Nicholas Lowther, 2nd Viscount Ullswater

The Right Honourable The Viscount Ullswater LVO PC
Minister of State for Environment and Countryside
In office 20 July 1994 – 6 July 1995
Prime Minister	John Major
Preceded by	Robert Atkins
Succeeded by	The earl Ferrers
Government Chief Whip in the House of Lords Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms
In office 16 September 1993 – 20 July 1994
Prime Minister	John Major
Preceded by	The Lord Hesketh
Succeeded by	The Lord Strathclyde
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Employment
In office 24 July 1990 – 16 September 1993
Prime Minister	Margaret Thatcher John Major
Preceded by	The Lord Strathclyde
Succeeded by	The Lord Henley
Lord-in-waiting Government Whip
In office 26 July 1989 – 22 July 1990
Prime Minister	Margaret Thatcher
Preceded by	The Lord Henley
Succeeded by	The Lord Reay
Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal
Incumbent
Assumed office 1 April 2003 as an excepted hereditary peer
Preceded by	The Viscount of Oxfuird
In office 24 July 1963 – 11 November 1999 as a hereditary peer
Preceded by	James Lowther, 1st Viscount Ullswater
Succeeded by	Seat Abolished (House of Lords Act 1999)
Personal details
Born	(1942-01-09) 9 January 1942
Political party	Conservative
Alma mater	Trinity College, Cambridge

Nicholas James Christopher Lowther, 2nd Viscount Ullswater LVO PC (born 9 January 1942), succeeded his great-grandfather in the Viscountcy of Ullswater in 1949, sitting in the House of Lords as a Conservative. He is one of very few peers to have succeeded a great-grandfather in a title.

Education

He was educated at Eton College and Trinity College, Cambridge.

Political career

Lord Ullswater was made a Lord-in-waiting (whip) in January 1989 by Margaret Thatcher before becoming Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department of Employment in July 1990. He was retained by John Major in that role until 1993, when he became Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen at Arms (Government Chief Whip in the House of Lords). He remained in this role for a year when he became Minister of State for the Environment in 1994 (as well as a Privy Counsellor) in 1994, but he left the Government in a 1995 reshuffle.

Princess Margaret

In 1998, he became the Private Secretary to Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon and continued in this office until her death in 2002. He was appointed Lieutenant of the Royal Victorian Order in the special Honours List issued by the Queen after Princess Margaret's demise.

Return to politics

As a member of a Royal Household he could not take part in partisan politics and did not seek to remain in the House of Lords when the House of Lords Act 1999 was passed. But after the death of the Viscount of Oxfuird in January 2003, he won the all-house by-election, enabling him to return to the House of Lords.

On 22 May 2006, Lord Ullswater was nominated for the newly created post of Lord Speaker, and in the election held on 28 June 2006 emerged in third place out of nine candidates. His great-grandfather, James Lowther, served as Speaker of the House of Commons 1905–1921.

Titles and Styles and Arms

• 1942: Mr Nicholas Lowther
• 1942–1949: The Hon Nicholas Lowther
• 1949–1994: The Rt Hon The Viscount Ullswater
• 1992–2002: The Rt Hon The Viscount Ullswater PC
• 2002–: The Rt Hon The Viscount Ullswater LVO PC

Arms

Coat of arms of Nicholas Lowther, 2nd Viscount Ullswater

Coronet A Coronet of a Viscount Crest A Dragon passant Argent Escutcheon Or six Annulets three two and one a Crescent for difference Supporters On either side a Horse Argent gorged with a Wreath of Laurel Vert and charged on the shoulder with a Portcullis chained Or Motto Magistratum Indicat Virum (The office shows the man)

Personal life

Lord Ullswater was an amateur jockey in his youth. He has two sons and two daughters:

• Hon. Emma Mary Lowther, (b. 1968)
• Hon. Clare Priscilla Lowther, (b. 1970)
• Hon. Benjamin James Lowther (b. 1975)
• Hon. Edward John Lowther (b. 1981)

References

• Leigh Rayment's Peerage Pages
• "Keele University Political Science Resources". Retrieved 2007-07-07.
• "Lord Speaker election". Archived from the original on 2007-03-18. Retrieved 2007-07-07.