He was educated at Eton, where his father had been before him, and at Christ"s College, Christchurch while his father was Governor-General of New Zealand. He married Penelope Ann Cooper in 1974, and inherited the family"s titles and 200-year-old Worcestershire mansion, Hagley Hall, on his father"s death in 1977.
He later attended the Royal Agricultural College in Cirencester.
He was known as "Johnny Lyttelton" to his friends and family. Facing steep death duties and high maintenance costs as well as the unstable state of finances left by his predecessors, he auctioned his family"s 700-year archive for £164,000, and sold Necker Island to Richard Branson for £180,000. The hall was converted into a conference venue, although it also remained the family home.
He left the Conservatives in 1992, in protest at Michael Heseltine"s announcement that many coal mines would be closed.
Lord Cobham remarried on 1 August 1997 Lisa Clayton, the first British woman to have sailed single-handed and non-stop around the world. He opposed the introduction of the ban on fox hunting, and said he would rather go to prison than to prevent hunting from taking place on his estate.
Lord Cobham died in Spain. His ashes were returned to Hagley for burial in the Lyttelton plot at Hagley parish church.
He was a member of the Conservative Party, but shyness prevented him from taking the seat in the House of Lords that his hereditary peerage entitled him to
