Nicholas Lowther, 2nd Viscount Ullswater

Nicholas James Christopher Lowther, 2nd Viscount Ullswater LVO PC (born 9 January 1942), succeeded his great-grandfather in the Viscountcy of Ullswater in 1949, sitting in the House of Lords as a Conservative. He is one of very few peers to have succeeded a great-grandfather in a title.


The Viscount Ullswater

Lord Ullswater in 2019
Minister of State for Housing
In office
20 July 1994  6 July 1995
Prime MinisterJohn Major
Preceded byGeorge Young
Succeeded byRobert Jones
Chief Whip of the House of Lords
Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms
In office
16 September 1993  20 July 1994
Prime MinisterJohn Major
Preceded byThe Lord Hesketh
Succeeded byThe Lord Strathclyde
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Employment
In office
24 July 1990  16 September 1993
Prime MinisterMargaret Thatcher
John Major
Preceded byThe Lord Strathclyde
Succeeded byThe Lord Henley
Lord-in-waiting
Government Whip
In office
26 July 1989  22 July 1990
Prime MinisterMargaret Thatcher
Preceded byThe Lord Henley
Succeeded byThe Lord Reay
Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
Assumed office
1 April 2003
as an excepted hereditary peer
Preceded byThe Viscount of Oxfuird
In office
24 July 1963  11 November 1999
as a hereditary peer
Preceded byThe 1st Viscount Ullswater
Succeeded bySeat Abolished
(House of Lords Act 1999)
Personal details
Born (1942-01-09) 9 January 1942
Political partyConservative
Alma materTrinity College, Cambridge

He was the Minister of State for Housing from 1994 to 1995.

Early life

Lowther was the son of John Lowther (1910-1942), and Priscilla Lambert (1917-1945). His father was secretary to HRH The Duke of Kent, and died alongside the Duke in the Dunbeath air crash. He was educated at Eton College and Trinity College, Cambridge.

Political career

Lowther was made a Lord-in-waiting (whip) in January 1989 by Margaret Thatcher before becoming Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department of Employment in July 1990. He was retained by John Major in that role until 1993, when he became Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen at Arms (Government Chief Whip in the House of Lords). He remained in this role for a year. He became Minister of State for Housing at the Department of the Environment (as well as a Privy Counsellor) in 1994, but left the Government in a 1995 reshuffle.

Princess Margaret

In 1998, he was appointed Private Secretary to Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon and continued in this office until her death in 2002. He was appointed Lieutenant of the Royal Victorian Order in the special Honours List issued by the Queen after the Princess's death.

Return to politics

As a member of a Royal Household he could not take part in partisan politics and did not seek to remain in the House of Lords when the House of Lords Act 1999 was passed. But after the death of the Viscount of Oxfuird in January 2003, he won the all-house by-election, enabling him to return to the House of Lords.

On 22 May 2006, Lord Ullswater was nominated for the newly created post of Lord Speaker, and in the election held on 28 June 2006 emerged in third place out of nine candidates. His great-grandfather, James Lowther, served as Speaker of the House of Commons 1905–1921.

Arms

Coat of arms of Nicholas Lowther, 2nd Viscount Ullswater
Coronet
A Coronet of a Viscount
Crest
A Dragon passant Argent
Escutcheon
Or six Annulets three two and one a Crescent for difference
Supporters
On either side a Horse Argent gorged with a Wreath of Laurel Vert and charged on the shoulder with a Portcullis chained Or
Motto
Magistratum Indicat Virum (The office shows the man)

Personal life

Lord Ullswater was an amateur jockey in his youth.

In 1967, he married Susan Weatherby. The couple has two sons and two daughters:

  • Hon. Emma Mary Lowther, (b. 1968)
  • Hon. Clare Priscilla Lowther, (b. 1970)
  • Hon. Benjamin James Lowther (b. 1975)
  • Hon. Edward John Lowther (b. 1981)

The family lives at Docking in Norfolk.

References

  • Leigh Rayment's Peerage Pages
  • "Keele University Political Science Resources". Retrieved 7 July 2007.
  • "Lord Speaker election". Archived from the original on 18 March 2007. Retrieved 7 July 2007.
Political offices
Preceded by
The Lord Hesketh
Chief Whip in the House of Lords
Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms

1993–1994
Succeeded by
The Lord Strathclyde
Party political offices
Preceded by
The Lord Hesketh
Conservative Chief Whip in the House of Lords
1993–1994
Succeeded by
The Lord Strathclyde
Peerage of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
James Lowther
Viscount Ullswater
1949–present
Incumbent
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