Nicholas Alexander, 7th Earl of Caledon
Nicholas James Alexander, 7th Earl of Caledon, KCVO (born 6 May 1955) is the son of Denis Alexander, 6th Earl of Caledon and Baroness Anne Louise de Graevenitz (an inheritor through her paternal grandmother to the von Siemens fortune).[a]
Caledon inherited the title from his father in 1980 and is a Justice of the Peace and has been Lord-Lieutenant of County Armagh since 1989. He lives at Caledon, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland.
He was appointed Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (KCVO) in the 2015 New Year Honours.[2]
Marriages and children
Caledon was educated at Gordonstoun in Elgin, Scotland. He married, firstly, Wendy Catherine Coumantaros, daughter of Spiro Nicholas Coumantaros, a shipping magnate, on 15 November 1979 (King Constantine II was the best man). They were divorced in 1985 without any issue; his first wife uses the style of Wendy, Countess of Caledon.
He married, secondly on 19 December 1989, the interior designer Henrietta Mary Alison Newman, daughter of John Francis Newman, himself a son of Sir Cecil Newman, 2nd Bt. and has issue:
- Frederick James Alexander, Viscount Alexander (born 15 October 1990)
- Lady Leonora Jane Alexander (b. 26 May 1993)
In November 2007 Caledon announced his engagement to Amanda Cayzer, former wife of the Hon. Charles William Cayzer (b. 1957), second son of Herbert Robin Cayzer, 2nd Baron Rotherwick, by whom she has two children. They were married on 2 February 2008. His second ex-wife is now known as Henrietta, Countess of Caledon, and his third wife Amanda is now The Countess of Caledon.
Siblings
Caledon has two siblings:
- Lady Tana Focke (b. 1945), originally named Cayetana for her godmother Cayetana, Duchess of Alba. Lady Tana, a successful fund-manager is the Earl's elder half-sister by his father's first marriage to Ghislaine Dresselhuys, later Lady Foley.[3] Tana is married to His Honour Justice Paul Focke, and has issue.[4]
- Lady (Elizabeth) Jane Alexander, his younger sister (b. 1962), who has been thrice married. She is currently married to a Medical Doctor, John Fitzroy Gillespie MBE JP DL.
Heirs in remainder to the earldom
The Earl's only son Viscount Alexander (b. 1990) is his heir apparent, followed by several elder cousins who are in remainder to the earldom created in 1801 for the Anglo-Irish nabob James Alexander who rose in a matter of decades from an East India Company clerk to an Earl in the Peerage of Ireland. (This rise from commoner to Earl or higher is rare in the annals of the British and Irish peerage).
Notes
- ^ Anne Louise de Graevenitz (1927–1963) was the only daughter of Baron Nikolai Werner Alexander von Graevenitz (1902–1929), himself the fifth and youngest child and third and youngest son of Baron Georg Ludwig von Graevenitz (1857–1939) by his wife Marie Elisabeth Agnes von Siemens (1860–1939), herself the younger daughter of Karl Heinrich Siemens(1829–1906), ennobled as “von Siemens” in 1895. This Karl Heinrich Siemens was the tenth child and eighth son of Christian Ferdinand Siemens, and younger brother of the electronics magnate Ernst Werner Siemens (1816–1892), ennobled as “von Siemens” in 1888. While the Earl of Caledon is certainly a Siemens descendant, it is not clear that his wife was a Siemens co-heiress, as claimed.[1]
References
- ^ Hein Bruins (29 Nov 2012). "Descendants of Christian Ferdinand Siemens and Eleonore Deichmann". Retrieved 14 Mar 2013.
- ^ "No. 61092". The London Gazette (invalid
|supp=(help)). 31 December 2014. - ^ "Lady Foley (Obituary)". Daily Telegraph. 23/08/2001. Retrieved 14 March 2013.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ Barry Noonan. "A Continuation of the Marquis de Ruvigny's The Plantagenet Roll of the Blood Royal". DESCENDANTS OF EDWARD III. Retrieved 14 Mar 2013.