Edward Digby, 12th Baron Digby

Edward Henry Kenelm Digby, 12th Baron Digby, KCVO, JP, DL (24 July 1924 – 1 April 2018), also 6th Baron Digby in the Peerage of Great Britain, was a British peer and British Army (Coldstream Guards) officer.[1]

The Lord Digby
Member of the House of Lords¨
Lord Temporal
as a hereditary peer
29 January 1964 – 11 November 1999
Preceded byThe 11th Baron Digby
Succeeded bySeat abolished
Personal details
Born
Edward Henry Kenelm Digby

(1924-07-24)24 July 1924
Died1 April 2018(2018-04-01) (aged 93)

Early life

edit

He was the son of the Edward Digby, 11th Baron Digby. He studied at Eton and Trinity College, Oxford, and trained at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.[2]

Career

edit

During World War II, he served as an army officer with the British Army of the Rhine.[citation needed] As a cadet, he received an emergency commission as a second lieutenant on 15 February 1945,[3] relinquished this commission on 22 May 1946 and received a regular commission in the Coldstream Guards from the same date.[4][5]

Digby succeeded his father as Baron Digby in 1964. The House of Lords Act 1999 removed the right of hereditary peers to sit in the House of Lords. He served as Lord Lieutenant of Dorset from 1984 to 1999, and was appointed Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order in the 1999 New Year Honours.

Personal life

edit

In 1952 he married Dione Sherbrooke (b. 1934), daughter of Rear-Adm. Robert Sherbrooke and the former Rosemary Neville Buckley. They had two sons and a daughter:[2]

  • Henry Noel Kenelm Digby, 13th Baron Digby (b. 1954), who married Susan E. Watts, eldest daughter of Peter Watts, in 1980; they divorced in 2001.[2]
  • Hon. Rupert Simon Digby (b. 1956), who married Charlotte Fleury Hirst, second daughter of Robert Hirst, in 1986.[2]
  • Hon. Zara Jane Digby (b. 1958), who married, as his second wife, James Edward Caulfeild Percy, second son of Henry Edward Percy (a grandson of Henry Percy, 7th Duke of Northumberland), in 1993.[2]

He died on 1 April 2018 at the age of 93.[6]

Coat of arms

edit
Coat of arms of Edward Digby, 12th Baron Digby
 
Crest
An ostrich, holding in the beak a horse-shoe all proper.
Escutcheon
Azure, a fleur-de-lis argent
Supporters
On either side a monkey proper environed about the middle and lined or.
Motto
DEO NON FORTUNA (From God not chance) [7]

References

edit
  1. ^ ‘DIGBY’, Who's Who 2014, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 2014; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2013; online edn, Dec 2013 accessed 8 April 2014
  2. ^ a b c d e Mosley, Charles, editor. Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes. Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003, volume 1, page 1141.
  3. ^ "No. 37041". The London Gazette (Supplement). 17 April 1945. p. 2091.
  4. ^ "No. 37652". The London Gazette (Supplement). 12 July 1946. p. 3672.
  5. ^ "No. 37669". The London Gazette (Supplement). 26 July 1946. p. 3884.
  6. ^ Digby
  7. ^ Debrett's Peerage. 1973.
Peerage of Ireland
Preceded by Baron Digby
1st creation
1964–2018
Succeeded by
Peerage of Great Britain
Preceded by Baron Digby
2nd creation
1964–2018
Member of the House of Lords
(1964–1999)
Succeeded by