The Marquess of Winchester | |
| Predecessor: | Richard Paulet, 17th Marquess of Winchester |
| Birth Name: | Nigel George Paulet |
| Birth Date: | 23 December 1941 |
| Birth Place: | Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia |
| Death Place: | Gauteng, South Africa |
| Parents: | George Cecil Paulet Hazel Margaret Wheeler |
Nigel George Paulet, 18th Marquess of Winchester (23 December 1941 – 8 April 2016) was a British peer and the premier marquess of England. He succeeded a cousin in the title in 1968. Lord Winchester lived in South Africa.[1] He served as a member of the House of Lords for over thirty years from 5 March 1968 to 11 November 1999.[2]
Nigel George Paulet was born on 23 December 1941 to George Cecil Paulet (1905 - 1961) and Hazel Margaret Wheeler. He has two siblings, an older sister, Angela Jane Paulet (b. 1939), and a younger brother, Timothy Guy Paulet (born 1944). After his father's death in 1961, his mother remarried, to George Meyer, in 1962.
Paulet's great-great grandfather was Lord Charles Paulet (1802 - 1870), the son of Charles Paulet, 13th Marquess of Winchester. Upon the death of his unmarried first cousin once removed, Richard Paulet, 17th Marquess of Winchester, on 5 March 1968, the 26-year-old Nigel became the 18th Marquess of Winchester, the highest-ranking marquess in the United Kingdom.[3] The 17th Marquess's grandfather, Colonel Charles William Paulet, was the great-grandfather of the 18th Marquess.
Winchester's maiden speech in the House of Lords on 11 November 1970 was in favour of ending sanctions against Rhodesia.[4]
Most of his later speeches were on the matters concerning Rhodesia and Southern Africa.
On 25 November 1967, he married Rosemary Anne Hilton, daughter of Major Aubrey John Hilton. They have two sons and one daughter:
Paulet died in Gauteng, South Africa on 8 April 2016, at the age of 74. An announcement of his death was not made public until 2019.[5]