| The Earl of Home | |
| Honorific-Prefix: | The Right Honourable |
| Office1: | Member of the House of Lords |
| Status1: | Lord Temporal |
| Term Label2: | Hereditary peerage |
| Term Start2: | 24 September 1996 |
| Term End2: | 11 November 1999 |
| Predecessor2: | The 14th Earl of Home (disclaimed, 1963) |
| Successor2: | Seat abolished |
| Term Label1: | as an elected hereditary peer |
| Term Start1: | 11 November 1999 |
| Term End1: | 22 August 2022 |
| 1Blankname1: | Election |
| 1Namedata1: | 1999 |
| Predecessor1: | Seat established |
| Birth Name: | David Alexander Cospatrick Douglas-Home |
| Birth Date: | 20 November 1943 |
| Birth Place: | London, England |
| Death Place: | The Hirsel, Berwickshire, Scotland |
| Party: | Conservative |
| Father: | Alec Douglas-Home |
| Mother: | Elizabeth Alington |
| Children: | 3 |
| Alma Mater: | Christ Church, Oxford |
David Alexander Cospatrick Douglas-Home, 15th Earl of Home, (; 20 November 1943 – 22 August 2022) was a British banker and hereditary peer. He was a Conservative member of the House of Lords from 1996 until his death in 2022.
Home was born in London, the only son of Sir Alec Douglas-Home, the 14th Earl of Home and British prime minister and later Lord Home of the Hirsel, and Elizabeth Alington, daughter of Cyril Alington.[1] He was educated at Ludgrove School,[2] Eton College, and Christ Church, Oxford.[1]
In 1963, the year his father disclaimed his earldom (and became prime minister), David discontinued the use of his courtesy title, Lord Dunglass.[3]
Home succeeded to his father's disclaimed earldom after his death in October 1995.[1] When the hereditary peers of the House of Lords were reduced under the House of Lords Act 1999, he was elected as one of the 92 that were allowed to remain. He sat as a Conservative, having served some time on the Conservative front bench.[1]
Apart from his political career, Lord Home worked in finance. In 1974, he joined Morgan Grenfell and worked in Egypt, Hong Kong, and Thailand.[1] From 1999 to 2013, he was chairman of the private bank Coutts & Co.[1]
He was also President of the British Association for Shooting and Conservation and Chief of the Name and Arms of Home.[1]
Home was appointed a Knight of the Order of the Thistle (KT) in the 2014 New Year Honours.
Lord Home married Jane Margaret Williams-Wynne (born 20 February 1949), of the Williams-Wynn baronet family, in 1972.[1] They had three children:[4]
Lord Home died from lung disease at The Hirsel on 22 August 2022, at the age of 78.[1] [6] He was succeeded in the earldom by his only son, Michael.[7]
| Ribbon | Description | Date | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Knight of the Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle (KT) | 31 December 2013 | issue=60728"/> | |
| Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (CVO) | 14 June 1997 | ||
| Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) | 31 December 1990 |
| Notes: | Arms of the 12th and later Earls with the collar of the Order of the Thistle (for the 12th to 15th Earls). |
| Coronet: | The coronet of an Earl. |
| Escutcheon: | Quarterly: 1st and 4th grand quarters counter-quartered, 1st and 4th vert, a lion rampant argent, armed and langued gules (Home); 2nd and 3rd argent, three popinjays vert, beaked and membered gules (Pepdie of Dunglas); overall an escutcheon or, charged with an orle azure (Landale); 2nd and 3rd grand quarters counter-quartered, 1st azure, a lion rampant argent, armed and langued gules, crowned with an imperial crown or (Lordship of Galloway); 2nd or, a lion rampant gules, armed and langued azure, debruised of a ribbon sable (Abernethy); 3rd argent, three piles gules (Lordship of Brechin); 4th or, a fesse checky azure and argent, surmounted of a bend sable, charged with three buckles of the field (Stewart of Bonkill); overall on an escutcheon argent, a man's heart, ensigned with an imperial crown proper, and a chief azure, charged with three mullets of the field (Douglas). |
| Crest: | 1st, on a cap of maintenance proper, a lion's head erased argent (Home); 2nd, on a cap of maintenance proper, a salamander vert, encircled with flames of fire proper (Douglas). |
| Supporters: | Two lions argent, armed and langued gules. |
| Motto: | True to the end.[8] |