John Wodehouse, 4th Earl of Kimberley (12 May 1924 – 26 May 2002), styled Lord Wodehouse between 1932 and 1941, was an active British peer, and also a

bobsled Bobsleigh or bobsled is a team winter sport that involves making timed runs down narrow, twisting, banked, iced tracks in a gravity-powered sleigh. International bobsleigh competitions are governed by the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Feder ...

racer and Cresta member.

Background and education

Wodehouse was the son of

John Wodehouse, 3rd Earl of Kimberley John Wodehouse, 3rd Earl of Kimberley, (11 November 1883 – 16 April 1941), styled Lord Wodehouse from 1902 to 1932, was a British peer and Liberal politician. He was a champion polo player. Background Wodehouse was the eldest son of John Wode ...

and Frances Margaret Irby, and succeeded to the earldom in 1941 when his father was killed in an air raid. 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

Magdalene College, Cambridge Magdalene College ( ) is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1428 as a Benedictine hostel, in time coming to be known as Buckingham College, before being refounded in 1542 as the College of St Mary ...

, and served with the

Grenadier Guards "Shamed be whoever thinks ill of it." , colors = , colors_label = , march = Slow: " Scipio" , mascot = , equipment = , equipment ...

in the

Guards Armoured Division The Guards Armoured Division was an armoured division of the British Army during the Second World War. The division was created in the United Kingdom on 17 June 1941 during the Second World War from elements of the Guards units, the Grenadier G ...

in 1943–45. Wodehouse was the

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 the writer

P. G. Wodehouse Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, ( ; 15 October 188114 February 1975) was an English author and one of the most widely read humorists of the 20th century. His creations include the feather-brained Bertie Wooster and his sagacious valet, Jeeve ...

, a distant cousin (third cousins thrice removed), both being descended from

Sir Armine Wodehouse, 5th Baronet Sir Armine Wodehouse, 5th Baronet (c. 1714 – 21 May 1777), was a British Tory Member of Parliament. Wodehouse was the son of Sir John Wodehouse, 4th Baronet, and Mary Fermor. His unusual first name reflects his connection with the Armine Baro ...

Personal life

Lord Kimberley had the reputation of being Britain's most married peer, having married six times. His first marriage was on 27 October 1945 to Diana Evelyn Legh, daughter of Sir Piers Legh; they divorced in 1949. His next marriage was to Australian Carmel June Dunnett (née Maguire) on 9 February 1949. They had a son before divorcing in 1952: *

John Wodehouse, 5th Earl of Kimberley John Armine Wodehouse, 5th Earl of Kimberley FRSA (born 15 January 1951), is a British chemist and peer. Early life The eldest of four sons of John Wodehouse, 4th Earl of Kimberley, but his only child with his first wife, Carmel Maguire, daughte ...

Lord Kimberley's marriage was to Cynthia Westendarp (née Abdy Collins) on 15 September 1953, but they were divorced in 1961. Together they had two sons: * Hon. Edward Abdy Wodehouse (born 29 May 1954) * Hon. Henry Wyndham Wodehouse (born 26 April 1956); served in the

Special Branch Special Branch is a label customarily used to identify units responsible for matters of national security and Intelligence (information gathering), intelligence in Policing in the United Kingdom, British, Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth, ...

of the

Metropolitan Police The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), formerly and still commonly known as the Metropolitan Police (and informally as the Met Police, the Met, Scotland Yard, or the Yard), is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement and ...

His next marriage was to model Margaret Simons on 7 July 1961, but they were also divorced, in 1965. Wodehouse then wed Gillian Ireland-Smith on 8 August 1970. They divorced in 1982, so that he could marry Sarah ''Jane'' Hope Consett, daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel A. P. Consett, DSO, MC,

Grenadier Guards "Shamed be whoever thinks ill of it." , colors = , colors_label = , march = Slow: " Scipio" , mascot = , equipment = , equipment ...

, on 20 August 1982. This marriage lasted for the remainder of his life and gave him much happiness.

Politics

Lord Kimberley was the Vice-President of the World Council on Alcoholism, an Associate of the Royal Aeronautical Society, and sometime

Liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

Spokesman on Aerospace, Defence and Voluntary Community Services in the House of Lords. However, in 1979 he joined the

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 ...

. He was a long-standing member of the House of Lords All-Party Defence Group (Hon.Secretary from 1978) and became U.K. delegate to the

North Atlantic Assembly Founded in 1955, the NATO Parliamentary Assembly (NATO PA) serves as the consultative interparliamentary organisation for the North Atlantic Alliance. Its current President is Gerald E. Connolly from the United States, elected in 2019. Its curre ...

from 1981. From that year he was a member of the Air League Council. He was a member of the Association of Conservative Peers, of the British Maritime League Council, the

Royal United Services Institute The Royal United Services Institute (RUSI, Rusi), registered as Royal United Service Institute for Defence and Security Studies and formerly the Royal United Services Institute for Defence Studies, is a British defence and security think tank. ...

, the Institute for Strategic Studies and the British Atlantic Committee. For some years he was an active member of the

Conservative Monday Club The Conservative Monday Club (usually known as the Monday Club) is a British political pressure group, aligned with the Conservative Party, though no longer endorsed by it. It also has links to the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and Ulster Unioni ...

, joining in 1982 and was the next year appointed chairman of the Club's Foreign Affairs Committee as well as joining their Executive Council. Under his committee chairmanship a Club Policy Paper was published in August that year on ''The Future of

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

'' by barrister David Sparrow. In his capacity as Chairman of the Club's Foreign Affairs Committee he also addressed the

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

Plenary Session in June that year supporting the deployment of

Cruise missiles A cruise missile is a guided missile used against terrestrial or naval targets that remains in the atmosphere and flies the major portion of its flight path at approximately constant speed. Cruise missiles are designed to deliver a large warhead ...

, and on 8 October 1983 addressed the Club's South-western Region day-conference at

Taunton Taunton () is the county town of Somerset, England, with a 2011 population of 69,570. Its thousand-year history includes a 10th-century monastic foundation, Taunton Castle, which later became a priory. The Normans built a castle owned by the ...

on the subject of "Defence and C.N.D."''Monday News'', October 1983, pps: 1 - 4. He wrote a memoir entitled ''The Whim of the Wheel'', after he suffered a stroke in 1998. He also contributed to the debate 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 ...

Unidentified Flying Objects An unidentified flying object (UFO), more recently renamed by US officials as a UAP (unidentified aerial phenomenon), is any perceived aerial phenomenon that cannot be immediately identified or explained. On investigation, most UFOs are id ...

"UFOs defy worldly logic... The human mind cannot begin to comprehend UFO characteristics: their propulsion, their sudden appearance, their disappearance, their great speeds, their silence, their manoeuvre, their apparent anti-gravity, their changing shapes." EARL OF KIMBERLEY House of Lords.

References

*''

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 ...

'' (obituary).

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kimberley, John Wodehouse, 4th Earl Of 1924 births 2002 deaths People educated at Eton College Alumni of Magdalene College, Cambridge 14 Grenadier Guards officers

John Wodehouse, 4th Earl of Kimberley John Wodehouse, 4th Earl of Kimberley (12 May 1924 – 26 May 2002), styled Lord Wodehouse between 1932 and 1941, was an active British peer, and also a bobsled racer and Cresta member. Background and education Wodehouse was the son of John Wo ...

Conservative Party (UK) hereditary peers Hereditary peers removed under the House of Lords Act 1999