| Honorific Prefix: | The Right Honourable | ||||||||
| The Lord Swansea | |||||||||
| Office: | Member of the House of Lords | ||||||||
| Status: | Lord Temporal | ||||||||
| Term Label: | as a hereditary peer | ||||||||
| Term Start: | 16 November 1934 | ||||||||
| Predecessor: | The 3rd Baron Swansea | ||||||||
| Term End: | 11 November 1999 | ||||||||
| Successor: | Seat abolished | ||||||||
| Party: | Crossbench | ||||||||
| Birth Name: | John Hussey Hamilton Vivian | ||||||||
| Birth Date: | 1 January 1925 | ||||||||
| Death Place: | Pimlico, London, England | ||||||||
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John Hussey Hamilton Vivian, 4th Baron Swansea (1 January 1925 – 24 June 2005), was a British peer, sports shooter and lobbyist notable for his role in the debate over gun control in the United Kingdom.
He was educated at Eton College and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated with a degree in French and German.[1] He succeeded his father to the Barony in 1934 and took his seat in the House of Lords in 1956. He was Deputy Lieutenant for Powys in 1962. In 1966, Vivian, as Lord John Swansea, represented Wales in the Commonwealth Games, where he took gold in the full bore rifle event.[2] He took a silver in the same event at the 1982 Games in Brisbane and competed at the 1986 Games in Edinburgh.[3]
Swansea was Vice-Chairman of the National Rifle Association.[4] In this capacity he lobbied against legislation drawn in the aftermath of the Hungerford Massacre and the Dunblane Massacre, including a ban on the private possession of pistols. He did, however, support the banning of Kalashnikov rifles and a requirement for shotguns not in use to be locked up securely. He was captain of the House of Lords shooting team, which was forced to shut down after 80 years. Swansea resigned the Conservative whip and sat as a Crossbencher, before losing his place in the House as a result of the House of Lords Act 1999.