The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest institutions in the world, its origins lie in the early 11th century and the emergence of bicameralism in the 13th century.
The Peerage Act 1963 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that permits women peeresses and all Scottish hereditary peers to sit in the House of Lords and allows newly inherited hereditary peerages to be disclaimed.
The House of Lords Act 1999 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed the House of Lords, one of the chambers of Parliament. The Act was given Royal Assent on 11 November 1999. For centuries, the House of Lords had included several hundred members who inherited their seats ; the Act removed such a right. However, as part of a compromise, the Act did permit ninety-two hereditary peers to remain in the House. Another ten were created life peers to enable them to remain in the House.
Baron Londesborough, of Londesborough in the East Riding of the County of York, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1850 for the diplomat and Whig politician Lord Albert Denison. He was the third son of Henry Conyngham, 1st Marquess Conyngham, and his wife Elizabeth Denison. Born Albert Denison Conyngham, he assumed by royal licence the surname of Denison in lieu of Conyngham in 1849 on inheriting the vast fortune of his maternal uncle William Joseph Denison (1770–1849). Before his elevation to the peerage, Denison had represented Canterbury in Parliament. His eldest son, the second Baron, sat as a Liberal Member of Parliament for Beverley and Scarborough. In 1887 he was created Viscount Raincliffe, of Raincliffe in the North Riding of the County of York, and Earl of Londesborough, in the County of York. These titles were also in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. However, the viscountcy and earldom became extinct on the death of his grandson, the fourth Earl, in 1937.
Dafydd Wynne Wigley, Baron Wigley, is a Welsh politician who served as the leader of Plaid Cymru from 1981 to 1984 and again from 1991 to 2000. He served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Caernarfon from 1974 to 2001 and as the Member of the Welsh Assembly for Caernarfon from 1999 to 2003. In 2010, Wigley was granted life peerage, taking his seat in the House of Lords in 2011.
Robert Michael James Gascoyne-Cecil, 7th Marquess of Salisbury, Baron Gascoyne-Cecil,, is a British Conservative politician. From 1979 to 1987 he represented South Dorset in the House of Commons, and in the 1990s he was Leader of the House of Lords under his courtesy title of Viscount Cranborne. Lord Salisbury lives in one of England's largest historic houses, the 17th-century Hatfield House in Hertfordshire, and currently serves as Chancellor of the University of Hertfordshire.
John Julian Ganzoni, 2nd Baron Belstead, Baron Ganzoni, was a British Conservative politician and peer who served as Leader of the House of Lords under Margaret Thatcher from 1988 to 1990.
Alastair John Lyndhurst Bruce, 5th Baron Aberdare,, is a British nobleman, and since 2009 a crossbench hereditary Lord Temporal.
Valerian Bernard Freyberg, 3rd Baron Freyberg is a British hereditary peer, who sits in the House of Lords as a crossbencher.
Following the enactment of the House of Lords Act 1999, the number of hereditary peers entitled to sit in the House of Lords was reduced to ninety-two. The Earl Marshal and the Lord Great Chamberlain were entitled to sit ex officio; the remaining ninety were elected by all the hereditary peers before the passing of the reform. Since November 2002, by-elections have been held to fill vacancies left by deaths, resignations or disqualifications of those peers. Since the passing of the House of Lords Reform Act 2014, by-elections have also been held to fill vacancies left by the retirements of those peers.
David Hacking, 3rd Baron Hacking, is a British arbitrator, barrister and hereditary peer.
Stephen Michael Wedgwood Benn, 3rd Viscount Stansgate, is a British hereditary peer and Labour member of the House of Lords.
Richard Hubert Gordon Gilbey, 12th Baron Vaux of Harrowden, is a British hereditary peer and crossbench member of the House of Lords.
The father of the House is a title that is bestowed on the senior member of the House of Commons who has the longest continuous service. If two or more members have the same length of current uninterrupted service, then whoever was sworn in earliest, as listed in Hansard, is named as Father of the House.
Jasset David Cody Ormsby-Gore, 7th Baron Harlech, is a British hereditary peer and Conservative member of the House of Lords. He has been serving as a Lord in Waiting since September 2022.
Edward Sebastian Grigg, 4th Baron Altrincham is a British hereditary peer and Conservative member of the House of Lords.
Guy Rhys John Mansfield, 6th Baron Sandhurst,, is a British barrister, hereditary peer and Conservative member of the House of Lords.
James Meston, 3rd Baron Meston is a British hereditary peer, a lawyer, and a crossbench member of the House of Lords.
