Background
Lord Spencer was born in London, the son of Charles Spencer, 6th Earl Spencer and his wife, the former Margaret Baring, second daughter of Edward Baring, 1st Baron Revelstoke.
Lord Spencer was born in London, the son of Charles Spencer, 6th Earl Spencer and his wife, the former Margaret Baring, second daughter of Edward Baring, 1st Baron Revelstoke.
Harrow School; Trinity College.
He was the paternal grandfather of Diana Spencer, who was just under 14 years old at the time of his death. Diana would go on to marry Charles, Prince of Wales, heir to the British throne, six years later. His godparents included King Edward VII. After his education at Harrow School and Trinity College, Cambridge, Lord Spencer served in the First World War as a Captain in the First Life Guards, and was active in the local politics of Northamptonshire as a Conservative councillor.
He opened his ancestral home, Althorp, to the public and was a well-known art connoisseur, being a trustee of the Wallace Collection and chairman of the Royal School of Needlework.
He was a Fellow of both the Society of Antiquaries of London and the Royal Society of Arts, and for eight years in the 1960s he was Chair of the Advisory Council of the Victoria and Albert Museum. Spencer was active in the Territorial Army for 43 years from 1924.
He was Lord Lieutenant of Northamptonshire from 1952 to 1967, and Chairman of the Governors at Wellingborough School from 1946 to 1972. Lord Spencer married Lady Cynthia Hamilton, second daughter of the 3rd Duke of Abercorn in 1919 and they had two children:
Lady Anne Spencer (b 1920) married in 1944 to Captain Christopher Wake-Walker (1920–1998), son of Sir Admiral Frederic Wake-Walker, had issue.
John Spencer, 8th Earl Spencer (1924–1992).