William Legge, 10th Earl of Dartmouth

The Right Honourable The Earl of Dartmouth FCA MEP
Deputy Chair of the UK Independence Party & International Trade Spokesman
Incumbent
Assumed office 24th February 2016 Serving with Suzanne Evans (since 29 November 2016)
Leader	Nigel Farage Diane James Paul Nuttall
Preceded by	Neil Hamilton Suzanne Evans
Member of the European Parliament for South West England & Gibraltar
Incumbent
Assumed office 14 July 2009
Preceded by	Roger Knapman
Member of the House of Lords as Earl of Dartmouth
In office 14 December 1997 – 11 November 1999
Preceded by	Gerald, 9th Earl of Dartmouth
Succeeded by	House of Lords Act 1999
UKIP Trade Spokesperson
Incumbent
Assumed office 24 July 2014
Leader	Nigel Farage Paul Nuttall
Personal details
Born	(1949-09-23) 23 September 1949 London, United Kingdom
Alma mater	Christ Church, Oxford Harvard University
Religion	Anglicanism
Website	williamdartmouth.com

William Legge, 10th Earl of Dartmouth, FCA (born 23 September 1949) is a British politician and hereditary peer, usually known as William Dartmouth.

Dartmouth sits in the European Parliament as MEP for South West England, representing the UK Independence Party (UKIP), of which he is one of two national Deputy Chairmen.^[1]

Legge arms

Early life

Dartmouth is the eldest son of the 9th Earl of Dartmouth by his marriage to Raine McCorquodale, the daughter of romantic novelist Dame Barbara Cartland. Thus, he became a stepbrother of Diana, Princess of Wales upon his mother's second marriage to the 8th Earl Spencer.

Education

Dartmouth was educated at Eton College before going up to Christ Church, Oxford (MA), where he was elected an officer of the Oxford University Conservative Association and later of the Oxford Union Society.^[2] He studied further at Harvard Business School, graduating as MBA.

Life and career

Lord Dartmouth worked as a chartered accountant (FCA 1975), like his father whose titles he inherited in 1997. As Earl of Dartmouth he sat as Conservative peer in the House of Lords until 1999, when the Labour government of Tony Blair removed all but 92 hereditary peers from Parliament. In January 2007, Dartmouth announced he was leaving the Conservative Party in favour of UKIP, citing concerns about the policies of David Cameron (then Leader of HM Opposition).^[3]

Dartmouth was elected as the second UKIP MEP for the South West England region in the European Parliament election of 2009 and re-elected in 2014, as the first UKIP MEP. In the European Parliament he sits with the Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy group and on the Committee on International Trade. He has been the UKIP National Spokesman on Trade since 2010 and in February 2016 became one of the party's two national Deputy Chairmen.^[1] He is an author writing many publications for UKIP and the EFDD.

In June 2009, Dartmouth married Melbourne-born former model Fiona Campbell, now styled Lady Dartmouth,^[4] whose first husband, Matt Handbury, is a nephew of Rupert Murdoch.^[5]

Dartmouth has a son, Gerald Glen Kavanagh-Legge (b. 2005), from his previous relationship with the BAFTA award-winning television producer Claire Kavanagh.^[6] However, his son, being born out of wedlock, is not entitled to inherit the earldom, which passes only through legitimate male offspring, nor can he use the customary courtesy title of Viscount Lewisham.

The current heir presumptive to the earldom of Dartmouth, and other titles, is the present Earl's younger brother, the author the Hon. Rupert Legge.^[7]

Titles and styles

• William Legge Esq (1949–1958)
• The Hon. William Legge (1958–1962)
• Viscount Lewisham (1962–1997)
• The Earl of Dartmouth (1997–2009)
• The Earl of Dartmouth, MEP (from 2009)

Ancestry

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to William Legge, 10th Earl of Dartmouth.

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by the Earl of Dartmouth
• pedigree of William Legge, 10th Earl of Dartmouth
• Debrett's People of Today
• European Parliament profile
• Lord Dartmouth's website
• http://www.ukipmeps.org/