Charles Towneley Strachey, 4th Baron O'Hagan (born 6 September 1945), is a
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
Conservative party
The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right.
Political parties called The Conservative P ...
politician.
Early years and background
O'Hagan was born a
godson
In infant baptism and denominations of Christianity, a godparent (also known as a sponsor, or '' gossiprede'') is someone who bears witness to a child's christening and later is willing to help in their catechesis, as well as their lifelon ...
of Princess Elizabeth, later
Queen Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. She was queen ...
. The grandson of
Maurice Towneley-O'Hagan, 3rd Baron O'Hagan, he inherited
the family title at the age of 16 on his grandfather's death in 1961, his father the Hon. Major Thomas Anthony Edward Towneley Strachey having committed
suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and s ...
in 1955. He was educated at
Eton Eton most commonly refers to Eton College, a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England.
Eton may also refer to:
Places
*Eton, Berkshire, a town in Berkshire, England
* Eton, Georgia, a town in the United States
* Éton, a commune in the Meuse dep ...
and
New College,
Oxford
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
, and served as a Page to Queen Elizabeth II between 1959 and 1961.
[''Who's Who 2009''] A relative of the
Strachey Baronets
The Strachey baronetcy, of Sutton Court in the County of Somerset, England, is a title in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom. This family was originally seated at Walden, Essex, where William Strachey was living under the rule of Edward VI. L ...
, he is the great-great-grandson of
Edward Strachey, 1st Baron Strachie
Edward Strachey, 1st Baron Strachie, PC (30 October 1858 – 25 July 1936), known as Sir Edward Strachey, Bt, between 1901 and 1911, was a British Liberal politician. He was a member of the Liberal administrations of Sir Henry Campbell-Banner ...
.
Political career
Lord O'Hagan first took his seat in the
House of Lords
The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...
on 5 December 1967, and gave his maiden speech whilst he was still a student.
He was appointed an Independent
MEP in December 1972, taking his seat on the day Britain began its EEC membership, 1 January 1973. Between 1973 and 1979, British MEPs were not elected, but were appointed from the House of Commons and the House of Lords. Since the Labour party was deeply divided over EEC membership, it refused to nominate members to the Parliament. Accordingly, O'Hagan was one of a group of Independents and Liberals appointed instead of the Labour nominations.
During this first period as an MEP, O'Hagan tried to introduce the first Bill to allow the European Parliament to be directly elected instead of appointed. On 1 May 1974, he introduced the Bill in the House of Lords, but it was voted down.
The
5 June 1975 referendum on British EEC membership settled the question of Britain's position in Europe, and from that point onwards, the Labour party demanded its share of MEP nominations. O'Hagan thus lost his seat on 3 July 1975 after a joint decision by the Conservative and Labour parties to cease appointing Independents and Liberals to the European Parliament. He then joined the Conservative party and became a whip and a frontbench spokesman for the Conservatives in the House of Lords between 1977 and 1979. He was also involved in the
Primrose League
The Primrose League was an organisation for spreading Conservative principles in Great Britain. It was founded in 1883.
At a late point in its existence, its declared aims (published in the ''Primrose League Gazette'', vol. 83, no. 2, March/April ...
before its dissolution, serving as its Chancellor from April 1979 to April 1981.
In the first direct elections to the
European Parliament
The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...
in
1979
Events
January
* January 1
** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the ''International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the ''Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the song ...
, he was returned as MEP for
Devon
Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...
as a Conservative, with 61.8% of the vote and a majority of 86,022. He was then re-elected in
1984
Events
January
* January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888.
* January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast A ...
, when his vote share dropped to 54.7% and his majority fell to 56,620. At the
1989 European Parliament election
The 1989 European Parliament election was a European election held across the 12 European Community member states in June 1989. It was the third European election but the first time that Spain and Portugal voted at the same time as the other m ...
he was again re-elected, and although his vote share dropped further to 46.4%, a split in the opposition vote meant that his majority actually increased to 57,298. He remained an MEP until his resignation in March 1994. He had been due to contest the
1994 European Parliament election
The 1994 European Parliamentary election was a European election held across the 12 European Union member states in June 1994.
This election saw the merge of the European People's Party and European Democrats, an increase in the overall number ...
, fighting the newly drawn constituency of
Devon and East Plymouth, but he resigned three months before the election, citing the collapse of his second marriage, commenting "You can't fight an election with your mind on other things." In other sections of the press, his resignation was attributed to ill health.
Giles Chichester
Giles Bryan Chichester (born 29 July 1946) is a British Conservative Party politician who was a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for South West England and Gibraltar from 1999 until he retired 2014. He was elected as Vice-President of th ...
was selected as Conservative candidate in his place, narrowly holding the seat by just 700 votes.
O'Hagan was generally regarded as pro-
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
an, and was described by Jonathan Prynn of ''
The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...
'' as "colourful." Towards the end of his term of office, he suffered from ill health, and his overall attendance record slipped to the second-lowest of any British MEP, behind
Ian Paisley
Ian Richard Kyle Paisley, Baron Bannside, (6 April 1926 – 12 September 2014) was a Northern Irish loyalist politician and Protestant religious leader who served as leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) from 1971 to 2008 and First ...
.
In 1999, in line with most other hereditary peers, he lost his right to sit in the House of Lords, although he had been on a leave of absence since the previous year, in the wake of declining health. He did not stand for election to become one of the 92 hereditary peers who retained their seats.
Post-political career
He made headlines in 2008, offering to sell some of his
subsidiary titles
A subsidiary title is a title of authority or title of honour that is held by a royal or noble person but which is not regularly used to identify that person, due to the concurrent holding of a greater title.
United Kingdom
An example in the Unit ...
to pay for medical bills. In 2009, it was reported that Lord O'Hagan had stepped forward on behalf of the
Towneley family
The Towneley or Townley family are an English (UK) family whose ancestry can be traced back to Anglo-Saxon England. Towneley Hall in Burnley, Lancashire, was the family seat until its sale, together with the surrounding park, to the corporatio ...
to claim the title of 15th
Lord of Bowland
The Lordship of Bowland is a feudal barony associated with the Forest of Bowland in Lancashire, England. The lordship fell into disuse between 1885 and 2008, during which time it was widely believed to have lapsed; it was revived in 2008.
In 18 ...
. Previously, this ancient Lancastrian lordship had been thought lost or in the possession of the Crown having disappeared from the historical record in late nineteenth century. The Towneleys had owned the
Bowland Forest
The Forest of Bowland, also known as the Bowland Fells and formerly the Chase of Bowland, is an area of gritstone fells, deep valleys and peat moorland, mostly in north-east Lancashire, England, with a small part in North Yorkshire (however ...
Estate from 1835 and it transpired that the title had been retained by an extinct family trust. The title was auctioned and later came into the possession of William Bowland, a
Cambridge University
, mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts.
Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge.
, established =
, other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...
don who thereby assumed the title 16th
Lord of Bowland
The Lordship of Bowland is a feudal barony associated with the Forest of Bowland in Lancashire, England. The lordship fell into disuse between 1885 and 2008, during which time it was widely believed to have lapsed; it was revived in 2008.
In 18 ...
.
Personal life
Lord O'Hagan has been married three times – firstly to the Georgian Princess
Tamar Bagration-Imeretinsky (1967–84), secondly to Mary Roose-Francis (1985–95), and thirdly to Elizabeth Smith (1995–present). He has two daughters – one from each of his first two marriages (Nino, b. 1968; and Antonia, b. 1986) – and his heir presumptive is his younger brother the Hon. Richard Towneley Strachey.
In 1975, he sold the papers of several of his Irish ancestors, including those of
the 1st Baron O'Hagan, to the
Public Record Office of Northern Ireland
The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) is situated in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It is a division within the Engaged Communities Group of the Department for Communities (DfC).
The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland is disti ...
(PRONI).
In 1973, he inherited the 14th-century
Sutton Court
Sutton Court is an English house remodelled by Thomas Henry Wyatt in the 1850s from a manor house built in the 15th and 16th centuries around a 14th-century fortified pele tower and surrounding buildings. The house has been designated as Grad ...
in
Somerset
( en, All The People of Somerset)
, locator_map =
, coordinates =
, region = South West England
, established_date = Ancient
, established_by =
, preceded_by =
, origin =
, lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset
, lord_ ...
, ancestral home of the Stracheys since 1858; the house was left to him after the death of Edward Strachey, 2nd Baron Strachie, who had no heir. In 1987 O'Hagan sold it for conversion into flats. Those paintings of Sutton Court which were not sold in 1987 were sold by O'Hagan in 1994 and 2007.
Arms
The
coat of arms
A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central ele ...
of the Lords O'Hagan is blazoned ''Quarterly 1st & 4th Ermine a bend Azure on a chief of the last a fleur-de-lys Or'' (for O’Hagan); ''2nd & 3rd Argent a fess Sable in chief three mullets of the second'' (for Towneley). The
crest
Crest or CREST may refer to:
Buildings
*The Crest (Huntington, New York), a historic house in Suffolk County, New York
*"The Crest", an alternate name for 63 Wall Street, in Manhattan, New York
*Crest Castle (Château Du Crest), Jussy, Switzerla ...
has two figures, first ''on a Roman fasces lying fesswise proper a cubit arm vested Gules cuffed Ermine the hand holding a dagger erect both proper'' (for O’Hagan), the second ''on a perch Or a hawk close Proper beaked and belled Gold jessed Gules'' (for Towneley). The supporters are ''Two lions Or collared gemel Sable pendent therefrom an escutcheon Argent charged with a hand couped Gules'', and the motto is “Mihi Res Non Me Rebus”, meaning means “I suit life to myself, not myself to life”.
[''Burke's Peerage'' (1959)]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ohagan, Charles Towneley Strachey, 4th Baron
1945 births
Living people
People educated at Eton College
Alumni of New College, Oxford
Barons in the Peerage of the United Kingdom
Conservative Party (UK) MEPs
British people of Irish descent
Charles, 4th Baron O'Hagan
MEPs for the United Kingdom 1973–1979
MEPs for England 1979–1984
MEPs for England 1984–1989
MEPs for England 1989–1994