Honorific-Prefix: | The Right Honourable |
The Viscount Tenby | |
Honorific-Suffix: | JP |
Office1: | Member of the House of Lords |
Status1: | Lord Temporal |
Term Label1: | as a hereditary peer |
Term Start1: | 4 July 1983 |
Term End1: | 11 November 1999 |
Predecessor1: | The 2nd Viscount Tenby |
Successor1: | Seat abolished |
Term Label2: | as an elected hereditary peer |
Term Start2: | 11 November 1999 |
Term End2: | 1 May 2015 |
Predecessor2: | Seat established |
Successor2: | The 4th Baron Mountevans |
Birth Date: | 7 November 1927 |
Party: | Crossbench |
William Lloyd George, 3rd Viscount Tenby, JP (7 November 1927 – 7 June 2023), was a British peer and army officer. A grandson of the Prime Minister David Lloyd George, he was among the 90 hereditary peers elected to remain in the House of Lords after the passing of the House of Lords Act 1999.[1]
Tenby was the younger son of Gwilym Lloyd George, 1st Viscount Tenby (a National Liberal politician who had served as Home Secretary from 1954 to 1957 before becoming Viscount Tenby), and Edna Gwenfrom Jones.[2] He was the grandson of the Liberal Prime Minister David Lloyd George, whom he often visited at Bron-y-de in Churt, Surrey, during school holidays.[1]
In 1955 he married Ursula Diana Ethel Medlicott (1929–2022),[3] daughter of Lt.-Col. Henry Edward Medlicott and Clare Charlotte Marjorie Gabrielle Gosselin, and a niece of the cricketer Walter Medlicott.[4] They had three children:
After attending Eastbourne College, Tenby served with the Royal Welch Fusiliers and later retained a Territorial Army commission with the regiment.[1] In 1949 he went to St Catharine's College, Cambridge, to study history, and obtained a Bachelor's degree.[1]
He worked as an advertising manager for United Dominions Trust before joining the investment bank Kleinwort Benson in 1974 as a public relations adviser. He left that role in 1988 and later chaired St James Public Relations.[1]
In 1983 he succeeded his elder brother David as Viscount Tenby. He sat as a crossbencher in the House of Lords, serving on the Procedure and Privileges Committee and the Committee of Selection, and was among the 90 hereditary peers elected to remain in the House of Lords after the passing of the House of Lords Act 1999. He spoke on issues such as over-development in south-east England, unit fines, wind turbines in areas of outstanding natural beauty, the right to die and abortion.[1]
After retirement from the House of Lords was made possible by the House of Lords Reform Act 2014, Tenby stood down on 1 May 2015.[2] His retirement triggered a by-election that was won by Jeffrey Evans, 4th Baron Mountevans.
Tenby served as a Justice of the Peace for Hampshire, including as chair of the north-east Hampshire magistrates from 1990 to 1994, and led the Council for the Protection of Rural England in the county.[1] He died on 7 June 2023, at the age of 95.[1]