He has held the title of Baron Wigram of Clewer, Berkshire, since 1960 when his father Clive Wigram, 1st Baron Wigram died. Wigram was born on 2 August 1915 He was a Page of Honour to His Majesty King George V. He resigned from the post in 1932.
He was educated at Winchester College and Magdalen College, Oxford and was an Officer Cadet in the University"s Officers Training Corps.
He took a commission within the infantry contingent of the Oxford Over-the-counter on 7 February 1936, and became a Second Lieutenant with seniority from 7 August 1934. Wigram transferred from the Territorial Army, which he joined when he took a commission in the Over-the-counter, to the Grenadier Guards as a Second Lieutenant on 28 August 1937. He was given seniority from 30 January 1936.
He was promoted to Captain on 30 January 1944, to Major on 30 January 1949, and to Lieutenant Colonel on 9 May 1955.
During World World War II Wigram was involved in the 1940 Dunkirk evacuation. He was shot in the back, but was not aware of it at the time.
He only found out later when he opened his backpack to find a bullet embedded in his soap-dish. During a presentation he gave to a group of special needs school children at Coln House School, Fairford, Gloucestershire, Wigram described his experience at Dunkirk:
There was absolute chaos on the beach and a lot of the destroyers had been sunk.
While we were there we were shot at from the Germans airplanes but it was amazing how few casualties there were.
Wigram returned to France in 1944 during the Normandy landings. He then advanced through Europe with the Grenadier Guards. In April 1945, he was involved with the liberation of a concentration camp near Bremen, Germany.
During the same presentation mentioned earlier, he described what they found at the camp:
This was a very small camp and it was occupied with prisoners of war and civilians.
The civilians were mostly Frenchmen who had been deported from France and they were dying of typhus. Wigram retired from the British Army on 26 June 1957 as a Lieutenant Colonel on account of a disability.
Upon the death of his father in 1960 Wigram became the second Baron Wigram, of Clewer in the County of Berkshire. On 8 October 1969 Wigram was announced as one of five Deputy Lieutenants commissioned that year by the Lord Lieutenant of the County of Gloucester.
He turned 100 in August 2015.
In 1941 Wigram married Margaret Helen Thorne (1917–1986), daughter of General Andrew Thorne. Wigram has nine grandchildren. George Neville Clive Wigram (1913-1935)
The Honorary
Neville Wigram (1935-1944)
Captain The Honorary
Neville Wigram (1944-1945)
Captain The Honorary Neville Wigram Military Cross (1945-1949)
Major The Honorary
Neville Wigram Military Cross (1949-1955)
Lieutenant-Colonel The Honorary Neville Wigram Military Cross (1955-1957)
The Honorary
Neville Wigram Military Cross (1957-1960)
The Rt Honorary
The Lord Wigram Military Cross (since 1960).
