Patrick Stopford, 9th Earl of Courtown

The Right Honourable
The Earl of Courtown
Official portrait, 2018
Government Deputy Chief Whip in the House of Lords
Captain of the Yeomen of the Guard
In office
13 July 2016 – 5 July 2024
Prime MinisterTheresa May
Boris Johnson
Liz Truss
Rishi Sunak[1]
Preceded byThe Lord Gardiner of Kimble
Succeeded byThe Baroness Wheeler
Lord-in-waiting
Government Whip
In office
8 May 2015 – 13 July 2016
Prime MinisterDavid Cameron
Preceded byThe Lord Popat of Harrow
Succeeded byThe Lord Young of Cookham
In office
8 July 1995 – 2 May 1997
Prime MinisterJohn Major
Preceded byThe Earl of Lindsay
Succeeded byThe Lord Hoyle
Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
Incumbent
Life peerage
11 June 2026
Elected Hereditary Peer
11 November 1999 – 29 April 2026
Election1999
Preceded bySeat established
Succeeded bySeat abolished
Hereditary peerage
24 July 1979 – 11 November 1999
Preceded byThe 8th Earl of Courtown
Succeeded bySeat abolished
Personal details
BornJames Patrick Montagu Burgoyne Winthrop Stopford
(1954-03-19) 19 March 1954
PartyConservative
Spouse
Elisabeth Dunnett
​
(m. 1985)​
ChildrenJames Stopford, Viscount Stopford
EducationEton College
Berkshire College of Agriculture

James Patrick Montagu Burgoyne Winthrop Stopford, 9th Earl of Courtown, Baron Stopford of Saltersford[2] (also known as Patrick Courtown;[3] born 19 March 1954), styled Viscount Stopford between 1957 and 1975, is an Irish peer and politician. He was one of the 92 hereditary peers elected to remain in the House of Lords after the House of Lords Act 1999 and continued to sit for the Conservatives. In May 2026, it was announced that he was to be given one of 26 new life peerages, returning him to the House of Lords after the coming into force of the House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Act 2026.[4]He is currently the longest serving member of lords.

The elder son of James Stopford, 8th Earl of Courtown and Patricia Winthrop, he has a brother named Jeremy, and three sisters: Elizabeth, Mary and Felicity.[5] He was educated at Eton and at the Berkshire College of Agriculture. He later attended the Royal Agricultural College in Cirencester. He succeeded to the earldom of Courtown in 1975. In 1985, he married Elisabeth Dunnett, daughter of Ian Rodger Dunnett.

The Earl took his seat in the House of Lords in 1979.[6] In 1995, he was appointed a lord-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth II, and a government whip. He was a government spokesman for the Home Office, Department of Transport and the Scottish Office. In 2013 he was appointed a Conservative party whip. Following the 2015 election, he joined the government, again as a lord-in-waiting and as a government whip. He was promoted to deputy chief whip and captain of the yeomen of the guard in the May ministry in July 2016. In that role, he took part in the Royal Procession at the Coronation of Charles III and Camilla.[7]

The Courtown ancestral home, Courtown House, was demolished in the 1960s, but the Earl visited its location in 2010, with members of his family, and unveiled a plaque in memory of his father at the local church.[5]

The Earl's heir apparent is his son, James.

References

  1. ↑ "Ministerial Appointments commencing: 25 October 2022". GOV.UK. Retrieved 30 October 2022.
  2. ↑ "Captain of the Queen's Bodyguard of the Yeomen of the Guard (Lords Deputy Chief Whip)". gov.uk.
  3. ↑ "Personal website". Archived from the original on 20 December 2014. Retrieved 26 January 2013.
  4. ↑ "Political Peerages May 2026". GOV.UK. Retrieved 13 May 2026.
  5. 1 2 Fintan Lambe (24 March 2010). "Earl of Courtown pays visit to family's ancestral home". The Irish Independent. Retrieved 28 September 2018.
  6. ↑ HL Deb, 26 July 1979 vol 401 c2035
  7. ↑ "Coronation order of service in full". BBC News. Retrieved 6 May 2023.

Sources

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