Alexander Macmillan, 2nd Earl of Stockton

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The Right Honourable
The Earl of Stockton
Alexander Macmillan, Lord Stockton.jpg
Member of the European Parliament
for South West England
In office
10 July 1999 – 10 July 2004
Preceded byConstituency created
Succeeded byRoger Knapman
Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
In office
29 December 1986 – 11 November 1999
Hereditary Peerage
Preceded byHarold Macmillan
Succeeded byHouse of Lords Act 1999
Personal details
Born
Alexander Daniel Alan Macmillan

(1943-10-10) 10 October 1943 (age 78)
Oswestry, Shropshire, England
Political partyConservative
Spouse(s)
Birgitte Hamilton
​
​
(m. 1970; div. 1991)​
​
​
(m. 1995; div. 2011)​
RelationsMaurice Macmilllan, Viscount Macmillan of Ovenden (father)
Katharine Ormsby-Gore (mother)
ChildrenDaniel Macmillan, Viscount Macmillan of Ovenden
Lady Rebecca Macmillan
Lady Louisa Macmillan

Alexander Daniel Alan Macmillan, 2nd Earl of Stockton (born 10 October 1943) is a Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom.[1][2] He is the eldest son of the Conservative politician Maurice Macmillan and grandson of prime minister Harold Macmillan.

Life[]

Born in Oswestry, Shropshire,[3] Stockton was educated at Eton College, the University of Paris, and at Strathclyde University.[4] He was a member of the European Parliament for South West England from 1999 to 2004. He was one of the hereditary peers to have been excluded from the House of Lords. He inherited his peerage from his grandfather, Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton, who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1957 to 1963, on his death at the end of 1986, as his father was already deceased.[5]

He has been an unsuccessful candidate sixteen times in the by-elections held among hereditary peers for a seat in the House of Lords, as of 2019. Most notably, in 2007 he came third in a contest to replace Lord Mowbray, behind the winner, Lord Cathcart, and Lord Younger of Leckie; in the 2010 by-election to replace Lord Northesk, he came second behind Lord Younger of Leckie; in 2011 he lost to Lord Hanworth in a ballot for the seat of the deceased Lord Strabolgi; and in 2014 he lost out to the Earl of Oxford and Asquith.[6]

At the May 2011 local council elections, Stockton was elected as a Conservative councillor on South Bucks district council.[7] Both his father Maurice Macmillan (1921–1984) and his grandfather preceded him as chairmen of Macmillan Publishers Ltd., the publishing house long owned by the family. Stockton sold it to the German Holtzbrinck group. He ranked 253rd in the Sunday Times 2004 Rich List, with an estimated wealth of £165m.[8]

Stockton renovated Hayne Manor with his current wife in Devon and listed it for sale.[9][10]

On 29 April 2002, Stockton appeared alongside several other relatives of deceased former prime ministers, as well as then-prime minister Tony Blair and the four surviving former prime ministers at the time (Edward Heath, James Callaghan, Margaret Thatcher and John Major), for a dinner at Buckingham Palace which formed part of the celebrations for the Golden Jubilee of Elizabeth II.[11]

Stockton is vice president of the Royal Crescent Society, Bath.

Marriages[]

Arms[]

Coat of arms of Alexander Macmillan, 2nd Earl of Stockton
Coronet
A Coronet of an Earl
Crest
[Upon a Helm with a Wreath Azure and Sable] within Sprigs of Oak fructed Or a dexter Cubit Arm and a sinister Arm embowed both proper the dexter hand gauntleted Or and with the other brandishing a Two Handed Sword proper Hilt Pommel and Quillons Sable
Escutcheon
Argent a Chief Or overall between three Open Books proper edged Or and bound Azure those in chief inscribed respectively in letters Sable "Miseres" and "Discere" and that in base also in letters Sable inscribed "Succo" and as many Mullets Azure a Lion rampant Sable
Supporters
On the dexter side a Lion rampant Gules, and on the sinister side an American Bald Headed Eagle proper, both standing upon a Compartment comprising a crenelated Wall proper in the portal thereof an Anchor Azure and jointed on either side by two Bars wavy Azure to a Grassy Mount growing from that on the dexter a Long Branch and from that on the sinister a Thistle both proper

References[]

  1. ^ "Earl Alexander Macmillan speaks at Royal Hotel dinner". Scarborough Evening News, April 17, 2008
  2. ^ "Mr Alexander Macmillan". millbanksystems.com.
  3. ^ "Index entry". FreeBMD. ONS. Retrieved 10 September 2021.
  4. ^ Burke's Peerage 2003, vol 3, page 3752
  5. ^ "Archived item". Archived from the original on 6 November 2010. Retrieved 18 April 2010.
  6. ^ "Hereditary Peers' By-election" (PDF). www.parliament.uk. 15 September 2014. Retrieved 30 April 2020.
  7. ^ "Election results". South Bucks Council. Archived from the original on 22 July 2011.
  8. ^ "indopedia.org". www.indopedia.org.
  9. ^ "Hunting, shooting and partying", The Sunday Times, 16 July 2006
  10. ^ "Historic renovated house in Devon – Farmers Weekly". 16 August 2006.
  11. ^ "Queen dines with her prime ministers". BBC News. 29 April 2002.
  12. ^ "The elite". The Guardian. 11 April 1999.

Sources[]

External links[]

Peerage of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Earl of Stockton
1986–present 		Incumbent
Heir apparent:
Viscount Macmillan of Ovenden
Orders of precedence in the United Kingdom
Preceded by Orders of precedence in the United Kingdom Succeeded by
Retrieved from ""