Michael Orlando Weetman Pearson, 4th Viscount Cowdray (born 17 June 1944) of Cowdray Park in

West Sussex West Sussex is a county in South East England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the shire districts of Adur, Arun, Chichester, Horsham, and Mid Sussex, and the boroughs of Crawley and Worthing. Covering an ar ...

, is a landowner in West Sussex with and is a major shareholder of the

FTSE 100 The Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 Index, also called the FTSE 100 Index, FTSE 100, FTSE, or, informally, the "Footsie" , is a share index of the 100 companies listed on the London Stock Exchange with (in principle) the highest market ...

company

Pearson plc Pearson plc is a British multinational corporation, multinational publishing and education company headquartered in London, England. It was founded as a construction business in the 1840s but switched to publishing in the 1920s.J. A. Spende ...

, the construction, now publishing, company founded by his ancestor in the 19th century.

Origins

He is the eldest son and heir of

Weetman Pearson, 3rd Viscount Cowdray Lt Col (Weetman) John Churchill Pearson, 3rd Viscount Cowdray (27 February 1910 - 19 January 1995) was a British peer, businessman and polo player. Early life Weetman John Churchill Pearson was born on 27 February 1910.George Nugent ''The Ind ...

(1910–1995)Karen Kranenburg
Renaissance Man
, ''Polo & More'', 2011Edwin Shrake

''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twic ...

'', 16 September 1974 of Cowdray Park, Sussex and of Dunecht House, Aberdeenshire, by his first wife Lady Anne Pamela Bridgeman (1914-2009), a daughter of

Orlando Bridgeman, 5th Earl of Bradford Lieutenant-Colonel Orlando Bridgeman, 5th Earl of Bradford, DL, JP (6 October 1873 – 21 March 1957), styled Viscount Newport from 1898 to 1915, was a British peer, Conservative politician and soldier. He was a major landowner, owning up to . ...

(1873–1957) and a first cousin of

Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester, (born Lady Alice Christabel Montagu Douglas Scott; 25 December 1901 – 29 October 2004) was the wife of Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, the third son of King George V and Queen Mary. She was the mothe ...

.Kidd, Charles, ''Debrett's Peerage & Baronetage'' 2015 Edition, London, 2015, p.P293 His parents separated when he was two years old. His great-grandfather, who founded the family's fortune, was the prominent businessman

Weetman Dickinson Pearson, 1st Viscount Cowdray Weetman Dickinson Pearson, 1st Viscount Cowdray, (15 July 1856 – 1 May 1927), known as Sir Weetman Pearson, Bt between 1894 and 1910, and as Lord Cowdray between 1910 and 1917, was a British engineer, oil industrialist, Benefactor (law), be ...

(1856–1927), created

Viscount Cowdray Viscount Cowdray, of Cowdray in the County of Sussex, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1917 for the industrialist Weetman Pearson, 1st Baron Cowdray, head of the Pearson conglomerate. He had already been create ...

in 1917. The paternal estate of

Dunecht Dunecht ( gd, Dùn Eicht) is a slightly linear village on the A944 road in north-east Aberdeenshire in Scotland. It is not to be confused with Echt. Dunecht is located 12 miles (19.5 km) west of the city of Aberdeen and is situated by ...

in Scotland was inherited by his half-brother Charles Anthony Pearson (born 1956).

Career

He attended

Gordonstoun Gordonstoun School is a co-educational independent school for boarding and day pupils in Moray, Scotland. It is named after the estate owned by Sir Robert Gordon in the 17th century; the school now uses this estate as its campus. It is located ...

, a boarding school in

Elgin, Moray Elgin (; sco, Ailgin; gd, Eilginn, ) is a town (former cathedral city) and formerly a Royal Burgh in Moray, Scotland. It is the administrative and commercial centre for Moray. The town originated to the south of the River Lossie on the higher gr ...

, Scotland, after which he served the British Army for two years, worked as a financier in the

City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London fr ...

and briefly as a farmer. In the late 1960s he became a film producer, running Cupid Productions, a film production company. He produced ''

Sympathy for the Devil "Sympathy for the Devil" is a song by English rock band the Rolling Stones and the opening track from the band's 1968 album ''Beggars Banquet''. The song is a product of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards' songwriting partnership. It is consi ...

'', a film starring

The Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the gritty, rhythmically d ...

and directed by

Jean-Luc Godard Jean-Luc Godard ( , ; ; 3 December 193013 September 2022) was a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter, and film critic. He rose to prominence as a pioneer of the French New Wave film movement of the 1960s, alongside such filmmakers as Fran� ...

, and ''

Vanishing Point A vanishing point is a point on the image plane of a perspective drawing where the two-dimensional perspective projections of mutually parallel lines in three-dimensional space appear to converge. When the set of parallel lines is perpendicul ...

'' in 1971. In 1985, he was listed in ''

Debrett's Peerage Debrett's () is a British professional coaching company, publisher and authority on etiquette and behaviour, founded in 1769 with the publication of the first edition of ''The New Peerage''. The company takes its name from its founder, John Deb ...

'' as a resident of

Le Schuylkill Le Schuylkill is a high-rise residential building in Monaco. Location It is located at 19, Boulevard de Suisse in Saint Michel, Monaco.

, a high-rise building in

Monaco Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Italian region of Lig ...

. Later in the 1980s he returned to England. He was a director of the jewellers Theo Fennell Plc. He has served on the board of trustees of the Tibet House Trust for 20 years.Meet the Cowdrays
''

Tatler ''Tatler'' is a British magazine published by Condé Nast Publications focusing on fashion and lifestyle, as well as coverage of high society and politics. It is targeted towards the British upper-middle class and upper class, and those interes ...

'', 28 January 2015 and donates to the school project The Drukpa Kargyu Trust. He is a patron of his local primary school, church, young farmers club, and sports teams.

Cowdray Park estate

In 1995 he inherited his paternal estate at Cowdray Park, in West Sussex, purchased by his great-grandfather in 1909, now containing the very large mansion house known as Cowdray Park, a well-known polo club (which hosts the Cowdray Park Gold Cup, one of Britain's most prestigious polo events), a golf club, organic dairy herd, forestry, 330 houses, several farms and much of the town of Midhurst. In September 2010 he moved out of the house to his previous and smaller residence at nearby Fernhurst, and in 2011, he put the 16 bedroom mansion house up for sale via agents

Knight Frank Knight Frank LLP is an estate agency, residential and commercial property consultancy founded in London by John Knight, Howard Frank and William Rutley in 1896. Knight Frank together with its American affiliate Cresa is one of the world's large ...

, at an asking price of £25 million, including two lakes, two swimming pools, six cottages, 12 flats, a bowling alley, cricket pitch, polo field, but with only of the estate. The property failed to find a buyer. In 2017 having failed to find a buyer for the house, he took it off the market and drew up plans to convert the two wings into 7 short-leasehold luxury apartments with the reception areas to be hired out for conferences, corporate events and weddings. He retains the surrounding estate, which has much commercial potential and employs 150 people, comprising a farm shop, cafe, golf, shooting grounds, fishing and therapy rooms for hire.

Marriages and progeny

*In 1970 by his girlfriend Barbara Ray, he had a son out of wedlock: **Sebastian William Orlando Pearson (born 1970) *Firstly in 1977 he married Ellen Erhardt, a daughter of Hermann Erhardt, of

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

*Secondly in 1987 he married Marina Rose Cordle, 2nd daughter of

John Cordle John Howard Cordle (11 October 1912 – 23 November 2004) was a British Conservative politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1959 to 1977. Life and career Cordle, the son of Ernest William Cordle, was educated at the City of London Sc ...

, a

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...

Member of Parliament, by whom he has five children: **Eliza Anne Venetia Pearson (born 31 May 1988) **Emily Jane Marina Pearson (born 13 December 1989) **Catrina Sophie Lavinia Pearson (born 13 March 1991) **Peregrine John Dickinson Pearson (born 27 October 1994), eldest legitimate son and heir; **Montague Orlando William Pearson (born 17 May 1997).

Filmography

As a producer

*''

Last of the Long-haired Boys ''Last of the Long-haired Boys'' is a 1968 British drama film starring Richard Todd, Gillian Raine and Patrick Barr. Plot summary After the end of the Second World War an RAF pilot struggles to adjust to civilian life. Cast * Richard Todd - Tri ...

'' (1968) *''

'' (1968) *'' The Legend of Spider Forest'' - AKA ''Venom'' (1971)

As an executive producer

*''

'' (1971)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cowdray, Michael Pearson, 4th Viscount Living people 1944 births Place of birth missing (living people) People from Midhurst People educated at Gordonstoun 4th

Michael Michael may refer to: People * Michael (given name), a given name * Michael (surname), including a list of people with the surname Michael Given name "Michael" * Michael (archangel), ''first'' of God's archangels in the Jewish, Christian an ...

Deputy Lieutenants of West Sussex English film producers