Lord Nicholas Gordon-Lennox

Lord Nicholas Charles Gordon-Lennox KCMG KCVO (31 January 1931 – 11 October 2004), the younger son of the 9th Duke of Richmond and his wife, Elizabeth, was a British diplomat, serving as Her Majesty's Ambassador to Spain from 1984-89.

Lord Nicholas Gordon-Lennox KCMG KCVO
Her Majesty's Ambassador to Spain
In office 1984–1989
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Prime Minister	Margaret Thatcher
Preceded by	Sir Richard Parsons
Succeeded by	Sir Robin Fearn
Governor of the BBC
In office 1990–1998
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Personal details
Born	Nicholas Charles Gordon-Lennox 31 January 1931
Died	11 October 2004 (aged 73)
Nationality	British
Children	4
Parents	Frederick, 9th Duke of Richmond
Occupation	Diplomat

Background and early life

Born on 31 January 1931, Gordon-Lennox was the son of 9th Duke of Richmond. He was raised at the family home of Goodwood House before being sent with his elder brother, Charles, to the United States at the outbreak of World War II. He returned to England in 1944 to join Eton and later won a scholarship to read History at Worcester College, Oxford.

Career

After graduation and National Service with the King's Royal Rifle Corps, he joined HM Foreign Service in 1954 and became Private Secretary to the British Ambassador to the United States, Sir Harold Caccia, in 1957, for which he was awarded the LVO. He transferred to Chile in 1961 as Second, then First Secretary at Santiago.

In 1963, he returned to England again to become Private Secretary to Caccia again, in the latter's post as Parliamentary Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office, before moving to Madrid as Head of the Chancery in 1966.

After a brief secondment at the Cabinet Office from 1971–73, he became Head of the News Department at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and then Head of the North American Department in 1974, before becoming a Counsellor at Paris in 1975 and was awarded the CMG in 1978.

In 1979 he became Assistant Under-Secretary at the Foreign Commonwealth Office and his final diplomatic post was as British Ambassador to Spain from 1984–89. Gordon-Lennox was then a Governor of the BBC from 1990 and retired in 1998.

Personal life

He married Mary Williamson, daughter of Brigadier Hudleston Noel Hedworth Williamson, on 14 January 1958.[1] They had four children and eleven grandchildren:[1][2]

• Sarah Caroline Gordon-Lennox (20 Jan 1960); married Dominic Caldecott in 1988. They have three sons and one daughter.
• Henrietta Mary Gordon-Lennox (8 Jan 1962); married Michael Lindsell in 1992. They have three children, two sons and a daughter.
• Lucy Elizabeth Gordon-Lennox (28 Dec 1965); married Mark Cornell on 7 December 1996. They have four children, two sons and two daughters.
• Anthony Charles Gordon-Lennox (26 April 1969 – 7 October 2017).

He died on 11 October 2004, aged 73.

Honours

Gordon-Lennox was awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of Isabella the Catholic in 1986, for his role as Ambassador from the United Kingdom to Spain. He was promoted to KCMG in 1986 and then KCVO in 1989.

	Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG)	1986
	Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG)	1978
	Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (KCVO)	1989
	Lieutenant of the Royal Victorian Order (LVO)	1957
	Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Isabella the Catholic (Spain)	1986

Posts and offices

References

1. Lundy, Darryl (10 October 2017). "Lord Sir Nicholas Charles Gordon-Lennox". The Peerage. cites Mosley, Charles, ed. (2003), Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 3 (107th (3 volumes) ed.), Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, p. 3337.
2. The Peerage, entry for Lord Sir Nicholas Charles Gordon-Lennox

Sources

• Profile, burkes-peerage.net
• Obituary, telegraph.co.uk