Patrick Stopford, 9th Earl of Courtown

James Patrick Montagu Burgoyne Winthrop Stopford, 9th Earl of Courtown (also known as Patrick Courtown;[1] born 19 March 1954), styled Viscount Stopford between 1957 and 1975, is an Irish peer and politician. He is one of the 92 hereditary peers elected to remain in the House of Lords after the House of Lords Act 1999 and sits for the Conservatives.

The Right Honourable The Earl of Courtown
Government Deputy Chief Whip in the House of Lords Captain of the Queen's Bodyguard of the Yeomen of the Guard
Incumbent
Assumed office 13 July 2016
Prime Minister	Theresa May Boris Johnson
Preceded by	The Lord Gardiner of Kimble
Lord-in-waiting Government Whip
In office 8 May 2015 – 13 July 2016
Prime Minister	David Cameron
Preceded by	The Lord Popat of Harrow
Succeeded by	The Lord Young of Cookham
In office 8 July 1995 – 2 May 1997
Prime Minister	John Major
Preceded by	The Earl of Lindsay
Succeeded by	The Lord Hoyle
Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal
Incumbent
Assumed office 24 July 1979 Hereditary peerage
Preceded by	The 8th Earl of Courtown
Personal details
Born	James Patrick Montagu Burgoyne Winthrop Stopford (1954-03-19) 19 March 1954
Political party	Conservative
Spouse(s)	Elisabeth Dunnett (m. 1985)
Children	The Viscount Stopford
Education	Eton College
Alma mater	Berkshire College of Agriculture

The son of the 8th Earl of Courtown and Patricia Winthrop, he has a brother named Jeremy, and three sisters: Elizabeth, Mary and Felicity.[2] He was educated at Eton and at Berkshire College of Agriculture. He later attended the Royal Agricultural College in Cirencester. He succeeded to the earldom of Courtown in 1975. In 1985, he married Elisabeth Dunnett, daughter of I. R. Dunnett.

The earl took his seat in the Lords in 1991. In 1995 he was appointed a Lord in Waiting to Her Majesty The Queen, and a Government Whip. He was a government spokesman for the Home Office, Department of Transport and the Scottish Office. In 2013 he was appointed a Conservative party whip. Following the 2015 election he joined the Government, again as a Lord in Waiting to Her Majesty and as a Government Whip. He was promoted to Deputy Chief Whip and Captain of the Yeomen of the Guard in the May ministry in July 2016.

The Courtown ancestral home, Courtown House, was demolished in the 1960s, but the earl visited its location in 2010, with members of his family, and unveiled a plaque in memory of his father at the local church.[2]

The earl's heir apparent is his son James, who is currently styled as Viscount Stopford.