Nicholas Lowther, 2nd Viscount Ullswater
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Nicholas James Christopher Lowther, 2nd Viscount Ullswater, LVO, PC (born 9 January 1942), succeeded his great-grandfather in the Viscountcy of Ullswater in 1949. He is one of very few peers to have succeeded a great-grandfather in a title.
Lord Ullswater was made a Lord-in-Waiting in January 1989 by Margaret Thatcher, before becoming Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department of Employment in July 1990. He was retained by John Major in that role until 1993 when he became Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen at Arms (Government Chief Whip in the House of Lords). He remained in this role for a year when he became Minister of State for the Environment in 1994 (as well as a Privy Counsellor) in 1994. However, he left the Government in a 1995 reshuffle and in 1998 became the Private Secretary to Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon and continued in this office until her death in 2002. He was appointed Lieutenant of the Royal Victorian Order in the special Honours List issued by The Queen after Princess Margaret's demise.
As a member of a Royal Household he could not take part in partisan politics and did not seek to remain in the House of Lords when the House of Lords Act 1999 was passed. However, after the death of the Viscount of Oxfuird in January 2003, he emerged as the Conservatives' preferred candidate and won the by-election enabling him to return to the House of Lords.
On 22 May 2006, Lord Ullswater was nominated for the newly-created post of Lord Speaker and in the election held on 28 June 2006 emerged in third place out of a total of nine candidates. His great-grandfather, James Lowther, served as Speaker of the House of Commons 1905–1921. Lord Ullswater was an amateur jockey in his youth.
[edit] References
- Leigh Rayment's Peerage Page
- Keele University Political Science Resources. Retrieved on 2007-07-07.
- Lord Speaker election. Retrieved on 2007-07-07.
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by The Earl of Dundee |
Lord-in-Waiting 1989–1990 |
Succeeded by ? |
| Preceded by The Lord Hesketh |
Captain of the Gentlemen-at-Arms 1993–1994 |
Succeeded by The Lord Strathclyde |
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
| Preceded by The Viscount of Oxfuird |
Elected hereditary peer Since 2003 |
Succeeded by 'Incumbent' |
| Peerage of the United Kingdom | ||
| Preceded by James William Lowther |
Viscount Ullswater 1949–Present |
Succeeded by Current Incumbent |
