Greville Patrick Charles Howard, Baron Howard of Rising (born 22 April 1941) is a British Conservative politician and, before the 2010 general election, was variously an Opposition Whip and Shadow Minister for Cabinet Office, for Treasury and for Culture, Media and Sport.
He was educated at Eton College. Between 1968 and 1970, he was Private Secretary to Enoch Powell. Howard was further Director of Keep Trust from 1980 to 1987, of Fortress Trust from 1989 to 1993, and is Director of Fortress Holdings since 1993.
On 4 June 2004, he was created a life peer as Baron Howard of Rising, of Castle Rising in the County of Norfolk. [1] [2]
He has been a councillor on King's Lynn and West Norfolk Council since 2003. [3]
A Westminster townhouse owned by Howard has been used at various times as a headquarters for Conservative Party political campaigns, including Michael Portillo's 1995 party leadership campaign, Boris Johnson's 2019 party leadership campaign, [4] and most recently Liz Truss's 2022 party leadership campaign. [5]
A member of the influential Howard family, Howard is the son of Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Redvers Greville Howard (1911–1978), the son of Sir Charles Alfred Howard, the second son of the Hon. Greville Howard, who was the second son of Charles Howard, 17th Earl of Suffolk. [6] His mother is Patience, daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Rice Iltyd Nicholl, TD (1880–1950), a solicitor, army officer and mason. [6] [7]
Lord Howard of Rising has married three times. Firstly he married Zoe Walker, daughter of Douglas Walker, in 1968. Divorced in 1972, he married secondly, Mary Rose Chichester, daughter of Sir John Chichester in 1978. After her death in 1980, Howard married again to Mary Cortland Culverwell, daughter of Robert Culverwell, one year later. He has 2 sons and 1 daughter by his third wife. Lord Howard's immediate family consists of 2 sisters. The first is his full sister, Amanda Howard. She married Simon Burton, heir to the Burton clothing company which subsequently became part of the Arcadia group. His half-sister Katharine currently resides in Spain. Her son (and therefore Howard's nephew) is the son of the famous 1960s bullfighter Miguel Mateo Salcedo.
Lord Howard is a descendant of William d'Aubigny, 1st Earl of Arundel, who built Castle Rising in about 1138, and he still owns the castle remnants today.
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Earl of Wemyss is a title in the Peerage of Scotland created in 1633. The Scottish Wemyss family had possessed the lands of Wemyss in Fife since the 12th century. Since 1823 the earldom has been held with the Earldom of March, created in 1697. The holder of the title is sometimes known as the Earl of Wemyss and March, but the titles are distinct.
Earl of Warwick is one of the most prestigious titles in the peerages of the United Kingdom. The title has been created four times in English history, and the name refers to Warwick Castle and the town of Warwick.
Marquess of Huntly is a title in the Peerage of Scotland that was created on 17 April 1599 for George Gordon, 6th Earl of Huntly. It is the oldest existing marquessate in Scotland, and the second-oldest in the British Isles; only the English marquessate of Winchester is older. The Marquess holds the following subsidiary titles: Lord Gordon of Strathaven and Glenlivet and Earl of Aboyne, and Baron Meldrum, of Morven in the County of Aberdeen.
Earl of Suffolk is a title which has been created four times in the Peerage of England. The first creation, in tandem with the creation of the title of Earl of Norfolk, came before 1069 in favour of Ralph the Staller; but the title was forfeited by his heir, Ralph de Guader, in 1074. The second creation came in 1337 in favour of Robert de Ufford; the title became extinct on the death of his son, the second Earl, in 1382. The third creation came in 1385 in favour of Michael de la Pole. The fourth creation was in 1603 for Lord Thomas Howard, the second son of Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk, by his second wife Margaret Audley, the daughter and eventual sole heiress of Thomas Audley, 1st Baron Audley of Walden, of Audley End in the parish of Saffron Walden in Essex. Howard was a prominent naval commander and politician and served as Earl Marshal, as Lord Chamberlain of the Household and as Lord High Treasurer. In 1597 he was summoned to Parliament as Baron Howard de Walden, and in 1603 he was further honoured, at the start of the reign of King James I, when he was created Earl of Suffolk. His second son the Hon. Thomas Howard was created Earl of Berkshire in 1626.
Earl of Westmorland is a title that has been created twice in the Peerage of England. The title was first created in 1397 for Ralph Neville. It was forfeited in 1571 by Charles Neville, 6th Earl of Westmorland, for leading the Rising of the North. It was revived in 1624 in favour of Sir Francis Fane, whose mother, Mary Neville, was a descendant of a younger son of the first Earl. The first Earl of the first creation had already become Baron Neville de Raby, and that was a subsidiary title for his successors. The current Earl holds the subsidiary title Baron Burghersh (1624).
Earl of Carlisle is a title that has been created three times in the Peerage of England.
Marquess of Donegall is a title in the Peerage of Ireland held by the head of the Chichester family, originally from Devon, England. Sir John Chichester sat as a Member of Parliament and was High Sheriff of Devon in 1557. One of his sons, Sir Arthur Chichester, was Lord Deputy of Ireland from 1605 to 1616. In 1613, he was raised to the Peerage of Ireland as Baron Chichester, of Belfast in County Antrim. He died childless in 1625 when the barony became extinct.
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 Aylesford, in the County of Kent, is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain. It was created in 1714 for the lawyer and politician Heneage Finch, 1st Baron Guernsey. He had already been created Baron Guernsey in the Peerage of England in 1703. Finch was the younger son of Heneage Finch, 1st Earl of Nottingham and the great-grandson of Elizabeth Heneage, 1st Countess of Winchilsea. Lord Aylesford's eldest son, the second Earl, represented Maidstone and Surrey in Parliament. In 1712, he married Mary Fisher, daughter of Sir Clement Fisher, 3rd Baronet. Through this marriage Packington Hall in Warwickshire came into the Finch family. Their son, the third Earl, sat as a Member of Parliament for Leicestershire and Maidstone. His eldest son, the fourth Earl, represented Castle Rising and Maidstone in the House of Commons, and after entering the House of Lords on his father's death, served as Captain of the Yeomen of the Guard from 1783 to 1804 and as Lord Steward of the Household from 1804 to 1812.
Charles Henry Gordon-Lennox, 7th Duke of Richmond and Lennox, 2nd Duke of Gordon,, 7th Duke of Aubigny, styled Lord Settrington until 1860 and Earl of March between 1860 and 1903, was a British politician and peer.
South West Norfolk is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2010 by Liz Truss of the Conservative Party, who briefly served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from September to October 2022.
Edward Howard, 9th Duke of Norfolk was an English peer and politician who was Earl Marshal from 1732 to 1777.
Rear Admiral John Townshend, 4th Marquess Townshend, known as John Townshend until 1855, was a British nobleman, peer, politician, and naval commander.
John Egerton, 3rd Earl of Bridgewater KB PC was a British nobleman from the Egerton family.
Baron Greville, of Clonyn, County Westmeath, was a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 15 December 1869 for the Liberal politician Fulke Greville-Nugent, Member of Parliament for Longford from 1852 to 1869. Born Fulke Southwell Greville he was the grandson of Fulke Greville, son of the Honourable Algernon Greville, second son of Fulke Greville, 5th Baron Brooke.
Henry Howard, 4th Earl of Carlisle KG, styled Viscount Morpeth until 1738 was a British Whig politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1715 to 1738 when he succeeded to the Peerage as Earl of Carlisle.
Lieutenant-Colonel Charles William Reginald Duncombe, 2nd Earl of Feversham, known as Viscount Helmsley from 1881 to 1915, was a British Conservative Party politician and soldier.
George Greville, 2nd Earl of Warwick, FRS, FSA, styled Lord Greville until 1773, was a British nobleman and politician.
Dominic Robert Andrew Johnson, Baron Johnson of Lainston,, is a British financier, hedge fund manager and politician, the co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Somerset Capital Management. He currently serves as a Minister of State in the Department for Business and Trade, having served in the department during the tenure of Liz Truss. Johnson has given more than £250,000 to the Conservative Party, and was its vice-chairman from 2016 to 2019.