The 7th Viscount St Vincent +4 September 2006 aet 101

The 7th Viscount St Vincent, JP, died on 4 September 2006 at the age of
101 years 124 days.

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Oldest British hereditary peer ever?

Jan B=F6hme

mjcar...

Indeed: he beat the 5th Baron Penrhyn by 50 days.

Craigy...

A nice achievement too and Lord Shinwell was the oldest peer (but not
hereditary), who died at 101 and beat Lord Shawcross (another life
peer) by a sixty days or so (brownie points to anyone can post the
exact amount of time).

Frank R.A.J. Maloney...

Where the heck is Louis when we need him?

sionevar...

Did I offend?

Frank R.A.J. Maloney...

Au contraire, it's just that in past he was the regular chronicler of
centennarian peers, among other roles here in a.t.r. Our resident expert, as
it were, and he seems to have disappeared.

Patrick Cracroft-Brennan...

And the same could be said of Michael Rhodes!

Patrick Cracroft-Brennan
Editor - Cracroft's Peerage
The Complete Guide to the British Peerage & Baronetage
======================================================

mjcar...

I make it sliightly great - 46 days:

Shinwell = 37,092 days
Shawcross = 37,046 days

but that could just mean you are better at maths...

sionevar...

Or that Excel doesn't know how to calculate the difference between dates
properly :-)

Sacha...

Could someone please tell me where he died? His son left Jersey many years
ago to live abroad - Portugal, I think, but I think he remained in Jersey -
not sure.

He had been the oldest living British hereditary peer since 2002, and
the oldest peer since 2003. He succeeded to his peerage in 1940, and
left the House of Lords upon the Reform of November 1999.

The oldest peer is presumably now Lord Renton, a life baron, born
August 1908. The oldest hereditary peer is the Earl of Lauderdale,

Alan Hope...

What on earth is a "life baron"?

Stan Brown...

Alan, please trim quotes to just the specific part you're responding
to.

Alan Hope...

Are you nuts?

A baron is the lowest grade of the peerage. But a baron is always
Lord X, never Baron X.

An "ordinary" baron passes on his title to his eldest son when he
dies: the title is hereditary. A life baron is a baron in all
respects except that his title is not hereditary.

Charlene...

Probably the same as a life peer, since all life peers are barons (or
baronesses).

aka Bob...

Something buoyant you can throw out to political ally who's in danger
of sinking?

David Lockhart-Mure Renton, Baron Renton, KBE, QC, TD, DL, PC (born 12
August 1908), is a British politician.

Renton, a barrister, served in the Middle East for three years in

sionevar...

The obituary in The Times says he died at his home on Jersey.

Sacha...

Thank you. 'in' Jersey, BTW. ;-)

sionevar...

Thanks for the correction. But just out of curiosity, why is it wrong to say
'on'?

Sacha...

It's not wrong exactly and being a small island, it would seem logical to
say 'on'. It's just that Jersey people say 'in'. We were born 'in' or live
'in' Jersey. Consequently, I always employ the same mode of speech when
talking of other islands. e.g. We've just had a holiday 'in' Madeira, not
'on' Madeira. Maybe it's because they're semi-autonomous in terms of
government - I really don't know. But if we visit Tresco, people there do
talk about living 'on' Tresco. So there's no hard and fast explanation, I'm
afraid.

World War II and was president of the military court in Tripolitania.
He was National Liberal and then Conservative Member of Parliament for
Huntingdonshire for 34 years, first elected in the 1945 general
election. When he stood down from his Huntingdonshire seat, his
successor as MP was the future Conservative Prime Minister John Major.
In 1979 he was made a life peer, as Baron Renton, of Huntingdon in the
County of Cambridgeshire, and took his seat in the House of Lords.

Renton is currently the oldest peer in the House of Lords (as of 4
April 2004). In July of 2003, just short of his 95th birthday, he
passed his driving test for the first time. He has been a regular
driver since 1934, at a time when there was no formal driving test in
the United Kingdom.

He has been a leader in the movement to preserve the traditions of the
House of Lords, including lifelong membership for members of the
Peerage. According to the Washington Post in 2005, Renton maintains
that "the genius of the upper house is that it includes world-renowned
experts in law, science and the arts who would never run for
election", and that "'Democracy has its limitations."'

born March 1911.