| Honorific-Prefix: | The Right Honourable |
| The Earl Sondes | |
| 5th Earl Sondes | |
| Predecessor: | George Henry Milles-Lade, 4th Earl Sondes |
| Birth Date: | 1940 5, df=yes |
| Birth Place: | England |
| Birth Name: | Henry George Herbert Milles-Lade |
| Known For: | Director of Gillingham Football Club, Kent landowner and socialite |
| Spouse: | 1st: Primrose Ann Cresswell (married 1968, divorced 1969) 2nd: Countess Silvia-Gabrielle zu Salm-Reifferscheidt-Raitz (married 1976, divorced 1981) 3rd: Sharon McCluskey (married 1981, divorced 1984) 4th: Phyllis Kane Schmertz, Rt Honourable Countess Sondes, (married 1986) |
| Children: | No issue |
Henry George Herbert Milles-Lade, 5th Earl Sondes (1 May 1940 - 2 December 1996), styled Viscount Throwley between 1941 and 1970, was a British peer. He inherited the title upon the death of his father in 1970 and the peerage became extinct when he died without an heir.
The fifth earl was considered a colourful character. As a child, he was a page at the wedding of his aunt and uncle, Nadine McDougall and Prince Andrei Alexandrovich of Russia. In his pre-teen years he was a page at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II but was later expelled from Eton College for operating gambling books. He owned racehorses and greyhounds, but his strongest connection with sport was with football club, Gillingham F.C., where he served as vice-chairman of the board of directors.[1] Upon his retirement from the role, a large clock was erected at the club's Priestfield Stadium and dubbed the "Lord Sondes Clock" in his honour. The clock was removed as part of ground redevelopment work in the 1990s and its current whereabouts are unknown.
The Earl was married four times. His wives included the New York socialite Sharon McCluskey (daughter of Ellen Lehman McCluskey of the Lehman family),[2] whom he married in 1981 and divorced in 1984,[3] and another American whom he married in 1986, Phyllis Kane Schmertz (widow of Robert Schmertz, owner of the Boston Celtics), who survived him and inherited Lees Court in Kent, which she transformed into an agricultural business growing pharmaceutical and biofuel crops. The Earl died from cancer,[4] and was buried in the church in the village of Sheldwich south of Faversham in Kent.[5]
The Sondes family estate in Kent had been in family hands for over 700 years and once stretched to over 85000acres in the early 1900s. The estate at Earl Sondes' death was 6900acres including a core of 2663acres around the villages of Sheldwich and Badlesmere with the balance at the Swale Estuary, Oare and Faversham Creeks.
There were no heirs to his titles and on Right Honourable Henry George Herbert 5th Earl Sonde's death on 2 December 1996 the titles became extinct.
| Crest: | 1st: A Leopard's Head affrontée erased Sable bezantée charged on the neck with two Cross Crosslets fitchée in saltire Or (Lade); 2nd: A Lion rampant Erminois holding between the paws a Fer-de-moulin Sable (Milles) |
| Coronet: | A Coronet of an Earl |
| Escutcheon: | Quarterly: 1st and 4th, Argent on a Fess wavy between three Escallops Sable two Cross Crosslets fitchée in saltire Or (Lade); 2nd and 3rd, Ermine a Fer-de-moulin between two Martlets in pale Sable on a Chief engrailed Azure two Marlion's Wings conjoined Or (Milles) |
| Supporters: | Dexter: A Griffin Argent gorged with a Marquess's Coronet Or; Sinister: A Bear proper gorged with a Belt Argent thereon two Crescents Buckle and Pendant Or |
| Motto: | Esto Quod Esse Videris (Be what you seem to be) |