Viscount Cowdray, of Cowdray in the

County of Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the Englis ...

, is a title in the

Peerage of the United Kingdom The Peerage of the United Kingdom is one of the five Peerages in the United Kingdom. It comprises most peerages created in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland after the Acts of Union in 1801, when it replaced the Peerage of Great ...

. It was created in 1917 for the industrialist Weetman Pearson, 1st Baron Cowdray, head of the Pearson conglomerate. He had already been created a Baronet, of Paddockhurst, in the Parish of Worth, in the County of Sussex, and of Airlie Gardens, in the Parish of

St Mary Abbots St Mary Abbots is a church located on Kensington High Street and the corner of Kensington Church Street in London W8. The present church structure was built in 1872 to the designs of Sir George Gilbert Scott, who combined neo-Gothic and early- ...

, Kensington, in the

County of London The County of London was a county of England from 1889 to 1965, corresponding to the area known today as Inner London. It was created as part of the general introduction of elected county government in England, by way of the Local Governmen ...

, on 26 June 1894, and Baron Cowdray, of

Midhurst Midhurst () is a market town, parish and civil parish in West Sussex, England. It lies on the River Rother inland from the English Channel, and north of the county town of Chichester. The name Midhurst was first recorded in 1186 as ''Middeh ...

in the County of Sussex, in 1910. His son, the second Viscount, sat as a Liberal

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house ...

for Eye. His son, the third Viscount, after serving in

World War II 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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

where he lost an arm, was Chairman of the family firm of

Pearson Plc Pearson plc is a British 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. Spender, J. A., ''Weetman Pearson: F ...

from 1954 to 1977. The titles are held by the latter's son, the fourth Viscount, who succeeded in 1995. The family seat is Cowdray Park, West Sussex, near

, Sussex, which the 4th Viscount put up for sale in 2011 and later proposed converting into apartments.

Viscounts Cowdray (1917)

* Weetman Dickinson Pearson, 1st Viscount Cowdray (1856–1927) * (Weetman) Harold Miller Pearson, 2nd Viscount Cowdray (1882–1933) * Weetman John Churchill Pearson, 3rd Viscount Cowdray (1910–1995) * Michael Orlando Weetman Pearson, 4th Viscount Cowdray (born 1944) The

heir apparent An heir apparent, often shortened to heir, is a person who is first in an order of succession and cannot be displaced from inheriting by the birth of another person; a person who is first in the order of succession but can be displaced by the b ...

is the present holder's son Hon. Peregrine John Dickinson Pearson (born 1994).

References

Attribution

* *Kidd, Charles, Williamson, David (editors). ''Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage'' (1990 edition). New York: St Martin's Press, 1990, *

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cowdray Viscountcies in the Peerage of the United Kingdom Noble titles created in 1917 Noble titles created for UK MPs