Richard William Brinsley Norton, 8th Baron Grantley (born 30 January 1956), is a retired banker and politician. In early life he worked for 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 ...

, but joined the UK Independence Party (UKIP) when it was founded in 1993. As Richard Grantley, 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 ...

from 1995 to 1999.

Early life

The son of John Norton, 7th Baron Grantley, Norton was born in 1956, and was the maternal grandson of

William Hare, 5th Earl of Listowel William Francis Hare, 5th Earl of Listowel, (28 September 1906 – 12 March 1997), styled Viscount Ennismore between 1924 and 1931, was an Anglo-Irish peer and Labour politician. He was the last Secretary of State for India as well as the last ...

. His ancestral Norton family included Sir Richard Norton, who was

attainted In English criminal law, attainder or attinctura was the metaphorical "stain" or "corruption of blood" which arose from being condemned for a serious capital crime (felony or treason). It entailed losing not only one's life, property and hereditary ...

for his role as one of the leaders of the ill-fated

Rising of the North The Rising of the North of 1569, also called the Revolt of the Northern Earls or Northern Rebellion, was an unsuccessful attempt by Catholic nobles from Northern England to depose Queen Elizabeth I of England and replace her with Mary, Queen of ...

in 1569, and Sir Fletcher Norton who was Speaker of the House of Commons from 1770 to 1780 and was created Baron Grantley of Markenfield in 1782. He was educated at Garden House, Eaton House,

Ampleforth College Ampleforth College is a co-educational independent day and boarding school in the English public school tradition located in the village of Ampleforth, North Yorkshire, England. It opened in 1802 as a boys' school, it is situated in the groun ...

, and

New College, Oxford New College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1379 by William of Wykeham in conjunction with Winchester College as its feeder school, New College is one of the oldest colleges at th ...

, which he entered with an Open Scholarship in Mathematics, but graduated in Law. He was President of the

Oxford Union The Oxford Union Society, commonly referred to simply as the Oxford Union, is a debating society in the city of Oxford England, whose membership is drawn primarily from the University of Oxford. Founded in 1823, it is one of Britain's oldest ...

in 1976.

Career

Norton worked in the

Conservative Research Department The Conservative Research Department (CRD) is part of the central organisation of the Conservative Party in the United Kingdom. It operates alongside other departments of Conservative Campaign Headquarters in Westminster. The CRD has been describ ...

from 1977 to 1981. In 1978 he was seconded to work for the Opposition front bench in the

. During the 1979 general election campaign he worked in

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. S ...

's Private Office. After the election, he became a special adviser for trade and energy and wrote ''The Benefits of Trade'', with an introduction by the then Secretary of State for Trade, Rt. Hon. John Biffen MP. A

councillor A councillor is an elected representative for a local government council in some countries. Canada Due to the control that the provinces have over their municipal governments, terms that councillors serve vary from province to province. Unl ...

of the

Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea is an Inner London borough with royal status. It is the smallest borough in London and the second smallest district in England; it is one of the most densely populated administrative regions in the ...

from 1982 to 1986, he was the

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 ...

parliamentary candidate for the Wentworth constituency at the 1983 general election. He joined the

United Kingdom Independence Party The UK Independence Party (UKIP; ) is a Eurosceptic, right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. The party reached its greatest level of success in the mid-2010s, when it gained two members of Parliament and was the largest pa ...

on its foundation and became one of its early patrons. On 24 June 1995 he succeeded his father, John Norton, 7th Baron Grantley, and thus became UKIP's first representative in Parliament. In 1996 he made his

maiden speech A maiden speech is the first speech given by a newly elected or appointed member of a legislature or parliament. Traditions surrounding maiden speeches vary from country to country. In many Westminster system governments, there is a convention th ...

in the House of Lords in the presence of his maternal grandfather, the Earl of Listowel, a member of the House of Lords since 1931, a feat unlikely ever to be repeated. In 1997 he became leader of UKIP in the House of Lords. He spoke in the House on five occasions. At the time of the

reforms Reform ( lat, reformo) means the improvement or amendment of what is wrong, corrupt, unsatisfactory, etc. The use of the word in this way emerges in the late 18th century and is believed to originate from Christopher Wyvill's Association movement ...

brought about by the

House of Lords Act 1999 The House of Lords Act 1999 (c. 34) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed the House of Lords, one of the chambers of Parliament. The Act was given Royal Assent on 11 November 1999. For centuries, the House of Lords ...

, he did not stand for election as a continuing member, and so left the House in November 1999. He remains a member of UKIP, though he now supports the Brexit Party. In 1981 Grantley became a banker and international project financier at

Morgan Grenfell Morgan, Grenfell & Co. was a leading London-based investment bank regarded as one of the oldest and once most influential British merchant banks. It had its origins in a merchant banking business commenced by George Peabody. Junius Spencer Morgan ...

Deutsche Bank Deutsche Bank AG (), sometimes referred to simply as Deutsche, is a German multinational investment bank and financial services company headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, and dual-listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the New York Sto ...

, and

HSBC HSBC Holdings plc is a British multinational universal bank and financial services holding company. It is the largest bank in Europe by total assets ahead of BNP Paribas, with US$2.953 trillion as of December 2021. In 2021, HSBC had $10.8 tri ...

. He was a director of Morgan Grenfell International Limited and of HSBC Project and Export Finance. He was head of oil and gas project finance at both institutions, and retired in 2005. Grantley is chairman of Milner Street Area Residents' Association in Chelsea. He lives at 8 Halsey Street, Cheslea SW3 2QH. He was a patron of Save Sloane Square, which campaigned to prevent the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea from turning the centre of

Sloane Square Sloane Square is a small hard-landscaped square on the boundaries of the central London districts of Belgravia and Chelsea, located southwest of Charing Cross, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. The area forms a boundary betwe ...

into a crossroads.Our Patrons
at savesloanesquare.co.uk. He also participated in the successful campaign to prevent the developers of the

Chelsea Barracks Chelsea Barracks was a British Army barracks located in the City of Westminster, London, between the districts of Belgravia, Chelsea and Pimlico on Chelsea Bridge Road. The barracks closed in the late 2000s, and the site is currently being red ...

site from demolishing the Garrison Church. He is a patron of the Vaughan Parents Action Group which campaigned to prevent the Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School, one of the outstanding Catholic state schools in London, from being turned into an ordinary local school. Grantley was a Knight of Honour and Devotion of the

Sovereign Military Order of Malta The Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM), officially the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta ( it, Sovrano Militare Ordine Ospedaliero di San Giovanni di Gerusalemme, di Rodi e di Malta; ...

for 38 years and served on the council of its British Association, and as a director of The

Hospital of St John and St Elizabeth The Hospital of St John and St Elizabeth in St John's Wood, London, England, is a Catholic charitable general hospital in north London. History and operations The hospital was founded in 1856 with a Roman Catholic affiliation and is a register ...

. For ten years he was a director of The Order of St John Care Homes Trust. He is a regular worshipper at the

London Oratory The London Oratory ("the Congregation of the Oratory of St Philip Neri in London") is a Catholic community of priests living under the rule of life established by its founder, Philip Neri (1515-1595). It is housed in an Oratory House, next to t ...

and a long-standing devotee of the traditional Latin Mass. Grantley is a keen bridge player. In 1972 he reached the final of the Daily Mail National Schools Bridge Competition; he was a regular member of the House of Lords bridge team in its annual matches against the House of Commons; and he was a member of the Polish Club team which won the Devonshire Cup in 2011 and 2015.

Arms

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grantley, Richard, 8th Baron Living people Alumni of New College, Oxford Conservative Party (UK) parliamentary candidates Conservative Party (UK) councillors Councillors in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea People educated at Ampleforth College Presidents of the Oxford Union 1956 births UK Independence Party hereditary peers British traditionalist Catholics Richard 8 Grantley