Nicholas Lowther, 2nd Viscount Ullswater

The Right Honourable The Viscount Ullswater LVO PC
Chief Whip in the House of Lords Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms
In office 16 September 1993 – 20 July 1994
Prime Minister	John Major
Preceded by	The Lord Hesketh
Succeeded by	The Lord Strathclyde
Personal details
Born	9 January 1942 (1942-01-09)
Political party	Conservative
Alma mater	Trinity College, Cambridge

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.

He was educated at Eton College and Trinity College, Cambridge.

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. He has two sons and two daughters:

• Hon. Emma Mary Lowther, (b. 1968)
• Hon. Clare Priscilla Lowther, (b. 1970)
• Hon. Benjamin James Lowther (b. 1975)
• Hon. Edward John Lowther (b. 1981)

References

• Leigh Rayment's Peerage Pages
• "Keele University Political Science Resources". http://www.psr.keele.ac.uk/table/york/. Retrieved 2007-07-07. 
• "Lord Speaker election". http://www.parliament.uk/about_lords/lord_speaker/election2006.cfm. Retrieved 2007-07-07. 

Peerage of the United Kingdom
Preceded by James Lowther	Viscount Ullswater 1949–present	Incumbent
Political offices
Preceded by The Lord Hesketh	Chief Whip in the House of Lords 1993–1994	Succeeded by The Lord Strathclyde
	Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms 1993–1994