George Neville Clive Wigram, 2nd Baron Wigram, MC, DL (2 August 1915 – 23 May 2017) was a

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

officer. He was a Member of 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 ...

before his exclusion in 1999, due to the House of Lords Act 1999 which excluded most members who inherited their seats. He sat as a Conservative. He held the title of

Baron Wigram Baron Wigram, of Clewer in the County of Berkshire, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1935 for the soldier and court official Sir Clive Wigram, Private Secretary to King George V from 1931 to 1936. He was the gr ...

of Clewer,

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Berk ...

, from 1960 when his father

Clive Wigram, 1st Baron Wigram Clive Wigram, 1st Baron Wigram, (5 July 1873 – 3 September 1960) was a British Indian Army officer and courtier. He was Private Secretary to the Sovereign from 1931 to 1936. Parentage and education Wigram was the son of Herbert Wigram. His ...

died. His son, Major Andrew Francis Clive Wigram, 3rd Baron (born 1949), succeeded to the title on his death.

Early life

Wigram was born on 2 August 1915 He was godson and a Page of Honour of

George V George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until Death and state funeral of George V, his death in 1936. Born duri ...

. He resigned from the post in 1932. He was educated at Sandroyd School,

Winchester College Winchester College is a public school (fee-charging independent day and boarding school) in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It was founded by William of Wykeham in 1382 and has existed in its present location ever since. It is the oldest of the ...

and

Magdalen College, Oxford Magdalen College (, ) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. It was founded in 1458 by William of Waynflete. Today, it is the fourth wealthiest college, with a financial endowment of £332.1 million as of 2019 and one of the s ...

.'WIGRAM', Who's Who 2017, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 2017; online edn, Oxford University Press, 2016; online edn, Nov 201
accessed 31 May 2017
/ref> He was an Officer Cadet in the University's Officers Training Corps. He took a commission within the infantry contingent of the Oxford OTC on 7 February 1936, and became a

Second Lieutenant Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces, comparable to NATO OF-1 rank. Australia The rank of second lieutenant existed in the military forces of the Australian colonies and Australian Army until ...

with seniority from 7 August 1934.

Military career

Wigram transferred from the Territorial Army, which he joined when he took a commission in the OTC, to the

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

as a second lieutenant on 28 August 1937. He was given seniority from 30 January 1936. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Wigram was involved in the

Dunkirk evacuation The Dunkirk evacuation, codenamed Operation Dynamo and also known as the Miracle of Dunkirk, or just Dunkirk, was the evacuation of more than 338,000 Allied soldiers during the Second World War from the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk, in the ...

in 1940. He was shot in the back, but was not aware of it at the time. He only found out later when he opened his backpack to find a bullet embedded in his soap-dish. During a presentation he gave to a group of

special needs In clinical diagnostic and functional development, special needs (or additional needs) refers to individuals who require assistance for disabilities that may be medical, mental, or psychological. Guidelines for clinical diagnosis are given in ...

school children at Coln House School,

Fairford Fairford is a town in Gloucestershire, England. The town lies in the Cotswold hills on the River Coln, east of Cirencester, west of Lechlade and north of Swindon. Nearby are RAF Fairford and the Cotswold Water Park. History Evidence of se ...

, Gloucestershire, Wigram described his experience at Dunkirk: Wigram was promoted to

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

on 30 January 1944, and returned to France during the

Normandy landings The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...

that year. He then advanced through Europe with the Grenadier Guards. In April 1945, he was involved with the liberation of a concentration camp near Bremen, Germany. During the same presentation mentioned earlier, he described what they found at the camp: On 10 July 1945, ( temporary) Major Wigram, Grenadier Guards, was gazetted as having been awarded the

Military Cross The Military Cross (MC) is the third-level (second-level pre-1993) military decoration awarded to officers and (since 1993) other ranks of the British Armed Forces, and formerly awarded to officers of other Commonwealth countries. The MC i ...

"in recognition of gallant and distinguished services in North West Europe". Wigram remained in the army after the war. From 1946 to 1949 he was posted in

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

as Military Secretary and Comptroller to the Governor-General. He received promotions to

major Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...

on 30 January 1949, and to

lieutenant colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colone ...

on 9 May 1955. He retired from the British Army on 26 June 1957 as a lieutenant colonel on account of a disability.

Later life

Upon the death of his father in 1960 Wigram became the second Baron Wigram, of Clewer in the County of Berkshire. On 8 October 1969 Wigram was announced as one of five Deputy Lieutenants commissioned that year by the

Lord Lieutenant A lord-lieutenant ( ) is the British monarch's personal representative in each lieutenancy area of the United Kingdom. Historically, each lieutenant was responsible for organising the county's militia. In 1871, the lieutenant's responsibility ...

of the County of Gloucester. He turned 100 in August 2015.

Death

Wigram died on 23 May 2017 at the age of 101. At the time of his death he was the longest lived person to have sat in the House of Lords.
/ref>

Personal life

In 1941, Wigram married Margaret Helen Thorne (1917–1986), daughter of General Sir Andrew Thorne. Together they had three children: * Major Andrew Wigram, 3rd Baron Wigram (born 1949), who was married in 1974 to Gabrielle Diana Moore * Margaret Cherry Wigram (born 1942), who, in 1972, married Lieutenant Colonel Greville John Wyndham Malet (they divorced in 1993) * Anne Celia Wigram (born 1945), who, in 1973, married Major General Sir Evelyn Webb-Carter Wigram had nine grandchildren.

Styles

*George Neville Clive Wigram (1913–1935) *The Hon. Neville Wigram (1935–1944) *Captain The Hon. Neville Wigram (1944–1945) *Captain The Hon. Neville Wigram MC (1945–1949) *Major The Hon. Neville Wigram MC (1949–1955) *Lieutenant Colonel The Hon. Neville Wigram MC (1955–1957) *The Hon. Neville Wigram MC (1957–1960) *The Rt Hon. The Lord Wigram MC (1960–1969) *The Rt Hon. The Lord Wigram MC DL (1969–2017)

References

Sources

WIGRAM, 2nd Baron
''Who's Who 2013'', A & C Black, 2013; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2012 {{DEFAULTSORT:Wigram, Neville 1915 births 2017 deaths Officers' Training Corps officers Barons in the Peerage of the United Kingdom Deputy Lieutenants of Gloucestershire Grenadier Guards officers Recipients of the Military Cross People educated at Sandroyd School People educated at Winchester College Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford British centenarians Men centenarians British Army personnel of World War II