Christopher Beaumont, 23rd Seigneur of Sark

Christopher Beaumont (born 4 February 1957) is the present Seigneur of Sark in the Channel Islands. He is a former British Army officer.[1]

Christopher Beaumont
Seigneur of Sark
Incumbent
Assumed office 3 July 2016
Preceded by	Michael Beaumont, 22nd Seigneur of Sark
Personal details
Born	Christopher Beaumont 4 February 1957 Sark
Spouse(s)	Sarah Beaumont (m. 1980)
Children	Sibyl Rees-Beaumont (b. 1994), Hugh Rees-Beaumont (b. 1996)
Parents	Michael Beaumont, 22nd Seigneur of Sark and Diana La Trobe-Bateman
Education	Clifton College
Occupation	Army officer

Biography

Beaumont was educated at Clifton College and the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, before taking up a career as a regular officer of the British Army. He succeeded as Seigneur of Sark on 3 July 2016, on the death of his father Michael Beaumont.[1][2] He then returned to live on the island.[3]

On 5 July 2016, the Sark Newspaper published an article which noted the new Seigneur’s “impressive CV” and commented “Keen observers suggest that he is a man who will not be swayed by past convention. When on Sark he has often been seen to visit cafés and restaurants which are otherwise rigidly boycotted by members and supporters of Sark’s one ruling party. For now, the people of Sark can only wait and hope that their new Seigneur will work to build a secure and prosperous future for each and every Islander.“ The newspaper hoped Beaumont would re-occupy La Seigneurie, the traditional residence of the Seigneur, and appealed for an economic plan to address local unemployment.[4]

In an interview with the BBC on 15 July 2016, Beaumont defended Sark’s feudal structure and the Island's legislature, the Chief Pleas, saying: "There's a perfectly good, working Chief Pleas, and it gets my full support."[5] Constitutional reforms in 2008, which had the approval of his father the 22nd Seigneur, had devolved some of the feudal authority of the Seigneur to the legislature.

In 2009, after ill-health triggered Beaumont's parents to move out of the Seigneurie to a smaller cottage on the estate, they arranged for tenants to live in the Seigneurie for ten years, in return for making renovations.[6]

References

1. "Michael Beaumont: Tributes paid to the Seigneur of Sark". BBC News. 4 July 2016. His son, Maj Christopher Beaumont, has inherited the title from his father and will become the 23rd Seigneur.
2. "New Seigneur to arrive in Sark". ITV News. 5 July 2016. Retrieved 10 July 2016.
3. Buenaventura Hector (12 August 2016). "L'insòlit cas de l'illa de Sark" [The strange case of the island of Sark] (in Catalan). Ara magazine. Retrieved 12 December 2016. I no ens oblidem que Sark és un estat en si mateix, l’últim que queda del ducat de Normandia. Enmig de l’illa hi tenimla Seigneurie, una esplèndida mansió amb uns fastuosos jardins que serveix de residència habitual del senyor (o dama) de Sark i la seva dinastia (des de fa uns mesos, Christopher Beaumont, el vint-i-tresè senyor de Sark). El senyor, juntament amb el senescal i els cheurs pliaids (els terratinents que formen el Parlament) són la màxima autoritat de l’illa.
4. "Who is the man who has inherited the most powerful position in Sark?" (PDF). Sark Newspaper. 5 July 2016. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 August 2016. Retrieved 12 December 2016. An impressive CV of the new Seigneur's career can be found on https://uk.linkedin.com/in/christopher-beaumontb2a5907. A sparsely populated https://www.facebook.com/christopher.beaumont.39 provides a little more information but beyond this there is very little to be found in the public domain on Major Beaumont. Keen observers suggest that he is a man who will not be swayed by past convention.
5. "Seigneur 'disappointed' at criticism of Sark government". BBC News. 15 July 2016. His son has said he is fully supportive of Sark's government, Chief Pleas.
6. Lauren Collins (29 October 2012). "Sark Spring: A feudal feud in the Channel Islands". New Yorker magazine. Retrieved 12 December 2016. One night, Susan and David Synnott, an expatriate couple near their sixties, invited me to dinner at the Seigneurie, where Beaumont has allowed them to live, free of charge for ten years, in exchange for undertaking renovations.