Christopher James, 5th Baron Northbourne explained

The Lord Northbourne
Office1:Member of the House of Lords
Status1:Lord Temporal
Term Label1:as a hereditary peer
Term Start1:5 November 1982
Term End1:11 November 1999
Predecessor1:The 4th Baron Northbourne
Successor1:Seat abolished
Term Label2:as an elected hereditary peer
Term Start2:11 November 1999
Term End2:4 September 2018 [1]
Predecessor2:Seat established
Successor2:The 7th Baron Carrington
Birth Name:Christopher George Walter James
Birth Date:18 February 1926
Death Place:Northbourne, England
Nationality:British
Education:Eton College
Alma Mater:Magdalen College, Oxford
Occupation:Farmer, businessman, and peer
Children:4
Parents:Walter James, 4th Baron Northbourne

Christopher George Walter James, 5th Baron Northbourne, 6th Baronet, DL, FRICS (18 February 1926 – 8 September 2019), was a British farmer and aristocrat. He was one of the ninety hereditary peers elected to remain in the House of Lords after the passing of the House of Lords Act 1999 until his retirement in 2018, and sat as a crossbencher.

Biography

The son of Walter James, 4th Baron Northbourne, and his wife, Katharine Louise Nickerson of Boston, Massachusetts, he succeeded to his father's title in 1982. He was educated at Eton College in Berkshire and Magdalen College, Oxford, where he graduated with a Master of Arts in 1959.

Lord Northbourne served as the Crossbench spokesman for families and children in the House of Lords. He was deputy chair of Toynbee Hall and had been chair of Betteshanger Farms Ltd until 1997. Since 1999, he has been chair of the Parenting Support Forum and governor of Wye College. Since 2002, he has been also chair of the Stepney Children's Fund. He was a Deputy Lieutenant and a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (FRICS).

He retired from the House of Lords on 4 September 2018.[2]

He died on 8 September 2019 at the age of 93.[3]

Lord Northbourne's garden at Elizabethan Northbourne Court near Deal in Kent, set within the standing former outbuildings (the manor house burned in the 18th century) and upon ancient terracing, nurtured for a century, is reputed one of the finest in England; it is not generally open to the public.[4]

Family

On 18 July 1959, the future Baron married Aliky Louise Hélène Marie-Sygne Claudel, daughter of Henri Charles Claudel, and granddaughter of Paul Claudel.[5]

They had four children:[5] [6]

References

Notes and References

  1. Retired under Section 1 of the House of Lords Reform Act 2014.
  2. Web site: Lord Northbourne. UK Parliament.
  3. http://epaper.thetimes.co.uk/epaper/viewer.aspx Northbourne
  4. [Walter James, 3rd Baron Northbourne|Lord Northbourne]
  5. Web site: Lundy . Darryl . 1 December 2017 . Christopher George Walter James, 5th Baron Northbourne of Betteshanger . The Peerage. cites .
  6. http://www.thepeerage.com/p8084.htm#i80837 The Peerage, entry for 5th Baron Northbourne of Betteshanger