Oswald Constantine John Phipps, 4th Marquess of Normanby, (29 July 1912 – 30 January 1994), styled Earl of Mulgrave until 1932, was a British peer and philanthropist for blind people.

Early life

The eldest son of Constantine Phipps, 3rd Marquess of Normanby and his wife Gertrude Stansfeld Foster, he was educated at

Lambrook Lambrook is an independent preparatory school for 615 boys and girls, aged 3–13, set in of Berkshire countryside. History The school was founded in 1860 by Robert Burnside, in a large country house built in 1853 by William Budd. Burnside ini ...

preparatory school,

Eton College Eton College () is a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. intended as a sister institution to King's College, C ...

and

Christ Church, Oxford Christ Church ( la, Ædes Christi, the temple or house, '' ædēs'', of Christ, and thus sometimes known as "The House") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, the college is uniqu ...

. He inherited his father's titles in 1932 and joined the

Green Howards The Green Howards (Alexandra, Princess of Wales's Own Yorkshire Regiment), frequently known as the Yorkshire Regiment until the 1920s, was a line infantry regiment of the British Army, in the King's Division. Raised in 1688, it served under vario ...

as a Lieutenant in 1939. In 1940, Lord Normanby was captured at the

Battle of Dunkirk The Battle of Dunkirk (french: Bataille de Dunkerque, link=no) was fought around the French port of Dunkirk (Dunkerque) during the Second World War, between the Allies and Nazi Germany. As the Allies were losing the Battle of France on t ...

and was a

prisoner of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of wa ...

at Obermassfeldt in Thuringia until 1943. During his captivity, he persuaded his captors to allow him to teach

braille Braille (Pronounced: ) is a tactile writing system used by people who are visually impaired, including people who are Blindness, blind, Deafblindness, deafblind or who have low vision. It can be read either on Paper embossing, embossed paper ...

to the blind prisoners, despite not knowing it himself. They constructed their alphabets with glass-headed pins and cardboard. He progressed from this to teach lessons in wider subjects. In recognition of his successful independent efforts, the head of St Dunstan's charity for blinded service personnel, Lord Fraser of Lonsdale, appointed him an honorary member of the charity's teaching staff. Later, when he was repatriated along with his blind students, he joined St Dunstan's council. He was also awarded a military

MBE Mbe may refer to: * Mbé, a town in the Republic of the Congo * Mbe Mountains Community Forest, in Nigeria * Mbe language, a language of Nigeria * Mbe' language, language of Cameroon * ''mbe'', ISO 639 code for the extinct Molala language Molal ...

in recognition of his work in leading the POWs.

Politics

On his release, Lord Normanby was appointed an

and was

Parliamentary Private Secretary A Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) is a Member of Parliament (MP) in the United Kingdom who acts as an unpaid assistant to a minister or shadow minister. They are selected from backbench MPs as the 'eyes and ears' of the minister in the H ...

to the

Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs The position of Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs was a British cabinet-level position created in 1925 responsible for British relations with the Dominions – Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Newfoundland, and the Irish Free S ...

, Viscount Cranborne, from 1944 to 1945. He briefly served in the same post for the

Lord President of the Council The lord president of the Council is the presiding officer of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom and the fourth of the Great Officers of State (United Kingdom), Great Officers of State, ranking below the Lord High Treasurer but above the ...

Lord Woolton Frederick James Marquis, 1st Earl of Woolton, (23 August 1883 – 14 December 1964) was an English businessman and politician who served as chairman of the Conservative Party from 1946 to 1955. In April 1940, he was appointed Minister of Food ...

, in 1945. That year, Lord Normanby was also appointed a Lord-in-waiting, but the appointment was brief due to his

crossing the floor In parliamentary systems, politicians are said to cross the floor if they formally change their political affiliation to a different political party than which they were initially elected under (as is the case in Canada and the United Kingdom). ...

, becoming the only

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

marquess A marquess (; french: marquis ), es, marqués, pt, marquês. is a nobleman of high hereditary rank in various European peerages and in those of some of their former colonies. The German language equivalent is Markgraf (margrave). A woman wi ...

(he later left the Labour Party also and became a

crossbencher A crossbencher is an independent or minor party member of some legislatures, such as the British House of Lords and the Parliament of Australia. They take their name from the crossbenches, between and perpendicular to the government and oppositi ...

Family

On 10 February 1951, Lord Normanby married The Hon. Grania Maeve Rosaura Guinness (1920–2018), a daughter of The 1st Baron Moyne, an

Anglo-Irish Anglo-Irish people () denotes an ethnic, social and religious grouping who are mostly the descendants and successors of the English Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland. They mostly belong to the Anglican Church of Ireland, which was the establis ...

peer. They had seven children: *Lady Lepel Sophia (b. 1952) * Constantine Edmund Walter, styled Earl of Mulgrave, later 5th Marquess of Normanby (b. 1954) *Lady Evelyn Rose (1955–2018; married novelist

James Buchan James Buchan (born 11 June 1954) is a Scottish novelist and historian. Biography Buchan is a son of the late William Buchan, 3rd Baron Tweedsmuir, and grandson of John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir, the Scottish novelist and diplomat. He has se ...

in 1986) *Lord Justin (b. 1958) *Lady Peronel Katharine (b. 1959) *Lady Henrietta Laura (b. 1962) *Lady Anne Elizabeth Grania (b. 1965) Lady Normanby managed the Phipps family estate at Mulgrave as well as Bailiffscourt Estate in Sussex, inherited from her father. She also owned Warter Priory. Lady Normanby set up the

Captain James Cook James Cook (7 November 1728 Old Style date: 27 October – 14 February 1779) was a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the British Royal Navy, famous for his three voyages between 1768 and 1779 in the Pacific Ocean and ...

museum in

Whitby Whitby is a seaside town, port and civil parish in the Scarborough borough of North Yorkshire, England. Situated on the east coast of Yorkshire at the mouth of the River Esk, Whitby has a maritime, mineral and tourist heritage. Its East Clif ...

and served as a magistrate on the local bench.

Later years

Lord Normanby was Chairman of

King's College Hospital King's College Hospital is a major teaching hospital and major trauma centre in Denmark Hill, Camberwell in the London Borough of Lambeth, referred to locally and by staff simply as "King's" or abbreviated internally to "KCH". It is managed b ...

from 1948 (for which he was promoted to a CBE in 1974) until his death. As well as being a member of St Dunstan's council, he was also Chairman of the

National Library for the Blind The National Library for the Blind (NLB) was a public library in the United Kingdom, founded 1882, which aimed to ensure that people with sight problems have the same access to library services as sighted people. NLB was taken over by the Royal Na ...

from 1946 until his death and its President from 1977 to 1988. In 1985, he was made a

Knight of the Garter The Most Noble Order of the Garter is an order of chivalry founded by Edward III of England in 1348. It is the most senior order of knighthood in the British honours system, outranked in precedence only by the Victoria Cross and the George ...

. He died in 1994 and his titles passed to his eldest son. Lord Normanby is buried in the churchyard of the

Church of St Oswald, Lythe The Church of St Oswald, Lythe, is the parish church for the village of Lythe, west, north west of Whitby in North Yorkshire, England. The church is at the top of Lythe Bank (the western end) and is just east of the village on the A174 road. A ...

Notes

References

Burke's Peerage & Gentry, 107th edition

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Normanby, Oswald Phipps, 4th Marquess 1912 births 1994 deaths Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford British Army personnel of World War II Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Conservative Party (UK) Baronesses- and Lords-in-Waiting Green Howards officers Knights of the Garter Knights of the Order of St John Labour Party (UK) hereditary peers Lord-Lieutenants of North Yorkshire Lord-Lieutenants of the North Riding of Yorkshire 4 Ministers in the Churchill wartime government, 1940–1945 People educated at Eton College

Oswald Oswald may refer to: People *Oswald (given name), including a list of people with the name *Oswald (surname), including a list of people with the name Fictional characters *Oswald the Reeve, who tells a tale in Geoffrey Chaucer's ''The Canterbur ...

World War II prisoners of war held by Germany Ministers in the Churchill caretaker government, 1945