Robert Alexander, Baron Alexander of Weedon

The Lord Alexander of Weedon
Born	5 September 1936 Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire [1]
Died	6 November 2005 (aged 69) Lambeth, London [2]
Cause of death	stroke
Occupation	barrister, politician, Chancellor of the University of Exeter
Title	Baron Alexander of Weedon, QC, FRSA, Hon. LLD (Exon)

Robert Scott Alexander, Baron Alexander of Weedon, QC, FRSA (5 September 1936— 6 November 2005) was a British barrister, banker and Conservative politician.

Education

He was educated at Brighton College (of which he was later President) and King's College, Cambridge.

Career at law

He was called to the Bar at the Middle Temple in 1961. An early case of note was his successful defence of Dr Caroline Deys before the General Medical Council in 1972.^[3] Alexander was one of the leading barristers of his generation and served as Chairman of the Bar Council 1985-86. As a barrister he came to greater public fame representing Lord Archer in his libel case against the Daily Star in 1987.

He retired from the Bar in 1989, and served as Chairman of the NatWest bank from 1989-99. He was also a director of other companies, a member of the Government's Panel on Sustainable Development and Chairman of the Royal Shakespeare Company from 2000 until ill-health forced him to retire in 2004. He served the MCC as its president and chairman. He was chancellor of the University of Exeter from 1998-2005. He was also the chair of JUSTICE, the human rights and law reform group, from 1990–2005 and served on the Wakeham Commission's report into the reform of the House of Lords. He was Treasurer of Middle Temple in 2001.

Peerage

When offered a peerage, Alexander requested that he be "of Weedon," a very small village in Buckinghamshire, just north of Aylesbury, where he had lived for some years with his third wife, Marie, at Weedon Lodge. He and his family were hosts to the annual Weedon Jazz evening for several years, used to raise money for the village. Alexander was created a life peer as Baron Alexander of Weedon, of Newcastle-under-Lyme in the County of Staffordshire, on 11 July 1988.^[4] He sat on the Conservative Party benches.

Family

He was married three times and died from a stroke in 2005, aged 69.

References

1. GRO Register of Births: DEC 1936 6b 47 NEWCASTLE L. - Robert S. Alexander, mmn = Trevitt
2. GRO Register of Deaths: NOV 2005 C74 297 LAMBETH - Robert Scott Alexander, DoB: 5 Sep 1936, aged 69
3. The Last English Birth Control Trial, by John Peel, Galton Institute newsletter, Sep 1997
4. The London Gazette: no. 51411. p. 8095. 15 July 1988.