William Legge, 10th Earl of Dartmouth (born 23 September 1949), styled Viscount Lewisham from 1962 to 1997, is a British politician and hereditary peer, usually known as William Dartmouth. From 2009 to 2019, Dartmouth sat in the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...

as a

Member of the European Parliament A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the ECSC) first met in 1952, its ...

(MEP) for

South West England South West England, or the South West of England, is one of nine official regions of England. It consists of the counties of Bristol, Cornwall (including the Isles of Scilly), Dorset, Devon, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire. Cities ...

. He was elected for the

UK Independence Party The UK Independence Party (UKIP; ) is a Eurosceptic, right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. The party reached its greatest level of success in the mid-2010s, when it gained two members of Parliament and was the largest par ...

(UKIP) and served as national spokesman on trade from 2010 to 2018. He resigned from UKIP in 2018 due to his dissatisfaction with the way the party was changing.

Early life and education

Dartmouth is the eldest son of the 9th Earl of Dartmouth and Raine McCorquodale, the daughter of romantic novelist Dame Barbara Cartland. He became a stepbrother of

Lady Diana Spencer Diana, Princess of Wales (born Diana Frances Spencer; 1 July 1961 – 31 August 1997) was a member of the British royal family. She was the first wife of King Charles III (then Prince of Wales) and mother of Princes William and Harry. Her ac ...

when in 1976 his mother married secondly Earl Spencer. Dartmouth was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, where he was elected an officer of the

Oxford University Conservative Association The Oxford University Conservative Association (OUCA) is a student Conservative association founded in 1924, whose members are drawn from the University of Oxford. Since October 2009, OUCA has been affiliated to Conservative Future and its su ...

and of the

Oxford Union Society The Oxford Union Society, commonly referred to simply as the Oxford Union, is a debating society in the city of Oxford England, whose membership is drawn primarily from the University of Oxford. Founded in 1823, it is one of Britain's oldest ...

. He graduated BA, later promoted to MA, and proceeded to the Harvard Business School, where he graduated

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

Life and career

Dartmouth qualified as a chartered accountant, which was also the occupation of his father Gerald Legge, 9th Earl of Dartmouth. At the general election of February 1974, as Viscount Lewisham, Dartmouth unsuccessfully contested

Leigh, Lancashire Leigh is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, Greater Manchester, England, on low-lying land northwest of Chat Moss. Within the boundaries of the historic county of Lancashire, Leigh was originally the centre of a large ecclesiastica ...

, for the

Conservatives Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

, and at the election of October 1974 he fought Stockport South for them.'' Burkes Peerage'' volume 1 (2003), p. 1036 In 1975, he became a

Fellow A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

of the Institute of Chartered Accountants. In 1997, he inherited his father’s peerages, and as Earl of Dartmouth sat as a Conservative peer in the

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminste ...

until 1999, when the

first Blair ministry The first Blair ministry lasted from May 1997 to June 2001. After eighteen years in opposition, Labour ousted the Conservatives at the May 1997 election with a 179-seat majority. The Prime Minister, Tony Blair, who turned 44 years old days af ...

’s

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 ...

removed all but 92 hereditary peers from Parliament. In January 2007, Dartmouth announced he was leaving the Conservatives in favour of the

(UKIP), citing concerns about the policies of David Cameron, then Leader of HM Opposition. At the European Parliament election of 2009, Dartmouth was elected as the second UKIP MEP for the

region and re-elected in 2014, when he was the first UKIP MEP on the regional list. In the

he sat with the

Europe of Freedom and Democracy Europe of Freedom and Democracy (EFD) was a Eurosceptic political group in the European Parliament. The group was formed following the 2009 European parliamentary election, mostly composed of elements of the Independence/Democracy (IND/DEM) and ...

group (later the

Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy (EFDD or EFD²) was a Eurosceptic and populist political group in the European Parliament. The EFDD group was a continuation for the Eighth European Parliament of the Europe of Freedom and Democracy (EFD) g ...

) and served on the

Committee on International Trade The Committee on International Trade (INTA) is a committee of the European Parliament. Its current chair, elected on 10 July 2019, is Bernd Lange.Henry Bolton on the previous day, Dartmouth stood down as trade and industry spokesman, placing further pressure on Bolton to resign. In September 2018, Dartmouth resigned from the UK Independence Party, citing concerns about the behaviour of the new Leader,

Gerard Batten Gerard Joseph Batten (born 27 March 1954) is a British politician who served as the Leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) from 2018 to 2019. He was a founding member of the party in 1993, and served as a Member of the European Parliament ( ...

, and complaining that the party was “widely perceived as both homophobic and anti-Islamic”. Dartmouth condemned Batten for leading the party towards the far right and denounced his approval of and support for extreme right-wing groups and “outlandish individuals”. Dartmouth said he would not be joining another political party and would serve the rest of his term in the European Parliament as an

Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

, continuing to represent the South West of England and Gibraltar.MEP Lord Dartmouth quits UKIP saying party is 'widely perceived as both homophobic and anti-Islamic'
Sky News, 26 September 2018.

Family and personal life

In June 2009, Dartmouth married

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

-born former model Fiona Campbell, now styled Lady Dartmouth, whose first husband, Matt Handbury, is a nephew of

Rupert Murdoch Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian-born American business magnate. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of local, national, and international publishing outlets around the world, including ...

. They subsequently divorced. Dartmouth has a son, Gerald Glen Kavanagh-Legge (born 2005), from his previous relationship with the television producer Claire Kavanagh.Gerald Glen G J Kavanagh-Legge
in ''England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1916-2007'', ancestry.co.uk, accessed 1 July 2021: “Name: Gerald Glen G J Kavanagh-Legge / Registration Date: Apr 2005 / District and Subdistrict: 258/1B /Registration District: Westminster / Mother's Maiden Name: Kavanagh / Register Number: B97C / Entry Number: 193”

References

External links

*
pedigree of William Legge, 10th Earl of Dartmouth''Debrett's People of Today''Lord Dartmouth's website
*http://www.ukipmeps.org/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Dartmouth, William Legge, 10th Earl 1949 births Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford Conservative Party (UK) hereditary peers 10 Harvard Business School alumni

William William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...

Living people MEPs for England 2009–2014 MEPs for England 2014–2019 People educated at Eton College UK Independence Party MEPs British Eurosceptics