Reginald George de Vere Capell, 9th Earl of Essex T.D. (9 October 1906 – 18 May 1981) was a British peer.

Early life

He was the son of Algernon George de Vere Capell, 8th Earl of Essex, and Mary Eveline Stewart Freeman. He had the courtesy title Viscount Malden, and was known as Reggie Malden. He was educated at St Cyprian's School in

Eastbourne Eastbourne () is a town and seaside resort in East Sussex, on the south coast of England, east of Brighton and south of London. Eastbourne is immediately east of Beachy Head, the highest chalk sea cliff in Great Britain and part of the la ...

Eton Eton most commonly refers to Eton College, a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. Eton may also refer to: Places *Eton, Berkshire, a town in Berkshire, England * Eton, Georgia, a town in the United States * Éton, a commune in the Meuse dep ...

and

Magdalene College, Cambridge Magdalene College ( ) is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1428 as a Benedictine hostel, in time coming to be known as Buckingham College, before being refounded in 1542 as the College of St Mary ...

Career

He served in the army during

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 vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and was awarded the T.D. After the war he began farming in

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-ea ...

. He retained his military connections and became Lieutenant-Colonel in 1947 and was commanding officer of the 16th Airborne Division Signals Regiment (Middlesex Yeomanry) ( Territorial Army) in 1948.''Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage,'' volume 1 (2003), p. 1348 He became Honorary Colonel of the 16th (later 40th) Signal Regiment in 1957 and its successor, the 47th (Middlesex Yeomanry) Signal Regiment, in 1962.

House of Lords

Capell inherited the

Earldom of Essex Earl of Essex is a title in the Peerage of England which was first created in the 12th century by King Stephen of England. The title has been recreated eight times from its original inception, beginning with a new first Earl upon each new cre ...

on the death of his father in 1966 and took his seat in the

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...

. In his maiden speech in 1971, he opposed the recommendation of the

Roskill Commission The Roskill Commission (formally the Commission on the Third London Airport) was a UK Government Commission charged with looking into finding a site for a new airport for London. Chaired by High Court judge Eustace Roskill, it sat from 1968 to ...

for the siting of a third London airport at

Cublington Cublington is a village and one of 110 civil parishes within Aylesbury Vale district in Buckinghamshire, England. It is about seven miles (11 km) north of Aylesbury. The village name is Anglo Saxon in origin, and means "Cubbel's estate". ...

. The third airport was eventually provided by the development of

Stansted Airport London Stansted Airport is a tertiary international airport serving London, England, United Kingdom. It is located near Stansted Mountfitchet, Essex, England, northeast of Central London. London Stansted serves over 160 destinations acros ...

Personal life

Capell married, firstly, Mary Reeve Ward, daughter of F. Gibson Ward, on 2 March 1937. They were divorced in 1957. His second wife was Nona Isabel Miller (1906–1997), daughter of David Wilson Miller and widow of Francis Sydney Smythe of Yew tree cottage in November 1957. He had no children by either marriage. In 1967, ''

Debrett's Debrett's () is a British professional coaching company, publisher and authority on etiquette and behaviour, founded in 1769 with the publication of the first edition of ''The New Peerage''. The company takes its name from its founder, John Deb ...

'' had identified Bladen Horace Capell, "a grocery clerk in

Yuba City, California Yuba City (Maidu: ''Yubu'') is a city in Northern California and the county seat of Sutter County, California, United States. The population was 70,117 at the 2020 census. Yuba City is the principal city of the Yuba City Metropolitan Statistical ...

" as the person eligible to become the Earl of Essex, if no other heirs could be identified."News Briefs", ''Chicago Tribune'', 17 May 1967, p3
/ref> On his death in 1981, the title became dormant, but it was revived eight years later by a distant cousin, Robert Capell.

References

External links

*
Reginald George de Vere Capell, 9th Earl of Essex (1906-1981), Army officer
at the

National Portrait Gallery, London The National Portrait Gallery (NPG) is an art gallery in London housing a collection of portraits of historically important and famous British people. It was arguably the first national public gallery dedicated to portraits in the world when it ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Essex, Reginald Capell, 9th Earl of 1906 births 1981 deaths 20th-century British people Alumni of Magdalene College, Cambridge People educated at Eton College People educated at St Cyprian's School Middlesex Yeomanry officers Royal Corps of Signals officers British Army personnel of World War II English cricketers Bedfordshire cricketers

Reginald Reginald is a masculine given name in the English language. Etymology and history The meaning of Reginald is “King". The name is derived from the Latin ''Reginaldus'', which has been influenced by the Latin word ''regina'', meaning "queen". Th ...

Earls of Essex, Reginald