Ian David Patrick Macpherson, 3rd Baron Strathcarron (born 31 March 1949), is a British

hereditary peer The hereditary peers form part of the peerage in the United Kingdom. As of April 2025, there are 800 hereditary peers: 30 dukes (including six royal dukes), 34 marquesses, 189 earls, 108 viscounts, and 439 barons (not counting subsidiary ...

and member of

House of Lords The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...

. He is also the baronet Sir Ian David Patrick Macpherson of Drumalban. He inherited the titles on the death of his father David Macpherson, 2nd Baron Strathcarron, on 31 August 2006.

Education

Lord Strathcarron's early education was at Hill House School, before attending Horris Hill and then

Eton College Eton College ( ) is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school providing boarding school, boarding education for boys aged 13–18, in the small town of Eton, Berkshire, Eton, in Berkshire, in the United Kingdom. It has educated Prime Mini ...

; after Eton, he went to

Grenoble University The (, ''Grenoble Alps University'', abbr. UGA) is a ''grand établissement'' in Grenoble, France. Founded in 1339, it is the third largest university in France with about 60,000 students and over 3,000 researchers. Established as the Univer ...

Personal life

Lord Strathcarron married the former Gillian Rosamund Allison (born 15 September 1946) in 1974 and they have two children, the Honourable Sophie Ananda Macpherson (born 14 April 1978) and the Honourable Rory David Alisdair Macpherson (born: 15 April 1982).

Career

Lord Strathcarron spent ten years in the

Orient The Orient is a term referring to the East in relation to Europe, traditionally comprising anything belonging to the Eastern world. It is the antonym of the term ''Occident'', which refers to the Western world. In English, it is largely a meto ...

working for

Time-Life Time Life, Inc. (also habitually represented with a hyphen as Time-Life, Inc., even by the company itself) was an American multi-media conglomerate company formerly known as a prolific production/publishing company and Direct marketing, direct ...

as a freelance journalist and copywriter. In 1970, he founded the Japan Europa Press Agency in Tokyo and sold it in 1995. He became a partner in Strathcarron & Company in 1974, and a founder and Director of Global Alliance Automotive Ltd, a transnational version of Strathcarron & Company in 1993. In 1995, he founded

Strathcarron Sports Cars plc Strathcarron Sports Cars plc was a British car manufacturer based in Hove, East Sussex, in business from 1998 until 2001. Company overview Strathcarron produced two models while in business between 1999 and 2002, the Strathcarron SC-5A, and the ...

,Strathcarron SC-5A – Car News
at Car and Driver manufacturers of sports/racing cars and since 2006 he has been a trustee and director of the National Motor Museum in

Beaulieu, Hampshire Beaulieu ( ) is a village located on the southeastern edge of the New Forest in Hampshire, England. It is home to both Beaulieu Palace House, Palace House and the National Motor Museum, Beaulieu, National Motor Museum. In 2020, it was named ...

. He is chairman and commissioning editor of Unicorn Publishing House Ltd, a visual arts, cultural history and digital publishing and media distribution company. In 2018, he founded the transmedia production company Affable Media Ltd. In

February 2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

, he was elected to replace

Viscount Ridley Viscount Ridley is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1900 for the Conservative politician Sir Matthew White Ridley, 5th Baronet, Home Secretary from 1895 to 1900. He was made Baron Wensleydale, of Blagdon and Bly ...

in the House of Lords following Ridley's retirement in December 2021. He took the oath on 21 February 2022.

Media works

Lord Strathcarron is a student of Advaita Vedanta and has written of his experiences in non-duality in the books ''Living with Life'' and ''Mysticism and Bliss.'' He is also the author of two spy thriller novels for Troubador: ''Invisibility'', and ''Black Beach''. In 2009, he recreated

Lord Byron George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824) was an English poet. He is one of the major figures of the Romantic movement, and is regarded as being among the greatest poets of the United Kingdom. Among his best-kno ...

's 1809–1811 Grand Tour of the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

for the book ''Joy Unconfined! Lord Byron's Grand Tour Re-Toured'' published by

Signal Books Signal Books is a British book publisher. Signal is based in Oxford, England. It specialises in biography, current affairs, history, philosophy, religion, and travel Travel is the movement of people between distant geographical Locati ...

, an imprint of Christopher Hurst. In 2010, he completed the first part of a

Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, and essayist. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has produced," with William Fau ...

travel trilogy based on Twain's 1867 tour of the

Holy Land The term "Holy Land" is used to collectively denote areas of the Southern Levant that hold great significance in the Abrahamic religions, primarily because of their association with people and events featured in the Bible. It is traditionall ...

, resulting in the book ''Innocence & War: Mark Twain's Holy Land Revisited'' published in 2012 in the US by

Dover Publications Dover Publications, also known as Dover Books, is an American book publisher founded in 1941 by Hayward and Blanche Cirker. It primarily reissues books that are out of print from their original publishers. These are often, but not always, book ...

and in the UK by

. The second part of the trilogy, recreating

's 1896 lecture tour of

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

for the book ''The Indian Equator; Mark Twain's India Revisited'' published in 2014 in the US by Dover Publications and in the UK by

. The final part of the trilogy, ''Heart of Lightness, Mark Twain's Mississippi Revisited'', will be about

's final steamboat journey up the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the main stem, primary river of the largest drainage basin in the United States. It is the second-longest river in the United States, behind only the Missouri River, Missouri. From its traditional source of Lake Ita ...

from

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

Hannibal, Missouri Hannibal is a city along the Mississippi River in Marion County, Missouri, Marion and Ralls County, Missouri, Ralls counties in the U.S. state of Missouri. According to the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. Census, the population was 17,108, ...

and his subsequent short career in the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

. In 2016, Unicorn Press published his biography of

Sir Francis Chichester Sir Francis Charles Chichester KBE (17 September 1901 – 26 August 1972) was a British businessman, pioneering aviator and solo sailor. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for becoming the first person to sail single-handed around the world ...

, ''Never Fear: Reliving the Life of Sir Francis Chichester''. In 2017, Unicorn Press published his art book about the painter Sophie Walbeoffe, ''Painting with Both Hands''. In 2018, Affable Media published his fictional biography, ''Crikey! How Did That Happen? The Refreshingly Unauthorised Biography of Sir Bertram Wooster, KG.'' In 2019, Affable Media produced his video, ''Confessions of a Publisher: It Doesn't Have To Be Like This, But Somehow It Just Is.'' In 2020, Unicorn published his spiritual abstract art book ''Truth and Beauty: The Art of Sophie Chang.'' In 2021, Affable Media published his historical fiction title ''A Case of Royal Blackmail by Sherlock Holmes''. In 2022, he wrote and produced the short film ''Undead and Alive'', a zombie/witch romcom. In 2023, Affable Media published his satirical play ''Nigel Molesworth’s Cynical Tendency''. In 2024, Affable Media published his children's book ''Pepper and Poncho: Adventures on the African Plains'', written in conjunction with the artist Sophie Walbeoffe.

Interests and hobbies

An ex- Yachtmaster Instructor, Lord Strathcarron is an Honorary Life Member of the

Royal Bombay Yacht Club The Royal Bombay Yacht Club (RBYC) is one of the premier gentlemen's clubs which was founded in 1846 in Colaba (formerly Wellington Pier (Bombay), Wellington Pier), an area of Mumbai in India. The building was designed by John Adams, who also d ...

, a member of the Royal Cruising Club and the

Royal Yacht Squadron The Royal Yacht Squadron (RYS) is a British yacht club. Its clubhouse is Cowes Castle on the Isle of Wight in the United Kingdom. Member yachts are given the suffix RYS to their names, and are permitted (with the appropriate warrant) to we ...

(see List of Royal Yacht Squadron members), and Commodore of the House of Lords Yacht Club. In 2012, he qualified as a civil and commercial mediator with the Civil Mediation Council. In 2013, he qualified as a

Restorative Justice Restorative justice is a community-based approach to justice that aims to repair the harm done to victims, offenders and communities. In doing so, restorative justice practitioners work to ensure that offenders take responsibility for their ac ...

practitioner, registered with the Restorative Justice Council. He is also the vice-chair and a trustee of The Society of Mediators.

Arms

References

External links

Ian StrathcarronHereditary Peerage AssociationGrenoble University
,
Strathcarron & Company

Global Alliance Automotive Ltd

Sophie Macpherson Ltd

Charity CommissionTroubador PublishingSchool of Economic ScienceRory Macpherson StudioCivil Mediation Council
{{DEFAULTSORT:Strathcarron, Ian Macpherson, 3rd Baron 1949 births Living people People educated at Hill House School Journalists from London People educated at Eton College Barons in the Peerage of the United Kingdom Conservative Party (UK) hereditary peers Hereditary peers elected under the House of Lords Act 1999