Sarah Rose Troughton (''née'' Colman; born 3 May 1953) is the
Lord Lieutenant of Wiltshire
Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the peerage in the United Kingdom, or are ...
, appointed with effect from February 2012. She is the first woman to hold the position since it was created in the 16th century. A second cousin of
King Charles III, for ten years she was lady-in-waiting to
Katharine, Duchess of Kent. In 2022, she became one of the six women appointed as "Queen's companions" to
Queen Camilla.
Early life and family
Troughton is the eldest of the five children of
Sir Timothy Colman KG, a past
Lord Lieutenant of Norfolk,
[Charles Mosley, ed., ''Burke's Peerage and Baronetage'', 107th edition, vol. 2 (2003), p. 1639][‘COLMAN, Sir Timothy (James Alan)’, in '' Who's Who 2012'' (London: A & C Black, 2012)] and
Lady Mary Cecilia Bowes-Lyon, a granddaughter of
Claude Bowes-Lyon, 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne. Her maternal grandfather was a brother of
Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother
Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon (4 August 1900 – 30 March 2002) was Queen of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 to 6 February 1952 as the wife of King George VI. She was the l ...
, so that she is a first cousin twice removed of the present
Earl of Strathmore
Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne is a title in the Peerage of Scotland and the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was first created as Earl of Kinghorne in the Peerage of Scotland in 1606 for Patrick Lyon. In 1677, the designation of the earldom ...
and a first cousin once removed of
Queen Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. She was queen ...
.
[ Her ancestor ]Jeremiah Colman
Jeremiah Colman (1777–1851) was an English miller who founded Colman's, Colman's Mustard, a business which merged into the conglomerate Reckitt & Colman, and is now owned by Unilever.
Life
He was born in Norfolk in 1777 to Robert Colman (1749- ...
(1777–1851) made a fortune from Colman's mustard, a business which eventually grew into Reckitt & Colman
Reckitt Benckiser Group plc, trading as Reckitt, is a British multinational consumer goods company headquartered in Slough, England. It is a producer of health, hygiene and nutrition products. The company was formed in March 1999 by the merge ...
, of which her father was a director until 1989.[
In 1977 she married Peter Troughton (born 1948), a member of HM Diplomatic Service, and the eldest son of Sir Charles Troughton, chairman of ]W H Smith
WHSmith (also written WH Smith, and known colloquially as Smith's and formerly as W. H. Smith & Son) is a British retailer, headquartered in Swindon, England, which operates a chain of high street, railway station, airport, port, hospital and m ...
. They have a son and two daughters. Her husband was later a director of the Lowland Investment Company PLC 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 ...
, a trustee of the Royal Collection
The Royal Collection of the British royal family is the largest private art collection in the world.
Spread among 13 occupied and historic royal residences in the United Kingdom, the collection is owned by King Charles III and overseen by the ...
and Pro-Chancellor of the University of Bath. He is now a trustee of the Rothschild Foundation and a member of the Salisbury
Salisbury ( ) is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers Avon, Nadder and Bourne. The city is approximately from Southampton and from Bath.
Salisbury is in the southeast of Wil ...
Diocesan Board of Finance.[
]
Public life
From 1990 to 2000, Troughton was lady-in-waiting
A lady-in-waiting or court lady is a female personal assistant at a court, attending on a royal woman or a high-ranking noblewoman. Historically, in Europe, a lady-in-waiting was often a noblewoman but of lower rank than the woman to whom sh ...
to the Duchess of Kent
Duchess of Kent is the principal courtesy title used by the wife of the Duke of Kent. There have been four titles referring to Kent since the 18th century. The current duchess is Katharine, the wife of Prince Edward. He inherited the dukedom o ...
.
Living at Wanborough, near Swindon
Swindon () is a town and unitary authority with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Wiltshire, England. As of the 2021 Census, the population of Swindon was 201,669, making it the largest town in the county. The Swindon un ...
,[ she became a trustee of the Community Foundation for Wiltshire and Swindon, a role in which she still serves, and is also President of Community First/Youth Action Wiltshire.][Morwenna Blake]
Queen appoints new Lord Lieutenant
from ''Salisbury Journal
The ''Salisbury Journal'' is the local newspaper for the Salisbury area of England. Founded in 1729, it was revived by William Collins in 1736, who used it to oppose the government of Sir Robert Walpole. Benjamin Collins took over the publicatio ...
'', 3 December 2011 online at salisburyjournal.co.uk, accessed 7 May 2012 She became a Deputy Lieutenant of Wiltshire in 2006.['']London Gazette
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
'', issue 57993 of 26 May 2006
p. 7299
/ref> In December 2011, with effect from February 2012, she was promoted to the Lord Lieutenancy.[ ]Charles Petty-Fitzmaurice, 9th Marquess of Lansdowne
Charles Maurice Petty-Fitzmaurice, 9th Marquess of Lansdowne, (born 21 February 1941), styled Earl of Shelburne between 1944 and 1999, is a British peer, landowner and army officer. He was a member of various local councils in Wiltshire from 196 ...
, was her Vice-Lord-Lieutenant until 2016, and
William Wyldbore-Smith now has that role.[Lord-Lieutenant of Wiltshire]
wiltshire.gov.uk, accessed 12 September 2022 In 2011, she was chairman of the Chelsea Physic Garden,[ but retired from that role in 2020.][
As Lord Lieutenant, Troughton's public duties include overseeing arrangements for visits to Wiltshire by members of the Royal Family and escorting royal visitors; representing the King at events and presenting awards and medals on his behalf; liaising with the Wiltshire units of the ]Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...
, Army
An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...
and Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...
; leading the local magistracy
A magistrates' court is a lower court where, in several jurisdictions, all criminal proceedings start. Also some civil matters may be dealt with here, such as family proceedings.
Courts
* Magistrates' court (England and Wales)
* Magistrate's Cou ...
as chairman of the Lord Chancellor's Advisory Committee on Justices of the Peace
A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...
; and advising on nominations for national honours.
In January 2013, Troughton was made a Commander of the Order of St John
The Order of St John, short for Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem (french: l'ordre très vénérable de l'Hôpital de Saint-Jean de Jérusalem) and also known as St John International, is a British royal order of c ...
by the Queen, and raised to Dame
''Dame'' is an honorific title and the feminine form of address for the honour of damehood in many Christian chivalric orders, as well as the Orders, decorations, and medals of the United Kingdom, British honours system and those of several oth ...
of the order in 2021.
In 2022, she was one of the first six women appointed as "Queen's companions" (replacing the traditional ladies-in-waiting) to Queen Camilla. A BBC News
BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadca ...
article described Troughton as one of Camilla's longstanding personal friends.
Notes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Troughton, Sarah Rose
1953 births
Living people
Dames of the Order of St John
Deputy Lieutenants of Wiltshire
Lord-Lieutenants of Wiltshire
Colman family
British ladies-in-waiting