Robert Horatio Walpole, 10th Baron Walpole of Walpole, 8th Baron Walpole of Wolterton (8 December 1938 – 8 May 2021), was a British politician who, as an excepted hereditary peer, was a member of the

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 ...

until his retirement in 2017.

Ancestors

Walpole was descended from

Horatio Walpole, 1st Baron Walpole Horatio Walpole, 1st Baron Walpole, (8 December 16785 February 1757) was an English diplomat, politician and peer who served as the British ambassador to France from 1724 to 1730. He was the son of Robert Walpole and the younger brother of ...

(of Wolterton), a younger brother of Sir

Robert Walpole Robert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford (; 26 August 1676 – 18 March 1745), known between 1725 and 1742 as Sir Robert Walpole, was a British Whigs (British political party), Whig statesman who is generally regarded as the ''de facto'' first Prim ...

, the first

British Prime Minister The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet, and selects its ministers. Modern pri ...

. He was the 10th and 8th

Baron Walpole Baron Walpole of Walpole in the County of Norfolk is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain. Since 1797 holders also hold the title of Baron Walpole of Wolterton. Past holders have also held the titles Baron Walpole of Houghton in the County ...

(of two different creations). His ancestors include Sir Robert's father, Colonel

(1650–1700).

Education and local government career

He was educated at Eton and

King's College, Cambridge King's College, formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, is a List of colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college lies beside the River Cam and faces ...

, where he received a BA and an MA. He served on

Norfolk County Council Norfolk County Council is the upper-tier Local government in England, local authority for Norfolk, England. Below it there are seven second-tier district councils: Breckland District, Breckland, Broadland, Borough of Great Yarmouth, Great Yarmo ...

for eleven years from 1970 to 1981.

House of Lords career

He entered the House on the death of his father in 1989. He was a

crossbencher A crossbencher is a minor party or independent member of some legislatures, such as the Parliament of Australia. In the British House of Lords the term refers to members of the parliamentary group of non-political peers. They take their name fr ...

and was internally elected to continue serving after 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 ...

prevented most hereditary peers from sitting. He retired from Parliament on 13 June 2017.

Family

Walpole and his first wife

Judith The Book of Judith is a deuterocanonical book included in the Septuagint and the Catholic Church, Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christianity, Christian Old Testament of the Bible but Development of the Hebrew Bible canon, excluded from the ...

(''née'' Schofield, later Chaplin) had four children, including Jonathan Robert Hugh Walpole (his heir, born 16 November 1967) and the diplomat Alice Walpole. The couple divorced in 1979. In 1980, Walpole married Laurel Celia Ball, with whom he had three further children.

Wealth and estates

His father's net estate at his death in February 1989 was sworn as £2,065,295 (). In April 2016 he sold

Wolterton Hall Wolterton Hall, is a large country house in the ecclesiastical parish of Wickmere with Wolterton and the civil parish of Wickmere in the county of Norfolk, England, United Kingdom. The present hall was commissioned by Horatio Walpole, 1st Baron ...

, the house commissioned by his ancestor the 1st Baron Walpole of Wolterton in 1742, where Walpole and his father had lived. He lived nearby at

Mannington Hall Mannington Hall is a moated medieval country house in the civil parish of Itteringham near the village of the same name and is in the English county of Norfolk within the United Kingdom. The first manor house built on this site was constructed in ...

, a house owned by his family since the 18th century.

Death

Walpole died on 8 May 2021, aged 82. The peerages were inherited by his eldest son, Jonathan Robert Hugh Walpole, who became the 11th Baron Walpole of Walpole and the 9th Baron Walpole of Wolterton.

Notes

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Walpole, Robert Walpole, 10th Baron 1938 births 2021 deaths Barons in the Peerage of Great Britain People educated at Eton College Alumni of King's College, Cambridge

Robert The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of ''Hrōþ, Hruod'' () "fame, glory, honour, prais ...

Crossbench hereditary peers People from Itteringham Hereditary peers elected under the House of Lords Act 1999 Peers retired under the House of Lords Reform Act 2014