Michael William Coplestone Dillon Onslow, 7th Earl of Onslow (28 February 1938 – 14 May 2011),[1] styled Viscount Cranley from 1945 to 1971, was a British Conservative politician.
The Earl of Onslow | |
|---|---|
 Onslow in 2011 | |
| Member of the House of Lords | |
Lord Temporal | |
| as a hereditary peer 3 June 1971 – 11 November 1999 | |
| Preceded by | The 6th Earl of Onslow |
| Succeeded by | Seat abolished [a] |
| as an elected hereditary peer 11 November 1999 – 14 May 2011 | |
| Preceded by | Seat established [a] |
| Succeeded by | The 4th Baron Ashton of Hyde |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 28 February 1938 |
| Died | 14 May 2011 (aged 73) |
| Political party | Conservative |
| Spouse |
Robin Bullard (m. 1964) |
| Children | 3 |
| Parent(s) | William Onslow, 6th Earl of Onslow Pamela Dillon |
| Education | Eton College University of Paris |
Background and education
editOnslow was the only son of William Onslow, 6th Earl of Onslow, and his first wife, Pamela Dillon, daughter of Eric Dillon, 19th Viscount Dillon.[2] He was educated at Eton and the Sorbonne.[3]
Political career
editOnslow succeeded his father in the earldom in 1971. He was far more colourful and unorthodox, publicly opposing apartheid and police racism, among other issues. He sat on the Conservative benches. He was a supporter of reform of the House of Lords, but not as proposed by Labour.[4] When Tony Blair's Labour government proposed the House of Lords Bill in 1999 to strip voting rights from the mostly Conservative hereditary peers in the House of Lords, Onslow said that he was happy to force a division on every clause of the Scotland Bill; each division takes 20 minutes and there were more than 270 clauses. This was a move to ruin the government's legislative programme in protest at the removal. Onslow added he would "behave like a football hooligan" on this legislative programme, which he opposed. Ironically, he was one of the more than 90 hereditary peers elected to remain in the House of Lords after the House of Lords Act 1999.[5] He criticised the decision by the Blair government to abolish the Lord Chancellor, stating Blair was: "playing Pooh sticks with 800 years of history."[6] He supported a majority-elected upper house.[7] He opposed the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011.[8]
He was a member of the Joint Committee on Human Rights from July 2005 until his death,[9] in which capacity he strongly criticised Jacqui Smith over the government's proposed extension to the detention of terror suspects to 42 days.[10] He disapproved of modernising tendencies within the Church of England, stating on one occasion that "...one hundred years ago, the Church was in favour of fox hunting and against buggery. Now it is in favour of buggery and against fox hunting."[11] On two occasions he appeared on Have I Got News for You in November 1999 and October 2003 respectively.[12] He is the only hereditary peer to have ever appeared on that programme to date.
Death
editOnslow died on 14 May 2011, aged 73, from cancer which consigned him to a wheelchair.[13]
Family
editIn 1964, Onslow married Robin Lindsay Bullard, daughter of Robert Lee Bullard III, of Atlanta, Georgia, and Ann Lindsay Bullard (née Aymer), who in 1949 married Charles McLaren, 3rd Baron Aberconway.
Onslow and his wife had three children:
- Rupert Charles William Bullard Onslow, 8th Earl of Onslow (b. 16 June 1967)
- Lady Arabella Ann Teresa Onslow (b. 1970, m. 24 June 2016), a general practitioner.
- Lady Charlotte Emma Dorothy Onslow (b. 1977)[2]
In 2011 his daughter's wedding was accelerated so that the dying Onslow would be able to attend.[8]
Notes
edit- ^ a b Under the House of Lords Act 1999.
References
edit- ^ "Hereditary peer the Earl of Onslow dies". BBC News. 17 May 2011. Retrieved 26 April 2020.
- ^ a b Michael William Coplestone Dillon Onslow, 7th Earl of Onslow profile at thepeerage.com
- ^ Margalit Fox (21 May 2011). "Lord Onslow, a Peer by Birth and Contrarian by Nature, Dies at 73". The New York Times.
- ^ Profile of Michael Onslow, 7th Earl of Onslow, The Guardian, 26 November 2003.
- ^ 'The Earl of Onslow: Colourful hereditary peer who advocated reform of the House of Lords', John Barnes, The Independent, 1 June 2011. Retrieved 14 September 2013.
- ^ "Thousand years of history 'torn up'". 12 June 2003. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
- ^ Onslow, Earl of (26 November 2003). "Earl of Onslow: I am an advert for reform". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 29 April 2020.
- ^ a b White, Michael (22 May 2011). "The Earl of Onslow obituary". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 29 April 2020.
- ^ JCHR, UK Parliament website
- ^ "Smith attacked over 42-day speech". BBC News. 28 October 2008. Retrieved 26 April 2020.
- ^ National Review report containing Lord Onslow's comment about the Church of England
- ^ "The Earl of Onslow". 17 May 2011. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 29 April 2020.
- ^ Notice of death of the 7th Earl of Onslow
External links
edit- Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Michael Onslow, 7th Earl of Onslow
- Open letter by the Earl to David Cameron, on the subject of civil liberties
- The Telegraph Obituary