Robert Walpole, 10th Baron Walpole explained

Honorific Prefix:The Right Honourable
The Lord Walpole
Office1:Member of the House of Lords
Status1:Lord Temporal
Term Label1:as a hereditary peer
Term Start1:12 October 1989
Term End1:11 November 1999
Predecessor1:The 9th Baron Walpole
Successor1:Seat abolished
Term Label2:as an elected hereditary peer
Term Start2:11 November 1999
Term End2:13 June 2017 [1]
1Blankname2:Election
1Namedata2:1999
Predecessor2:Seat established
Successor2:The 12th Baron Vaux of Harrowden
Party:Crossbench
Birth Name:Robert Horatio Walpole
Birth Date:8 December 1938

Robert Horatio Walpole, 10th Baron Walpole of Walpole, 8th Baron Walpole of Wolterton, (8 December 1938 – 8 May 2021), was a British politician who, as an excepted hereditary peer, was a member of the House of Lords until his retirement in 2017.

Ancestors

Walpole was descended from Horatio Walpole, 1st Baron Walpole (of Wolterton), a younger brother of Sir Robert Walpole, the first British Prime Minister. He was the 10th and 8th Baron Walpole (of two different creations). His ancestors include Sir Robert Walpole's father Colonel Robert Walpole (1650–1700).

Education and local government career

He was educated at Eton and King's College, Cambridge, where he received a BA and an MA. He served on Norfolk County Council for eleven years from 1970 to 1981.[2]

House of Lords career

He entered the House on the death of his father in 1989. He was a crossbencher and was internally elected to continue serving after the House of Lords Act 1999 prevented most hereditary peers from sitting.[2] He retired from Parliament on 13 June 2017.[3]

Family

His heir was Jonathan Robert Hugh Walpole (born 16 November 1967), a writer. Walpole and his first wife Judith (née Schofield, later Chaplin) had four other children, including diplomat Alice Walpole. The couple divorced in 1979. In 1980 Walpole married Laurel Celia Ball with whom he had three further children.

Wealth and estates

His father's net estate at his death in February 1989 was sworn as £2,065,295 .[4] In April 2016 he sold Wolterton Hall, the house commissioned by his ancestor the 1st Baron Walpole of Wolterton in 1742, where Walpole and his father had lived. He lived nearby at Mannington Hall, a house owned by his family since the 18th century.

Death

Walpole died on 8 May 2021, aged 82.[5] The title was inherited by his eldest son, Jonathan Robert Hugh Walpole, who became the 11th Baron Walpole.

References

Notes and References

  1. Retired under Section 1 of the House of Lords Reform Act 2014.
  2. Web site: Lord Walpole (incorrectly shows as Robin Walpole) . dead . . 2012-12-27 . https://web.archive.org/web/20130103023756/http://www.parliament.uk/biographies/lords/robert-walpole/26494 . 2013-01-03.
  3. Web site: Lord Walpole. UK Parliament.
  4. Probate Calendars of England and Wales: 1989 at page 8454
  5. Web site: Bishop. Donna-Louise. Tributes paid to Lord Robert Walpole who has died aged 82 . Eastern Daily Press. 12 May 2021. 28 May 2023.