Thomas Stonor, 7th Baron Camoys

His Excellency The Right Honourable The Lord Camoys GCVO, GCSG, PC, DL
Born	Ralph Thomas Campion George Sherman Stonor 16 April 1940(1940-04-16)
Residence	Stonor Park, Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire
Nationality	British
Education	MA (Oxford), DLitt (Sheffield)
Title	Baron Camoys
Term	1976 - present
Predecessor	Sherman Stonor, 6th Baron Camoys
Religion	Roman Catholic
Spouse	Elisabeth Mary Hyde Parker
Children	Alina Mary Stonor, Emily Mary Julia Stonor, Sophie Ulla Stonor, Ralph William Robert Thomas Stonor
Parents	Sherman Stonor, 6th Baron Camoys Mary Jeanne Stourton

Ralph Thomas Campion George Sherman Stonor, 7th Baron Camoys, GCVO, GCSG, PC, DL (born 16 April 1940), was Lord Chamberlain of the United Kingdom from 1998 to 2000. He was the first Roman Catholic Lord Chamberlain since the Reformation.

Education and career

Lord Camoys was educated at Eton College and Balliol College of the University of Oxford finishing with an MA degree.

His main career was in banking. He was General Manager and Director of National Provincial and Rothschild (London) Ltd. 1968, and Managing Director of Rothschild Intercontinental Bank Ltd 1969. After the purchase of Rothschild Intercontinental Bank by American Express in 1975 Camoys became Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Amex Bank Ltd 1975–77, and Chairman between 1977 and 1978. Lord Camoys was Managing Director of Barclays Merchant Bank from 1978 to 1984 and Executive Vice-Chairman from 1984 to 1986. After the widespread reforms of the City of London’s financial structures in 1986 (Big Bang) Barclays Merchant Bank became the much enlarged Barclays de Zoete Wedd (BZW) of which Lord Camoys was the first Chief Executive from 1986 to 1988 and Deputy Chairman from 1988 to 1998. BZW was to later become Barclays Capital. He was a Director of Barclays Bank International Ltd between 1980 and 1984 and Barclays Bank Plc between 1984 and 1994.

Camoys was Chairman of Jacksons of Piccadilly from 1968 to 1985. He was Deputy Chairman of Sotheby's from 1993 to 1997. He was a director of Mercantile Credit Co Ltd from 1980 to 1984, National Provident Institution from 1982 to 1993, the Administrative Staff College from 1989 to 2000, 3i Group Plc from 1991 to 2002 and Perpetual from 1994 to 2000. Camoys was President of the Mail Users Association from 1977 to 1984.

Lord Camoys has been a member of the Court of Assistants of the Fishmongers Company since 1980. He served the latter livery company as Prime Warden 1992–93. He has been a Steward of Henley Royal Regatta since 1978 and President of The River and Rowing Museum since 1997.

Governmental career

With the death of his father, he became the 7th Baron Camoys as well a member of the House of Lords on 8 March 1976. He was a select committee on the European Economic Community (EEC) between 1979 and 1981, and a member of the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England from 1985 to 1987 (now English Heritage) and the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts from 1987 to 1994.

He was a Lord in Waiting from 1992–97 to Queen Elizabeth II, and has been a Permanent Lord in Waiting since 2000. He was Lord Chamberlain of the United Kingdom from 1998 to 2000, when he retired due to ill health. He followed David George Patrick Coke Ogilvy, 13th Earl of Airlie and was succeeded by Baron Luce. He was the first Roman Catholic Lord Chamberlain since the Reformation.

Religious career

He was a consultor of the Extraordinary Session of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Holy See from 1991 until 2006.

Lord Camoys was appointed Chairman of The Tablet Trust in June 2009.

Marriage and family life

The seventh Baron married Elisabeth Mary Hyde Parker, daughter of Sir William Stephen Hyde Parker, Bt, in 1966. The couple has the following issue:

• The Hon. Alina Mary Stonor (born 1967). She married Simon Barrowcliff in 1994, and has three children.
• The Hon. Emily Mary Julia Stonor (born 1969). She married in 2006 John Dalrymple, 14th Earl of Stair (born 1961). They have a son together.
• The Hon. Sophie Ulla Stonor (born 29 Sep 1971). She married the James Stourton, the youngest son of the 26th Baron Mowbray, in 1993. They divorced in 1997 (annulled), and she remarried in 2001 a Bavarian nobleman Moritz Florian Maria Freiherr von Hirsch. They have two sons together.
• The Hon. (Ralph) William Robert Thomas Stonor (born 10 September 1974), heir apparent to the barony. He married in 2004 Lady Ailsa Fiona Mackay, younger daughter of Peter Mackay, 4th Earl of Inchcape. They have two sons.

Lord Camoys' ancestral home is Stonor Park, Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire.

Honours

Lord Camoys was made a Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order (GCVO) in 1998, and a Privy Counsellor (PC) in the same year. He has been a Deputy Lieutenant (DL) of Oxfordshire since 1993. He received the Nepalese Order of Gorkha Dadshina Baku, 1st Class, in 1981. He received a Honorary D.Litt. degree from the University of Sheffield in 2001. In 2006 he was made Knight Grand Cross of the Papal Order of St. Gregory the Great (GCSG) by Pope Benedict XVI.

References

Honorary titles
Preceded by The Earl of Airlie	Lord Chamberlain 1998–2000	Succeeded by The Lord Luce
Peerage of England
Preceded by Sherman Stonor	Baron Camoys	Succeeded by Current incumbent