Alan Montagu-Stuart-Wortley-Mackenzie, 4th Earl of Wharncliffe (23 March 1935 – 3 June 1987), known as Viscount Carlton from birth until 1953, was a British landowner and hereditary peer who was a member of the House of Lords from 1956 until his death.
Wharncliffe was the only son of Archibald Montagu-Stuart-Wortley-Mackenzie, 3rd Earl of Wharncliffe and his wife Lady Elfrida Wentworth Fitzwilliam, daughter of William Wentworth-Fitzwilliam, 7th Earl Fitzwilliam. He was educated at Eton. He had four older sisters, one of whom married Henry Pelham-Clinton-Hope, 9th Duke of Newcastle.[1]
In 1953, as Lord Carlton joined the Royal Navy as an able seaman, serving until later in that year when he succeeded his father in the earldom and viscountcy.
He was subsequently a drummer in a rock band, a motor mechanic, a publican and a salesman.[2]
Although his father had sold Wortley Hall, Wharncliffe inherited the Wharncliffe estate.[3]
Wharncliffe was banned from the roads for three years after being caught drink-driving in 1976.
He was jailed for six months in 1980 for causing death by reckless driving, 15 days after getting his licence back in April 1979.
43-year-old mother-of-three June Deakin was killed when Wharncliffe crashed into her car after drinking double brandies.
Mrs Deakin's husband Terry was driving the car and suffered serious injuries.[4]
On 25 July 1957, Wharncliffe married Aline Margaret Bruce, a daughter of Robert Fernie Dunlop Bruce. They had two daughters:[1]
Lord Wharncliffe died on 3 June 1987 at Wharncliffe House, Wortley, South Yorkshire,[5] and was buried at St Leonard's Church, Wortley. He was succeeded in the earldom and viscountcy by an American cousin Richard Montagu Stuart Wortley, 5th Earl of Wharncliffe, a grandson of Ralph Granville Montagu-Stuart-Wortley (1864–1927), a younger brother of the second earl.[1] However, he separated the peerages from the estate, leaving that to his immediate family.[3] The estate was ultimately inherited by Lady Rowena Wortley-Hunt, who took it over on her mother’s death in 2001.[3]
In July 1987, the 5th Earl, a construction foreman from Cumberland, Maine, arrived in Yorkshire as a tourist to visit the family seat which he had never seen. He commented “I am just an ordinary guy.”[6]