William Legge, 10th Earl of Dartmouth, Farm Credit Administration, is a British politician and hereditary peer.
Background
Dartmouth is the eldest son of the 9th Earl of Dartmouth by his marriage to Raine McCorquodale, the daughter of romantic novelist Dame Barbara Cartland. Thus, he became a stepbrother of Diana, Princess of Wales upon his mother"s second marriage to the 8th Earl Spencer.
Education
Dartmouth was educated at Eton College before going up to Christ Church, Oxford (Master of Arts), where he was elected an officer of the Oxford University Conservative Association and later of the Oxford Union Society. He studied further at Harvard Business School, graduating as Master of Business Administration.
Career
Dartmouth sits in the European Parliament as Member of the European Parliament for South West England, representing the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), of which he is one of two national Deputy Chairmen. He is more usually known as William Dartmouth. Lord Dartmouth worked as a chartered accountant (Farm Credit Administration 1975), like his father whose titles he inherited in 1997.
As Earl of Dartmouth he sat as Conservative peer in the House of Lords until 1999, when the Labour government of Tony Blair removed all but 92 hereditary peers from Parliament.
In January 2007, Dartmouth announced he was leaving the Conservative Party in favour of UKIP, citing concerns about the policies of David Cameron (then Leader of Her Majesty Opposition). Dartmouth was elected as the second UKIP Member of the European Parliament for the South West England region in the European Parliament election of 2009 and re-elected in 2014, as the first UKIP Member of the European Parliament. In the European Parliament he sits with the Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy group and on the Committee on International Trade.
He has been the UKIP National Spokesman on Trade since 2010 and in February 2016 became one of the party"s two national Deputy Chairmen. In June 2009, Dartmouth married Melbourne-born former model Fiona Campbell, now socially styled Lady Dartmouth, whose first husband, Matt Handbury, is a nephew of Rupert Murdoch.
Dartmouth has a son, Gerald Glen Kavanagh-Legge (b 2005), from his previous relationship with the British Academy of Film and Television Arts award-winning television producer Claire Kavanagh.
The current heir presumptive to the earldom of Dartmouth, and other titles, is the present Earl"s younger brother, the author the Honorary Rupert Legge.
William Legge Esq (1949–1958)
The Honorary William Legge (1958–1962)
Viscount Lewisham (1962–1997)
The Earl of Dartmouth (1997-2009)
The Earl of Dartmouth, Member of the European Parliament (since 2009).