| Honorific-Prefix: | The Right Honourable |
| The Lord Elton | |
| Office1: | Minister of State for Environment |
| Primeminister1: | Margaret Thatcher |
| Term Start1: | 27 March 1985 |
| Term End1: | 10 September 1986 |
| Predecessor1: | New appointment |
| Successor1: | Hon. William Waldegrave |
| Office2: | Minister of State for Home Affairs |
| Primeminister2: | Margaret Thatcher |
| Term Start2: | 11 September 1984 |
| Term End2: | 25 March 1985 |
| Predecessor2: | Position established |
| Successor2: | Position abolished |
| Office3: | Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Home Affairs |
| Primeminister3: | Margaret Thatcher |
| Term Start3: | 6 April 1982 |
| Term End3: | 11 September 1984 |
| Predecessor3: | The Lord Belstead |
| Successor3: | The Lord Glenarthur |
| Office4: | Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Security |
| Primeminister4: | Margaret Thatcher |
| Term Start4: | 15 September 1981 |
| Term End4: | 6 April 1982 |
| Predecessor4: | Geoffrey Finsberg |
| Successor4: | The Lord Trefgarne |
| Office5: | Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Northern Ireland |
| Primeminister5: | Margaret Thatcher |
| Term Start5: | 7 May 1979 |
| Term End5: | 15 September 1981 |
| Predecessor5: | Tom Pendry |
| Successor5: | David Mitchell |
| Office6: | Member of the House of Lords |
| Status6: | Lord Temporal |
| Term Label6: | as a hereditary peer |
| Term Start6: | 13 May 1973 |
| Term End6: | 11 November 1999 |
| Predecessor6: | The 1st Baron Elton |
| Successor6: | Seat abolished |
| Term Label7: | as an elected hereditary peer |
| Term Start7: | 11 November 1999 |
| Term End7: | 29 October 2020 [1] |
| Predecessor7: | Seat established |
| Successor7: | The 7th Baron Harlech |
| Birth Date: | 2 March 1930 |
| Party: | Conservative |
Rodney Elton, 2nd Baron Elton (2 March 1930 – 19 August 2023), was a British Conservative politician and member of the House of Lords.
Rodney Elton was the son of Godfrey Elton, 1st Baron Elton, and his wife Dedi (née Hartmann). He was educated at Eton College and New College, Oxford, and succeeded to the peerage on his father's death in 1973. Between 1964 and 1967, he was a master at Loughborough Grammar School. Between 1967 - 69 he was a master at Fairham Comprehensive School, Nottingham.
On the formation of a Conservative government after the 1979 general election, Elton was made a Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Northern Ireland Office. In 1981 he was moved to the Department of Health and Social Security and in 1982 to the Home Office. In 1984 he was promoted to Minister of State within the Home Office. In 1985, Elton joined the Department of Environment, again as a Minister of State, but left the government the following year.
With the passage of the House of Lords Act 1999, Elton along with other hereditary peers lost his automatic right to sit in the House of Lords. He was, however, elected as one of the ninety hereditary peers allowed to remain in the House pending completion of House of Lords reform.[2] Elton was a candidate to become Lord Speaker in the elections that took place at the end of June 2006, but he was defeated, Baroness Hayman ultimately winning. He retired from the House of Lords on 29 October 2020; a by-election to replace him was held 13–14 July 2021, in which Lord Harlech was elected to succeed him.[3]
Elton died on 19 August 2023, at the age of 93.[4]
Elton was married to Anne Frances Tilney, daughter of Brigadier Robert Tilney, on 18 September 1958. They had four children:
Following a divorce in 1979, on 24 August 1979 Elton married Susan Richenda Gurney (born 1937), daughter of Hugh Gurney and a granddaughter of Lancelot Carnegie. There are no children of this marriage. Richenda was a Lady of the Bedchamber to Elizabeth II until The Queen’s death in 2022.[5]