David Hennessy, 3rd Baron Windlesham

Hennessy, an Anglo-Irish peer, was educated at Ampleforth College and Trinity College, Oxford, earning a Master of Arts in Jurisprudence in 1957.[2] He did his National Service with the Grenadier Guards in Tripoli.[2] His father, James Hennessy, 2nd Baron Windlesham, was a Lieutenant General in the Grenadier Guards. They are closely related to the Franco-Irish Cognac Hennessy family.

He was elected to Westminster City Council in 1958 to 1962,[2] unsuccessfully contested Tottenham in 1959, and entered the House of Lords as the 3rd Baron Windlesham upon his father's death in 1962, who died in a helicopter accident at sea, having been a brigadier in the Grenadier Guards. He joined the Government as Minister of State in the Home Office in 1970 to 1972; and from 1972 to 1973, in the Northern Ireland Office, after which he became Lord Privy Seal and Leader of the House of Lords in June 1973 until October 1974.[2] He was appointed a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (CVO) in the 1981 New Year's Honours.[3] On 16 November 1999, he was created Baron Hennessy, of Windlesham in the County of Surrey[4] after the House of Lords Act 1999, so that he could continue sitting in the Lords.

He worked for Associated-Rediffusion and was involved in This Week. He later joined the board of Rediffusion as Chief Programme Executive.[2] His TV career continued as managing director of Grampian (1967–1970) and managing director of the ATV network (1974–1981).[2] He was a director of The Observer from 1981 to 1989.[2]

He returned to Oxford, where he earned a DLitt, and was principal of Brasenose College from 1989 to 2002.[2] He had also been a visiting professor at Princeton University in 1997 and 2002 to 2003.[2]

Baron Windlesham married the fashion journalist and author Prudence Glynn in 1965. She died in 1986; he is survived by a son and a daughter.[2]

• Announcement of his taking the oath under his new title at the House of Lords House of Lords minutes of proceedings, 22 November 1999
• David James George Hennessy, 3rd Baron Windlesham, National Portrait Gallery