerages Act 1958 are entitled to style themselves with the prefix "The Honourable", although they cannot inherit the peerage itself. Prior to 2009, life peers of baronial rank could also be so created under the Appellate Jurisdiction Act 1876 for senior judges.
Margaret Alison of Mar, 31st Countess of Mar, is a Scottish hereditary peer and politician. She was a crossbench member of the House of Lords from 1975 to 2020 and was one of 92 hereditary peers elected to remain in the Lords in 1999. She is the holder of the original earldom of Mar, the oldest peerage title in the United Kingdom. She is the only suo jure countess and was the only female hereditary peer in the House of Lords from 2014 to 2020. She is also a farmer and former specialist goats cheesemaker in Great Witley, Worcestershire.
David Antony Fromanteel Lytton Cobbold, 2nd Baron Cobbold,, was a British hereditary peer and member of the House of Lords.
Colonel George Charles Bingham, 5th Earl of Lucan, 1st Baron Bingham,, known by the courtesy title of Lord Bingham from 1888 to 1914, was a British soldier and Conservative politician.
Shane William Desmond Alexander, 2nd Earl Alexander of Tunis, styled Lord Rideau between 1952 and 1969, is a British hereditary peer.
George Charles Patrick Bingham, 6th Earl of Lucan MC, known as Lord Bingham from 1914 to 1949, was an Irish peer, British soldier and Labour politician. He was a maternal first cousin of Cynthia Spencer, Countess Spencer, paternal grandmother of Diana, Princess of Wales.
Richard Bingham, 2nd Earl of Lucan, styled The Honourable from 1776 to 1795 and subsequently Lord Bingham until 1799, was an Irish peer and Tory politician.
By-elections to the House of Lords occur when vacancies arise among seats assigned to hereditary peers due to death, resignation, or disqualification. Candidates for these by-elections are limited to holders of hereditary peerages, and their electorates are made up of sitting Lords; in most cases the electorate are those sitting hereditary peers of the same party affiliation as the departed peer.
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Lady Camilla Bloch is a British barrister.
The Bill was given Government support, and moved through each of its Parliamentary stages to become the Presumption of Death Act 2013 in March 2013. The new Act came fully into force on 1 October 2014.