William Astor, 4th Viscount Astor

The Right Honourable
The Viscount Astor
Personal details
Born (1951-12-27) 27 December 1951
Spouse(s) Annabel Lucy Veronica Jones
(m. 1976—present)
Relations See Astor family
Children Flora Katherina Astor
William Waldorf Astor IV
James Jacob Astor
Parents William Astor, 3rd Viscount Astor
Sarah Kathleen Elinor Norton
Alma mater Eton College
Occupation politician, businessman

William Waldorf Astor III, 4th Viscount Astor (born 27 December 1951) is a prominent English businessman and politician who sits as a hereditary Lord Temporal in the House of Lords. He is a member of the Astor family known for its prominence in business, society, and politics in both the United States and England in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Biography

William Waldorf III is the son of William Astor, 3rd Viscount Astor (1907—1966) and Sarah Kathleen Elinor Norton (1920—2013). From his father's later marriages, he has three younger half-sisters: Emily (born 1956), Janet (born 1961), and Pauline (born 1964). From his mother's remarriage to Thomas Michael Baring, he has a younger half-brother named Edward Richard Philip Baring (born September 1962).[1] He was educated at Eton College.

Astor was a Lord-in-Waiting (a House of Lords whip) from 1990 to 1993. He was then made a Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department of Social Security. In 1994, he moved to the Department of National Heritage where he served until leaving the government in 1995.[2]

He was a member of the Founding Council of the Rothermere American Institute at the University of Oxford.[3]

Viscount Astor is Deputy Chairman of Silvergate Media Ltd and director of Networkers Plc (since 2007) and trustee of Stanley Spencer Gallery in Cookham.

Marriage and children

Astor married Annabel Lucy Veronica Jones (born 1948), daughter of Timothy Angus Jones and Patricia David Pandora Clifford on 14 January 1976. They have three children:

The heir to the viscountcy is his elder son, Will, who married model Lohralee Stutz, daughter of Serge Alain Stutz and Lerma Villas, at East Hendred, Oxfordshire on 5 September 2009. They have a son William Waldorf Astor V (born 4 May 2012) and a daughter Allegra Annabel Astor (born 14 August 2013).[4]

His wife Annabel's stepfather was his uncle Michael Langhorne Astor.

Viscountess Astor was previously married to Sir Reginald Sheffield, 8th Baronet by whom she is the mother of Samantha Cameron, wife of Prime Minister David Cameron.

Ancestry

Arms

Arms of William Astor, 4th Viscount Astor
Coronet
A Coronet of a Viscount
Crest
From a Mount Vert a Falcon rising proper ensigned by three Mullets Gold
Escutcheon
Or a Falcon resting on a Dexter Hand couped at the wrist proper gauntleted Gules in chief two Fleur-de-lys of the last
Supporters
Dexter: a North American Indian; Sinister: a North American fur trapper; each habited accoutred and holding in the exterior hand a Rifle all proper
Motto
Ad Astra (To the stars)

References

  1. ↑ http://thepeerage.com/p7900.htm#i78996
  2. ↑ thePeerage.com - Person Page 7535
  3. ↑ "Founding Council | The Rothermere American Institute". Rothermere American Institute. Retrieved 2012-11-22.
  4. ↑ "Allegra Annabel Astor Birth Announcement". The Times. 21 August 2013.

External links

Peerage of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
William Waldorf Astor II		 Viscount Astor
1966—present 		Incumbent
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