Merlin Hanbury-Tracy, 7th Baron Sudeley
Lord Temporal | |
---|---|
Hereditary peer 17 June 1960 – 11 November 1999 | |
Personal details | |
Born | 17 June 1939 |
Died | 5 September 2022 | (aged 83)
Nationality | British |
Political party | Conservative |
Spouse(s) |
The Hon Elizabeth Villiers
(m. 1980; div. 1988)Margarita née Danko
(m. 1999; div. 2006)Tatiana Dudina (m. 2010) |
Parent(s) | Michael Hanbury-Tracy (father) Colline Amabel St Hill (mother) |
Alma mater | Worcester College, Oxford University of Oxford |
Occupation | Politician, author, activist |
Merlin Charles Sainthill Hanbury-Tracy, 7th Baron Sudeley,
Hanbury-Tracy's reputation was severely damaged in later life by racist comments he made in reports and speeches, alongside comments he made praising the
Early life and education
Merlin Hanbury-Tracy was born on 17 June 1939 to Captain Michael Hanbury-Tracy, a
Hanbury-Tracy's parents sent him to
Political Activity
Lord Sudeley was a member of the House of Lords for 39 years. He inherited his peerage aged 2, and finally took his seat in the House at the age of 21. He was a regular attender and introduced several measures, most notably the Bill to prevent the unlicensed export of historical manuscripts and, in 1981, a Bill to uphold the Book of Common Prayer.
Expulsion from the House of Lords
Hanbury-Tracy was one of the unelected
From the early 1970s, Hanbury-Tracy was active in the
Racism and praise of Hitler
Sudelely's reputation was possibly affected by racist comments he made in speeches and reports. On 2 June 2006,
In September 2001, the Conservative Party leadership candidate Iain Duncan Smith said the Monday Club was a "viable organisation… in a sense what the party is about".[11] However, six weeks later, after becoming leader, he publicly distanced the party from the Monday Club until it ceased to "promulgate or discuss policies relating to race";[12] he also indicated that no Conservative MPs should contribute to Right Now!, a quarterly magazine of which Lord Sudeley was a Patron, after an article in it described Nelson Mandela as a "terrorist".[11]
Lord Sudeley was also a vice-president of the now-defunct Western Goals Institute.[13][14][15]
Lord Sudeley was also Patron of the Bankruptcy Association (Lloyds Bank foreclosed upon Charles Hanbury-Tracy, 4th Baron Sudeley in 1893, when his debt was covered twice over by large assets) and Convenor of the Forum for Stable Currencies. He was also Lay Patron of the Prayer Book Society and a past President of the Powysland Club.
Hobbies
Lord Sudeley once described in
At Easter 1985, in conjunction with the century-old Manorial Society of Great Britain (of which he sat on the Governing Council), Sudeley held a conference at his old home, the proceedings published in a volume entitled The Sudeleys - Lords of Toddington, taking the history of his family back to Thomas Becket's murder and ultimately to Charlemagne. On 21 November 2006, he arranged a further conference at the Society of Antiquaries of London on "Visual Aspects of Toddington in the 19th century".[18]
Lord Sudeley has written many published essays, including a history of the English gentleman for a German pharmaceutical magazine, Die Waage. He also wrote a history of the House of Lords in which he promoted its Tory (as opposed to Whig history) interpretation, entitled Peers Through the Mist of Time,.[19] A launch for his book took place at the Brooks's Club in London on 28 September 2018. In his 2021 book Toddington, the Unforgotten Forerunner, Sudeley tells the story of his family's former seat, designed in a blend of Perpendicular Gothic and Picturesque by Charles Hanbury-Tracy, later Chairman of the Commission for the Rebuilding of the Houses of Parliament in the same style, and its tragic and unexplained loss.[20] He is also the author of a satire on Greek mythology (published in John Pudney's famous Pick of Today's Short Stories) and a quantity of politically incorrect short stories mostly published in the London Miscellany magazine.[21] In recent years Sudeley style-edited a definitive monograph on Azerbaijan's architecture, translated from the Russian.
Personal life
Lord Sudeley lived in a mansion flat in Dorset Square, London. He had been married three times and divorced twice.[22]
Sudeley married his first wife on 18 January 1980 (dissolved 1988), Elizabeth Mairi Villiers
Sudeley was married secondly in 1999 (dissolved 2006) to Margarita (born 1962) daughter of Nikolai Danko, and ex-wife of Lloyd's broker Nigel Kellett.
Sudeley married a third time, in 2010, Dr Tatiana Dudina (born 19 August 1950), daughter of Russian Colonel Boris Dudin and Galina Veselovskaya. Dr Dudina holds a doctorate in philology from Moscow State Linguistic University.[24]
Death
Lord Sudeley died on 5 September 2022, at the age of 83.[26][27] He was succeeded in the Barony of Sudeley by his third cousin once removed, Nicholas Hanbury-Tracy.
References
- TheGuardian.com. 27 October 1999. Retrieved 12 August 2013.
- ^ Out of context
- ^ a b "Lord Sudeley obituary". 29 November 2023 – via www.thetimes.co.uk.
- ^ The Monarchist, no.66, p.5, 1985, Norwich, UK
- ^ "About | Traditional Britain Group". Traditionalbritain.org. Retrieved 12 August 2013.
- ^ The Times, Saturday, 4 Aug 1917, p.4, col.A, Issue 41548.
- ^ Debrett's entry]
- ^ The Monarchist, no.66, p.5, 1985 Norwich, UK
- ^ Monday Club Executive Council Minutes, 25 February 1991, Westminster Hall (W6), House of Commons.
- ^ Monday World magazine, Winter, 1971/72.
- ^ a b
Morris, Nigel (19 October 2001). "Tories axe right-wing group over race issue". The Independent. ISSN 0951-9467. Retrieved 7 December 2013.
Just six weeks ago, before his election, Mr Duncan Smith described the Monday Club as a "viable organisation with the party and they are, in a sense what the party is about". However, in a swift about-turn, three Conservative MPs, Andrew Hunter, Andrew Rosindell and Angela Watkins, were earlier this month instructed by the new leadership to sever their links with the Monday Club. Mr Hunter had been its deputy chairman and associate editor of its Right Now! magazine, which described Nelson Mandela as a "terrorist".
- ^ Nicholas Watt, Tories cut Monday Club link over race policies, The Guardian, 19 October 2001
- Daily Telegraph
- ^ The Times
- ^ Court & Social Columns, 26 September 1989
- ISSN 0261-1368
- ^ The Sudeleys - Lords of Toddington, 1987, p.232.
- ^ "Book Details".
- ISBN 978-164316003-0
- ^ Diehard Books, pubs.
- ^ "The LONDON MISCELLANY A Magazine for Literature and Art First published in 1825". Archived from the original on 21 May 2014.
- ^ "A lord and his new bride". Evening Standard. 30 September 2010. Archived from the original on 5 October 2010. Retrieved 15 October 2012.
- ^ "Merlin Hanbury-Tracy - England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1916-2005 - Ancestry.co.uk".
- ^ a b "Burke's Peerage - the Official Website". Archived from the original on 12 September 2018. Retrieved 12 September 2018.
- ^ Daily Telegraph, 17 January 2005
- ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 22 September 2022.
- ^ Obituaries, Telegraph (7 September 2022). "Lord Sudeley, peer who courted controversy with his fondness for reactionary causes – obituary". The Telegraph – via www.telegraph.co.uk.
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 0-7140-2058-3
- 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.