Michael Ancram

Michael Ancram was born in London and is the elder son and second child of the 12th Marquess of Lothian and his wife Antonella.[1] He was educated at the Catholic independent school Ampleforth College in North Yorkshire. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in History from Christ Church, Oxford in 1966 and later proceeded to graduate with a Master of Arts.[2] While studying at Oxford, he was a member of the Bullingdon Club.[3] In 1968, he gained a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) from the University of Edinburgh.[2] He was called to the Scottish Bar in 1970 and practised as an advocate.[4]

Ancram married Lady Jane Fitzalan-Howard, the fourth daughter of The 16th Duke of Norfolk, who on 7 April 2017 succeeded as the 16th Lady Herries of Terregles. They are both prominent Roman Catholics. She is a Patron of the Right to Life Trust[11] and also a patroness of the Royal Caledonian Ball.[12] The couple have three daughters and two grandchildren:

• Sarah Margaret Kerr (13 June 1976 – 13 June 1976)
• Lady Clare Therese Kerr (25 January 1979) married to The Right Honourable Nick Hurd, son of former Cabinet Minister, Douglas, Lord Hurd of Westwell in August 2010. They have two children:
  • Leila Rose Hurd (17 May 2012)
  • Caspar Jamie Hurd (30 September 2014)
• Lady Mary Kerr (28 May 1981). She married Zackary Adler on 28 May 2016.

Ancram's younger sister, Lady Cecil Cameron OBE, married Clan Chieftain, Donald Cameron of Lochiel. Another sister, the former Lady Clare Kerr, is now Dowager Countess of Euston and mother of the 12th Duke of Grafton.

Ancram is a keen country music fan and has often played acoustic guitar at Conservative Party conferences.[13] He is a knight of Order of St John and Order of St Lazarus; he was also made a Freeman of Gibraltar in 2010.[14][15]

He was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant for Roxburgh, Ettrick and Lauderdale in 1990. He became a Queen's Counsel (QC) in 1996.[16]

A member of the House of Lords since 2010, he and the Marquess of Cholmondeley (who is currently on a leave of absence) are the only marquesses in the House of Lords. Ancram is hereditary Chief of the Scottish Clan Kerr.[17]

Although his family name is Kerr, Michael Ancram was known from birth by the courtesy title Earl of Ancram as elder son and heir apparent of the 12th Marquess of Lothian. He is said to have dropped the use of this title in favour of plain Mr Michael Ancram after becoming a lawyer, supposedly because he believed it might confuse the jury if any judge were to have addressed him as "My Lord".[18]

Ancram is known to many of his friends as Crumb, a nickname attributed to a party in the sixties at which on arrival Ancram introduced himself as "Lord Ancram" and was duly announced as "Mr Norman Crumb".[1]

Ancram became Marquess of Lothian upon his father's death in October 2004, but did not take up use of this title in public life whilst still sitting as an MP (although properly he should have ceased being styled by the courtesy title of Earl of Ancram). The House of Lords Act 1999 meant that, on acceding to the peerage, he was not disqualified from sitting in the House of Commons as hereditary peers no longer have an automatic right to sit in the House of Lords. Apart from Irish peers, he was, after the Viscount Thurso and Viscount Hailsham, the third person to have sat in the House of Commons while simultaneously being a hereditary peer.

Ancram was created a life peer on 22 November 2010 as Baron Kerr of Monteviot, of Monteviot in Roxburghshire,[19] and was introduced in the House of Lords the same day;[20] by custom, he is referred to by his senior title as The Marquess of Lothian during all parliamentary business and in other official records such as Hansard.[21]

As the Kerr family titles cannot pass through the female line, the heir presumptive to his hereditary titles is his younger brother Lord Ralph Kerr. His elder daughter is her mother's heir presumptive to be Lady Herries of Terregles. Ancram is also one of the five co-heirs to the barony of Butler, abeyant since 1905. Though the most junior heir by primogeniture, he holds the strongest claim, as the other heirs have a lesser share to that title. Upon his death, assuming the barony of Butler is not called out of abeyance, his share will be subdivided between his two daughters.

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Michael Ancram
• Ask Aristotle: Michael Ancram MP Guardian Unlimited Politics
• Michael Ancram MP TheyWorkForYou.com
• The Public Whip – Michael Ancram MP Voting record
• Michael Ancram BBC News, 17 October 2002
• www.globalstrategyforum.org
• Debrett's People of Today
• geni.com
• www.burkespeerage.com
• Appearances on C-SPAN