Thomas Cholmondeley, 4th Baron Delamere

Cholmondeley was the eldest son of Hugh Cholmondeley, 3rd Baron Delamere, whom he succeeded in 1931. His mother was Lady Florence Anne Cole, an Anglo-Irish aristocrat who was the daughter of Lowry Cole, 4th Earl of Enniskillen. Cholmondeley was an indirect descendant of Sir Robert Walpole, the first Prime Minister of Great Britain.[2] He was educated at Eton.[3] During the Second World War he served with the Welsh Guards and achieved the rank of Captain.[4]

In this period, the Cholmondeley family continued to own ancestral land and estates in Cheshire in the North of England. However, Lord Delamere lived, worked and invested most of his life in building modern Kenya. In 1934, Tom Delamere moved his family into Vale Royal Abbey, only to be forced out in 1939 when His Majesty's Government converted Vale Royal to serve as a sanatorium for soldiers of World War II. The Cholmondeleys were restored to possession of the abbey after the war, but by 1947 the house and grounds had been sold.[5]

Cholmondeley married on 14 June 1924, Phyllis Anne (1904–1978), daughter of Lord George William Montagu Douglas Scott (1866–1947; younger son of The 6th Duke of Buccleuch) and Lady Elizabeth Emily Manners (1878–1924; daughter of The 7th Duke of Rutland). The children of that marriage were:

• The Hon. Elizabeth Florence Marion (26 December 1925 – 1988).
• The Hon. Anne Jeannetta Essex (2 September 1927 – 18 October 2013).[6]
• Hugh George (b. 18 January 1934).

Cholmondely had become Baron Delamere (in 1931) by the time he and Baroness Delamere were divorced in 1944. Lord Delamere remarried on 15 June 1944 to The Hon. Ruth Mary Clarisse Ashley (1906–1986), daughter of the then late Lt. Col. Lord Mount Temple (a former Conservative Cabinet minister), who was the first (and only) Baron Mount Temple (of the second creation), and Amalia Mary Maud Cassel. This second marriage ended in divorce in 1955.

On 26 March 1955, Lord Delamere married, thirdly, Diana Caldwell (1913–1987), daughter of Seymore Caldwell, better known as Diana Delves-Broughton.[7]

Baron Delamere died at age 78 in August 1979; and he was succeeded in the lands, estates and title by his son from his first marriage, Hugh Cholmondeley, 5th Baron Delamere.

• Debrett, John, Charles Kidd, David Williamson. (1990). Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage. New York: Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-333-38847-1
• Hayden, Joseph. (1851). The book of dignities: containing rolls of the official personages of the British Empire. London: Longmans, Brown, Green, and Longmans. OCLC 2359133
• Holland, G.D et al. (1977). Vale Royal Abbey and House. Winsford, Cheshire: Winsford Local History Society. OCLC 27001031