Rodney Elton, 2nd Baron Elton

Chapel of Eton College

Rodney Elton, 2nd Baron Elton (born 2 March 1930) is a British politician and Conservative member of the House of Lords.

Biography

Elton is the son of Godfrey Elton, 1st Baron Elton. He was educated at Eton College and New College, Oxford and succeeded to the peerage on his father's death in 1973.

On the formation of a Conservative government after the 1979 general election, Elton was made a Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Northern Ireland Office. In 1981 he was moved to the Department of Health and Social Security and in 1982 to the Home Office. In 1984 he was promoted to Minister of State within the Home Office. In 1985, Elton joined the Department of Environment, again as a Minister of State, but left the government the following year.

With the passage of the House of Lords Act 1999, Elton along with almost all other hereditary peers lost his automatic right to sit in the House of Lords. He was however elected as one of the ninety elected hereditary peers to remain in the House of Lords pending completion of House of Lords reform.

Elton was a candidate to become Lord Speaker in the elections that took place at the end of June 2006, but he was defeated, with Baroness Hayman ultimately winning.

Marriages and children

Elton was married to Anne Frances Tilney, daughter of Robert Tilney, on 18 September 1958. They had four children (all of whom are entitled to the style The Honourable as children of a peer):^[1]

• Annabel Elton (born 24 October 1960)
• Jane Elton (born 15 January 1962)
• Lucy Elton (born 19 December 1963)
• Edward Paget Elton (born 28 May 1966) heir apparent to the barony

Following a divorce in 1979, on 24 August 1979 Elton married Susan Richenda Gurney (born 1937), daughter of Hugh Gurney and a granddaughter of Lancelot Carnegie. There are no children of this marriage.

Susan Elton is a current Lady of the Bedchamber to Elizabeth II.^[2]

Styles

• 2 March 1930 – 16 January 1934: Rodney Elton
• 16 January 1934 – 18 April 1973: The Honourable Rodney Elton
• 18 April 1973 – present: The Right Honourable The Lord Elton

Coat of arms

References

• Ministerial posts
• Leigh Rayment's Peerage Pages – Peerages beginning with "E" (part 1)