William Astor, 4th Viscount Astor

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The Right Honourable
The Viscount Astor
Member of the House of Lords
Assumed office
11 November 1999
as an excepted hereditary peer
In office
27 December 1972 – 11 November 1999
as a hereditary peer
Preceded byWilliam Astor, 3rd Viscount Astor
Personal details
Born (1951-12-27) 27 December 1951 (age 72)
Spouse(s)Annabel Lucy Veronica Jones
(m. 1976–present)
RelationsSee Astor family
ChildrenFlora Katherina Astor
William Waldorf Astor IV
James Jacob Astor
Parent(s)William Astor, 3rd Viscount Astor
Sarah Kathleen Elinor Norton
Alma materEton College
Occupationpolitician, businessman

William Waldorf Astor III, 4th Viscount Astor (born 27 December 1951) is a prominent English businessman and politician who sits as a Conservative hereditary Lord Temporal in the House of Lords. He is a member of the Astor family known for its prominence in business, society, and politics in both the United States and England in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Biography

William Waldorf III is the son of William Astor, 3rd Viscount Astor (1907–1966) and Sarah Kathleen Elinor Norton (1920–2013). From his father's later marriages, he has three younger half-sisters: Emily (born 1956), Janet (born 1961), and Pauline (born 1964). From his mother's remarriage to Thomas Michael Baring, he has a younger half-brother named Edward Richard Philip Baring (born September 1962).[1] He was educated at Eton College.

Astor was a Lord-in-Waiting (a House of Lords whip) from 1990 to 1993. He was then made a Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department of Social Security. In 1994, he moved to the Department of National Heritage where he served until leaving the government in 1995.[2]

He was a member of the Founding Council of the Rothermere American Institute at the University of Oxford.[3]

Viscount Astor is Deputy Chairman of Silvergate Media Ltd and director of Networkers Plc (since 2007) and trustee of Stanley Spencer Gallery in Cookham.

Marriage and children

Astor married Annabel Lucy Veronica Jones (born 1948), daughter of Timothy Angus Jones and Patricia David Pandora Clifford on 14 January 1976. They have three children:

  • Hon Flora Katherine Astor (born 7 June 1976)
  • Hon William Waldorf "Will" Astor IV (born 18 January 1979)
  • Hon James Jacob Astor (born 1981)

The heir to the viscountcy is his elder son, Will, who married model Lohralee Stutz, daughter of Serge Alain Stutz and Lerma Villas, at East Hendred, Oxfordshire on 5 September 2009. They have a son William Waldorf Astor V (born 4 May 2012) and a daughter Allegra Annabel Astor (born 14 August 2013).[4]

His wife Annabel's stepfather was his uncle Michael Langhorne Astor.

Viscountess Astor was previously married to Sir Reginald Sheffield, 8th Baronet by whom she is the mother of Samantha Cameron, wife of former Prime Minister David Cameron.

Ancestry

Family of William Astor, 4th Viscount Astor
16. John Jacob Astor III
8. William Waldorf Astor I
17. Charlotte Augusta Gibbes
4. Waldorf Astor
18. James William Paul
9. Mary Dahlgren Paul
19. Hannah Clement Bunker
2. William Waldorf Astor II
20. John Scarsbrook Langhorne
10. Chiswell Dabney Langhorne
21. Sarah Elizabeth Dabney
5. Nancy Witcher Langhorne
22. Elisha Ford Keen
11. Nancy Witcher Keene
23. Mary Ann Perkins
1. William Waldorf Astor III
24. Thomas Norton
12. John Richard Brinsley Norton
25. Maria Chiara Elisa Federigo
6. Richard Norton
26. William Henry McVickar
13. Katharine Buckner McVickar
27.
3. Sarah Kathleen Elinor Norton
28. Alexander Kinloch
14. Brig. David Alexander Kinloch
29. Lucy Charlotte Anstruther
7. Jean Mary Kinloch
30. William Bromley-Davenport
15. Elinor Lucy Bromley Davenport
31. Augusta Elizabeth Campbell

Arms

Coat of arms of William Astor, 4th Viscount Astor
Coronet
A Coronet of a Viscount
Crest
From a Mount Vert a Falcon rising proper ensigned by three Mullets Gold
Escutcheon
Or a Falcon resting on a Dexter Hand couped at the wrist proper gauntleted Gules in chief two Fleur-de-lys of the last
Supporters
Dexter: a North American Indian; Sinister: a North American fur trapper; each habited accoutred and holding in the exterior hand a Rifle all proper
Motto
Ad Astra (To the stars)

References

  1. ^ http://thepeerage.com/p7900.htm#i78996
  2. ^ thePeerage.com - Person Page 7535
  3. ^ "Founding Council | The Rothermere American Institute". Rothermere American Institute. Retrieved 22 November 2012.
  4. ^ "Allegra Annabel Astor Birth Announcement". The Times. 21 August 2013.

External links

Peerage of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Viscount Astor
1966–present 		Incumbent
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