John Charles Harding, 2nd Baron Harding of Petherton (12 February 1928 – 6 June 2016), was a

British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...

officer and

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 ...

. Harding was educated at

Marlborough College Marlborough College is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school (English private boarding school) for pupils aged 13 to 18 in Marlborough, Wiltshire, England. It was founded as Marlborough School in 1843 by the Dean of Manchester, George ...

and

Worcester College, Oxford Worcester College ( ) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. The college was founded in 1714 by the benefaction of Sir Thomas Cookes, 2nd Baronet (1648–1701) of Norgrove, Worcestershire, whose coat of arms was ad ...

(MA). He was commissioned into the

and served with the

11th Hussars The 11th Hussars (Prince Albert's Own) was a cavalry regiment of the British Army established in 1715. It saw service for three centuries including the First World War and Second World War but then amalgamated with the 10th Royal Hussars (Pri ...

, reaching the rank of

major Major most commonly refers to: * Major (rank), a military rank * Academic major, an academic discipline to which an undergraduate student formally commits * People named Major, including given names, surnames, nicknames * Major and minor in musi ...

. He succeeded his father

John Harding, 1st Baron Harding of Petherton Field Marshal Allan Francis Harding, 1st Baron Harding of Petherton, (10 February 1896 – 20 January 1989), known as John Harding, was a senior British Army officer who fought in both the First World War and the Second World War, served in the ...

, to the title of Baron Harding of Petherton in 1989. By his wife, Harriet Hare (daughter of Major General Francis Hare), whom he married in 1966, he had two sons and one daughter. She died on 4 December 2012. Their daughter, Dido Harding, Baroness Harding of Winscombe, is married to Conservative MP

John Penrose John David Penrose (born 22 June 1964) is a British politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Weston-super-Mare from 2005 until 2024. A member of the Conservative Party, he was the United Kingdom Anti-Corruption Champion at th ...

. Harding died in June 2016 at the age of 88, and was succeeded in the barony by his eldest son, William.

Arms

Notes

References

Harding of Petherton
''

Burke's Peerage Burke's Peerage Limited is a British genealogical publisher, considered an authority on the order of precedence of noble families and information on the lesser nobility of the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1826, when the Anglo-Irish genea ...

External links

* 1928 births 2016 deaths 20th-century British Army personnel People educated at Marlborough College Alumni of Worcester College, Oxford 2 11th Hussars officers Family of John Harding, 1st Baron Harding of Petherton Harding of Petherton {{UK-baron-stub