Merlin Charles Sainthill Hanbury-Tracy, 7th Baron Sudeley, FSAThe Society of Antiquaries of London is the world’s premier Learned Society for heritage. It is based at Burlington House, Piccadilly, London in the United Kingdom, along with the Royal Academy and four other leading Learned Societies; the Linnean Society, the Royal Society of Chemistry, the...
(born 17 June 1939) is a
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
peerThe Peerage is a system of titles in the United Kingdom, which represents the upper ranks of British nobility and is part of the British honours system. The term is used both collectively to refer to the entire body of titles, and individually to refer to a specific title...
, author and veteran right-wing activist..In 1941, at the age of three, he succeeded his first cousin once removed, the 6th Lord Sudeley, to the
Barony of SudeleyBaron Sudeley is a title that has been created thrice in British history, twice in the Peerage of England and once in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. The first creation came in the Peerage of England in 1299 when John de Sudeley was summoned to Parliament as Lord Sudeley. On the death of the...
and until the
House of Lords Act 1999The House of Lords Act 1999 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that was given Royal Assent on 11 November 1999. It was a major constitutional enactment that greatly reformed the House of Lords, one of the chambers of Parliament. For centuries, the House of Lords had included...
sat in that body as a hereditary peer.
A member of the
Conservative PartyThe Conservative and Unionist Party, more commonly known as the Conservatives, the Conservative Party, or Tory Party is a conservative political party in the United Kingdom...
, all his adult life, he was sometime President and also Chairman of the
Conservative Monday ClubThe Conservative Monday Club is a British pressure-group "on the right-wing of the Conservative Party".-Overview:...
for seventeen years.
Merlin Charles Sainthill Hanbury-Tracy, 7th Baron Sudeley, FSAThe Society of Antiquaries of London is the world’s premier Learned Society for heritage. It is based at Burlington House, Piccadilly, London in the United Kingdom, along with the Royal Academy and four other leading Learned Societies; the Linnean Society, the Royal Society of Chemistry, the...
(born 17 June 1939) is a
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
peerThe Peerage is a system of titles in the United Kingdom, which represents the upper ranks of British nobility and is part of the British honours system. The term is used both collectively to refer to the entire body of titles, and individually to refer to a specific title...
, author and veteran right-wing activist..In 1941, at the age of three, he succeeded his first cousin once removed, the 6th Lord Sudeley, to the
Barony of SudeleyBaron Sudeley is a title that has been created thrice in British history, twice in the Peerage of England and once in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. The first creation came in the Peerage of England in 1299 when John de Sudeley was summoned to Parliament as Lord Sudeley. On the death of the...
and until the
House of Lords Act 1999The House of Lords Act 1999 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that was given Royal Assent on 11 November 1999. It was a major constitutional enactment that greatly reformed the House of Lords, one of the chambers of Parliament. For centuries, the House of Lords had included...
sat in that body as a hereditary peer.
A member of the
Conservative PartyThe Conservative and Unionist Party, more commonly known as the Conservatives, the Conservative Party, or Tory Party is a conservative political party in the United Kingdom...
, all his adult life, he was sometime President and also Chairman of the
Conservative Monday ClubThe Conservative Monday Club is a British pressure-group "on the right-wing of the Conservative Party".-Overview:...
for seventeen years. He is Vice-Chancellor of the
International Monarchist LeagueThe International Monarchist League is an organisation dedicated to the preservation and promotion of the monarchical system of government and the principle of monarchy worldwide...
.
Sudeley, who lives in
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
, has been married & divorced twice; he has no children.
Family
Sudeley's father, Captain Michael Hanbury-Tracy, a
Scots GuardsThe Scots Guards is a regiment of the Guards Division of the British Army, whose origins lie in the personal bodyguard of King Charles I of England and Scotland...
officer, died from wounds received at
DunkirkDunkirk is a commune in the Nord department in northern France.It lies 10 kilometres from the Belgian border. The population of the city at the 1999 census was 70,850 inhabitants...
.
His paternal grandfather, Lieutenant Felix Hanbury-Tracy, also an officer in the Scots Guards, was killed attacking German positions near Fromelles on 19 December 1914.
His maternal grandfather, Lieutenant-Colonel Collis George Herbert St. Hill , the Royal North Devon Hussars, then commanding the 2/5
Sherwood ForestersThe Sherwood Foresters was formed during the Childers Reforms in 1881 from the amalgamation of the 45th Regiment of Foot and the 95th Regiment of Foot.-Early history:...
, was killed by a sniper at Villers-Plouich, France, on July 8, 1917.
Sudeley served his
National ServiceNational service is a common name for mandatory or voluntary government service programs . National service was common in the 20th century, and many young people spent one or more years in such programs...
obligations in the ranks of the Scots Guards.
Education
Sudeley was educated at
EtonEton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent boarding school for boys aged approx. 13 to 19. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....
, and later read history at
Worcester College, OxfordWorcester College [ˈwʊstǝ] is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. The college was founded in the eighteenth century, but its predecessor on the same site had been an institution of learning since the late thirteenth century...
. As a young man, studying at Oxford, he was offered the position of Tutor to
King Hassan II of MoroccoKing Hassan II ; July 9, 1929–July 23, 1999) was King of Morocco from 1961 until his death in 1999...
whilst on a visit to the country. He would have been charged with teaching the King how to hunt, swim and shoot. Although able to ride a horse, he declined, wishing to continue with his studies. Sudeley has also lectured at the
University of BristolThe University of Bristol is a university in Bristol, England. One of the so-called "red brick" universities, it received its Royal Charter in 1909, although its predecessor institution, University College, Bristol, had been in existence since 1876...
.
Political Activities
Sudeley was an active member of the
House of LordsThe House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom and is also commonly referred to as "the Lords". Parliament comprises the Sovereign, the House of Commons , and the Lords...
for thirty nine years (since he was 21, the minimum age one can take one's seat), introducing several measures, most notably the Bill to prevent the unlicensed export of historical manuscripts. He was one of the hereditary peers who ceased to be members of the Upper House by the
House of Lords Act 1999The House of Lords Act 1999 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that was given Royal Assent on 11 November 1999. It was a major constitutional enactment that greatly reformed the House of Lords, one of the chambers of Parliament. For centuries, the House of Lords had included...
. In 1985 he was elected a Vice-Chancellor of the
International Monarchist LeagueThe International Monarchist League is an organisation dedicated to the preservation and promotion of the monarchical system of government and the principle of monarchy worldwide...
, .
Since the early 1970s, Sudeley has been active in the
Conservative Monday ClubThe Conservative Monday Club is a British pressure-group "on the right-wing of the Conservative Party".-Overview:...
, and in 1991 he authored a booklet for them entitled and arguing for "
The Preservation of the House of Lords".
He spoke out against the reform of the Lords, saying: "If it isn't broken why mend it?", and also that since he believed inherited titles were "inextricably" tied to the monarchy that it was "odd that they just want to touch one institution and not the other". He also cited the wealth of experience that the Lords had built up.
Sudeley was also a former Vice-president of the now-defunct
Western Goals InstituteThe Western Goals Institute was a conservative pressure group in Britain, re-formed in 1989 from Western Goals UK, which originated in 1985 as an offshoot of the U.S. Western Goals Foundation...
, and on 25 September 1989, chaired a WGI dinner at
Simpson's-in-the-StrandSimpson's-in-the-Strand is one of London's oldest traditional English restaurants. Situated in the Strand, it is part of the Savoy Buildings, which also contain one of the world's most famous hotels, the Savoy....
for
El Salvador'sEl Salvador is the smallest and most densely populated country in Central America. It borders the Pacific Ocean between Guatemala and Honduras. It lies on the Gulf of Fonseca, as does Nicaragua further south. It has a population of approximately 5.7 million people as of 2009 on...
President,
Alfredo CristianiAlfredo Cristiani Burkard, popularly known as Alfredo Cristiani was President of El Salvador from 1989 to 1994.Born into a wealthy family in San Salvador, he was educated at the 'Escuela Americana' in San Salvador and Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., where he graduated with a degree in...
, and his inner cabinet. .
He is Patron of the
Bankruptcy Association (The 4th Lord Sudeley was foreclosed upon by
Lloyds BankLloyds Bank Plc was a British commercial bank which operated in England and Wales from 1765 until its merger into Lloyds TSB in 1995. It expanded during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and took over a number of smaller banking companies...
in 1902), and was Convenor of the
Forum for Stable CurrenciesForum for Stable Currencies is a political advocacy group in the United Kingdom seeking economic democracy through freedom from national debt. Founded in 1998, the group is a non-governmental organization without governmental funding...
. He is also Patron of the Prayer Book Society and a past President of the Montgomeryshire Society.
On (2 June 2006),
The TimesThe Times is a daily national newspaper published in the United Kingdom since 1785 when it was known as The Daily Universal Register....
quoted Sudeley as stating, in a report to the Monday Club's Annual General Meeting, that "Hitler did well to get everyone back to work". It also reported him saying that "True though the fact may be that some races are superior to others", going on to suggest that such rhetoric might interfere with the Monday Club's hopes of being accepted again in
Conservative PartyThe Conservative and Unionist Party, more commonly known as the Conservatives, the Conservative Party, or Tory Party is a conservative political party in the United Kingdom...
circles.
In 2001, Tory leader
Iain Duncan SmithGeorge Iain Duncan Smith is a British politician, the Member of Parliament for the constituency of Chingford and Woodford Green. He was leader of the Conservative Party from 12 September 2001 to 6 November 2003...
had publicly distanced the party from the club until it ceased to "promulgate or discuss policies relating to race"; he also indicated that no Tory MPs should contribute to
Right Now!, a quarterly magazine with which Sudeley was associated, which received notice after an article in it called
Nelson MandelaNelson Rolihlahla Mandela is a former President of South Africa, the first to be elected in a fully representative democratic election, who held office from 1994–99. Before his presidency, Mandela was an anti-apartheid activist, and the leader of the African National Congress's armed wing Umkhonto...
a terrorist. Three Conservative M.P.s resigned from the Club.
Interests
Sudeley once described in
Who's WhoWho's Who is an annual British publication of biographies which vary in length of about 30,000 living notable Britons.-History:...
one of his hobbies as "Ancestor Worship", with "conversation" being listed in
Debrett'sDebrett’s is a specialist publisher, founded in 1769 with the publication of the first edition of The New Peerage. The name "Debrett's" honours John Debrett...
. His enduring love throughout his life, and in which he continues to take an active interest, has been for the former family seat of
Toddington ManorToddington Manor is a 19th century country house in the English county of Gloucestershire, near the village of Toddington. It is in the gothic style and was designed by Charles Hanbury-Tracy, 1st Baron Sudeley for himself and built between 1819 and 1840. It is a Grade I listed building...
in
GloucestershireGloucestershire is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn, and the entire Forest of Dean....
, built by the
1st Lord SudeleyCharles Hanbury-Tracy, 1st Baron Sudeley , known as Charles Hanbury until 1798 and as Charles Hanbury Tracy from 1798 to 1838, was a British Whig politician....
to replace the mediaeval building nearby, which had been in the family for 1,000 years.
At Easter 1985, in conjunction with the century-old
Manorial Society of Great BritainThe ' was founded in 1906. It has a membership of approximately 1,900 Lords of the Manor and feudal barons, peers and historians mainly from the United Kingdom but also some from Ireland.Its aims are:...
(of which he sits on the Governing Council), he held a conference there entitled "The Sudeleys - Lords of Toddington"; he gave a similar talk on 20 November 2006 for the centenary dinner of the Manorial Society, at
Brooks'sBrooks's is a London gentlemen's club, founded in 1764 by 27 men, including four dukes. From its inception it was the meeting place for Whigs of the highest social order....
club in St James's, of which he is a member. He is also a member of the Lansdowne Club. Sudeley argued consistently in the House of Lords in defence of the 1662
Book of Common PrayerThe Book of Common Prayer is the common title of a number of prayer books of the Church of England and of other Anglican churches, used throughout the Anglican Communion. The first book, published in 1549 , in the reign of Edward VI, was a product of the English Reformation following the break with...
against what he saw as a reformist
SynodA synod is a council of a church, usually a Christian church, convened to decide an issue of doctrine, administration or application...
of the
Church of EnglandThe Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England, the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the oldest among the communion's thirty-eight independent national and regional churches...
.
Sources
- Copping, Robert, The Monday Club - Crisis and After May 1975, page 25, published by the Current Affairs Information Service, Ilford, Essex, (P/B).
- Sudeley, The Rt. Hon.The Lord, Lords Reform - Why Tamper with the House of Lords, Monday Club publication, December 1979, (P/B).
- Sudeley, The Rt. Hon.The Lord, A Guide to Hailes Church, nr. Winchcombe, Gloucester, 1980, (P/B), ISBN 0714020583
- Sudeley, The Rt. Hon.The Lord, The Role of Hereditary in Politics, in The Monarchist, January 1982, no.60, Norwich, England.
- Sudeley, The Rt. Hon.The Lord, Becket's Murderer - William de Tracy, in Family History magazine, Canterbury, August 1983, vol.13, no.97, pps: 3 - 36.
- Sudeley, the Rt. Hon.The Lord, essays in The Sudeleys - Lords of Toddington, published by the Manorial Society of Great Britain, London, 1987,(P/B)
- Sudeley, The Rt. Hon.The Lord, The Preservation of The House of Lords Monday Club, London, 1991, (P/B).
- London Evening Standard newspaper, 27 March 1991 - article: An heir of neglect - A Life in the Home of Lord Sudeley (pps:32-33).
- Births, Deaths & Marriages, Family Record Centre, Islington, London.
- Mosley, Charles, (editor) Burke's Peerage, Baronetage, & Knightage 106th edition, Switzerland, (1999), ISBN 2-940085-02-1
- Sudeley, The Rt. Hon.The Lord, The Sudeley Bankruptcy in London Miscellany June 1999 edition.
- OK! magazine, London, issue 175, 20 August 1999, (7-page report on his wedding).
- Mitchell, Austin, M.P., Farewell My Lords, London, 1999, (P/B), ISBN 1-902301-43-9
- Gliddon, Gerald, The Aristocracy and The Great War, Norwich, 2002, ISBN 0-947893-35-0
- Sudeley, The Rt. Hon.The Lord, Usery or Taking Interest for Lending Money, published by the Forum for Stable Currencies, 2004, (P/B).
- Perry, Maria, The House in Berkeley Square", London,2003.