John Peter Michael Scawen Lytton, 5th Earl of Lytton, 18th Baron Wentworth, (born 7 June 1950), styled Viscount Knebworth between 1951 and 1985, is a British chartered surveyor, peer, and member of the

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminste ...

Background and education

Lytton is the son of Noel Lytton, 4th Earl of Lytton and the former Clarissa Mary Palmer. He is a descendant of the poet and adventurer

Lord Byron George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), known simply as Lord Byron, was an English romantic poet and peer. He was one of the leading figures of the Romantic movement, and has been regarded as among the ...

(born 1788) via his daughter Ada Lovelace (born 1815), who was arguably the world's first computer programmer. Her daughter

Anne Anne, alternatively spelled Ann, is a form of the Latin female given name Anna. This in turn is a representation of the Hebrew Hannah, which means 'favour' or 'grace'. Related names include Annie. Anne is sometimes used as a male name in the ...

(born 1837) married the poet

Wilfrid Scawen Blunt Wilfrid Scawen Blunt (17 August 1840 – 10 September 1922), sometimes spelt Wilfred, was an English poet and writer. He and his wife Lady Anne Blunt travelled in the Middle East and were instrumental in preserving the Arabian horse bloodlines ...

; their daughter Judith Blunt-Lytton was Noel's mother and thus John's grandmother. He is in addition a descendant of Edward Bulwer-Lytton. He was educated at

Downside School Downside School is a co-educational Catholic independent boarding and day school in the English public school tradition for pupils aged 11 to 18. It is located between Bath, Frome, Wells and Bruton, and is attached to Downside Abbey. Original ...

and graduated from the

University of Reading The University of Reading is a public university in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as University College, Reading, a University of Oxford extension college. The institution received the power to grant its own degrees in 192 ...

with a

BSc A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University ...

honours degree in Estate Management, in 1972.

Career

After spending thirteen years in the

Inland Revenue The Inland Revenue was, until April 2005, a department of the British Government responsible for the collection of direct taxation, including income tax, national insurance contributions, capital gains tax, inheritance tax, corporation t ...

Valuation Office and some additional years with surveying firms Permutt Brown & Co and Cubitt & West, he set up the practice of John Lytton & Co., Chartered Surveyors, in January, 1988. He succeeded his father in the earldom in 1985. He lost his seat in the

after the passing of 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 ...

. However, on 11 May 2011 he won a hereditary peer by-election and regained his seat there, where he sits as a crossbencher (i.e. not a member of a political party). Lord Lytton has taken his Byronic descent to heart and has contributed to the ''Newstead Byron Society Review''. He has also spoken before the Byron Society on his family history. Furthermore, he now works part-time in the construction industry and is patron to the Chartered Association of Building Engineers.

Family

On 7 June 1980, Lord Lytton was married to Ursula Alexandra Komoly, a daughter of Anton Komoly of

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

. They have three children: * Lady Katrina Mary Noel Lytton (b. 1985) * Philip Anthony Scawen Lytton, Viscount Knebworth (b. 1989) * Hon. Wilfrid Thomas Scawen Lytton (b. 1992). He inherited Newbuildings Place in 1984 from his aunt, Lady Anne Lytton.british-history.ac.uk
/ref> His cousins maintain the family estate,

Knebworth House Knebworth House is an English country house in the parish of Knebworth in Hertfordshire, England. It is a Grade II* listed building. Its gardens are also listed Grade II* on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens. In its surrounding park is t ...

. He is a Deputy Lieutenant for

West Sussex West Sussex is a county in South East England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the shire districts of Adur, Arun, Chichester, Horsham, and Mid Sussex, and the boroughs of Crawley and Worthing. Covering an ...

References

External links

*
The Earl of Lytton
at

UK Parliament The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprema ...

The Official Earl of Lytton Website: The Lytton Family ArchivesThe International Byron Society
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lytton, John Lytton, 5th Earl of 1950 births Living people 20th-century English nobility 21st-century English nobility People educated at Downside School Alumni of the University of Reading *18

105 105 may refer to: *105 (number), the number *AD 105, a year in the 2nd century AD *105 BC, a year in the 2nd century BC * 105 (telephone number) * 105 (MBTA bus) * 105 (Northumberland) Construction Regiment, Royal Engineers, an English military unit ...

Deputy Lieutenants of West Sussex Crossbench hereditary peers Lytton Lytton