Lt Col (Weetman) John Churchill Pearson, 3rd Viscount Cowdray (27 February 1910 - 19 January 1995) was a British peer, businessman and

polo Polo is a stick and ball game that is played on horseback as a traditional field sport. It is one of the world's oldest known team sports, having been adopted in the Western world from the game of Chovgan (), which originated in ancient ...

player.

Early life

Weetman John Churchill Pearson and his twin sister, Angela was born on 27 February 1910 in Whitehall.George Nugent
Obituaries: Viscount Cowdray
''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'', 21 January 1995 They had four sisters. His father was

Harold Pearson, 2nd Viscount Cowdray Weetman Harold Miller Pearson, 2nd Viscount Cowdray, (18 April 1882 – 5 October 1933), styled The Honourable Harold Pearson between 1910 and 1927, was a British peer and Liberal Party (UK), Liberal Party politician. Background Cowdray was th ...

. His paternal grandfather was

Weetman Pearson, 1st Viscount Cowdray Weetman Dickinson Pearson, 1st Viscount Cowdray, (15 July 1856 – 1 May 1927), known as Sir Weetman Pearson, Bt between 1894 and 1910, and as Lord Cowdray between 1910 and 1917, was an English engineer, oil industrialist, Benefactor (law), be ...

. His mother was Agnes Beryl Spencer-Churchill. His maternal great-grandfather was

George Spencer-Churchill, 6th Duke of Marlborough George Spencer-Churchill, 6th Duke of Marlborough (né Spencer; 27 December 1793 – 1 July 1857), styled Earl of Sunderland until 1817 and Marquess of Blandford between 1817 and 1840, was a British nobleman, politician, and peer. The great-gra ...

. He attended

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 ...

and graduated from

Christ Church, Oxford Christ Church (, the temple or house, ''wikt:aedes, ædes'', of Christ, and thus sometimes known as "The House") is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1546 by Henry V ...

. He resided in

Cowdray Park Cowdray Park refers to * Cowdray Park, Gauteng, a suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa *Cowdray Park, West Sussex The park lies near Easebourne, West Sussex, in the South Downs National Park. The estate belongs to Viscount Cowdray, whose famil ...

Midhurst Midhurst () is a market town and civil parish in the Chichester District in West Sussex, England. It lies on the River Rother (Western), River Rother, inland from the English Channel and north of Chichester. The name Midhurst was first reco ...

, West Sussex.

Career

Military career

Pearson fought in the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, and his left arm was amputated as a result. He received the

Territorial Decoration __NOTOC__ The Territorial Decoration (TD) was a military medal of the United Kingdom awarded for long service in the Territorial Force and its successor, the Army Reserve (United Kingdom), Territorial Army. This award superseded the Volunteer O ...

for his service. He attained the rank of lieutenant-colonel from 1940 to 1941 in the

British Home Guard The Home Guard (initially Local Defence Volunteers or LDV) was an unpaid armed citizen militia supporting the 'Home Forces' of the British Army during the Second World War. Operational from 1940 to 1944, the Home Guard comprised more than 1.5 ...

. He served as parliamentary private secretary to the

Under-Secretary of State for Air The Under-Secretary of State for Air was a junior ministerial post in the United Kingdom Government, supporting the Secretary of State for Air in his role of managing the Royal Air Force. It was established on 10 January 1919, replacing the previou ...

, Harold Balfour, 1st Baron Balfour of Inchrye, from 1941 to 1942.

Deputy lord lieutenant

He served as deputy lieutenant) of

Sussex Sussex (Help:IPA/English, /ˈsʌsɪks/; from the Old English ''Sūþseaxe''; lit. 'South Saxons'; 'Sussex') is an area within South East England that was historically a kingdom of Sussex, kingdom and, later, a Historic counties of England, ...

in 1945, during the tenure of

Charles Wyndham, 3rd Baron Leconfield Charles Henry Wyndham, 3rd Baron Leconfield (17 February 1872 – 16 April 1952), was a British peer, army officer and political figure. He succeeded his father as third Baron Leconfield in 1901. Early life and education Wyndham was born at th ...

as the Lord Lieutenant of Sussex, which spanned 1917 to 1949.

Business career

He served as chairman of S. Pearson & Son Ltd from 1954 to 1977, and as president of Pearson PLC from 1983 to 1995.

Polo

When he went up to Oxford he played for four years with the Oxford polo team. In 1932 he captained the Oxford team which won the Tyro Cup, then still a Hurlingham tournament (now at Cowdray). He was the main driving force for the revival of polo in England after the

.Horace A. Laffaye, ''Polo in Britain: A History'', Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2012, p. 55 He played polo despite having lost his arm at Dunkirk. He had an artificial limb fitted so he could continue to play. In 1948 or 1949, he played with the English team in the Argentinian Open. In 1951 he revived the Coronation Cup and in 1956 he launched his own major trophy, the Cowdray Park Gold Cup, which remains to this day the main trophy for British Open Polo. He served as steward and chairman of the

Hurlingham Polo Association The Hurlingham Polo Association (HPA) is the governing body for polo in the United Kingdom, Ireland, the United Arab Emirates and a number of other countries. The Federation of International Polo produces the International Rules of Polo through ...

from 1947 to 1967.

Marriages and children

Cowdray married Lady Anne Bridgeman, a daughter of

Orlando Bridgeman, 5th Earl of Bradford Lieutenant-Colonel Orlando Bridgeman, 5th Earl of Bradford, DL, JP (6 October 1873 – 21 March 1957), styled Viscount Newport from 1898 to 1915, was a British peer, Conservative politician and soldier. Background Bridgeman was the oldest ...

, on 19 July 1939. They had three children: *

Hon Hon or HON may refer to: People Given name * Cho Hŏn (1544–1592), Joseon militia leader * Ho Hon (1885–1951), North Korean politician Surname * Han (surname) (Chinese: 韩/韓), also romanized Hon * Louis Hon (1924–2008), French fo ...

Mary Teresa Pearson (born 3 June 1940) * Hon Liza Jane Pearson (born 30 March 1942) * Michael Orlando Weetman Pearson, 4th Viscount Cowdray (born 17 June 1944) Viscount and Viscountess Cowdray divorced in 1950 and on 4 March 1953 Cowdray married Elizabeth Mather-Jackson, daughter of Sir Anthony Mather-Jackson, 6th Baronet. They also had three children: * Hon Lucy Pearson (born 11 April 1954) * Hon Charles Anthony Pearson (born 5 March 1956) * Hon Rosanna Pearson (born 1 July 1959) Cowdray died on 19 January 1995, at the age of eighty-four. Viscountess Cowdray died on 23 September 2011.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cowdray, Weetman Pearson, 3rd Viscount 1910 births 1995 deaths People from Midhurst People educated at Eton College Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford

John John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second E ...

British royalty and nobility with disabilities 3rd English polo players English amputees Sportspeople from West Sussex 20th-century English businesspeople