David Harrington Angus Douglas, 12th Marquess of Queensberry (born 19 December 1929) is an Anglo-Scottish aristocrat and pottery designer. He is the elder son of Francis Douglas, 11th Marquess of Queensberry, and his only son by his second wife, artist Cathleen Sabine Mann (married 1926 – divorced 1946). His maternal grandparents were an interior decorator, Dolly Mann (née Florence Sabine-Pasley) and artist Harrington Mann. He succeeded his father in 1954.
Early life
He was born in London,[1] and was educated at Ashbury College Ottawa and Eton College.
Career
Midwinter 'Country Garden' tableware, using graphics designed by Jessie Tait on shapes designed by Queensberry
When Queensberry succeeded to his peerages in 1954, he didn't become a member of the House of Lords, the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, because he was a Peer of Scotland but he became it after the Peerage Act 1963 when all Scottish Peers were given seats in the House. This right was lost under the House of Lords Act 1999 which as from November 1999 reduced the number of hereditary peers with seats in the Lords from several hundred to only ninety-two, most elected from the peers' own ranks.[4]
Views on LGBT issues
As a hereditary peer, Queensberry spoke in the House of Lords during the passage of the Sexual Offences Act 1967,[5] which legalized homosexual acts in England and Wales. In 2016 he drew a contrast between his views on homosexuality and those of his great-grandfather John Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensberry, well known for his role in the downfall of the Irish author and playwright Oscar Wilde.
The 12th marquess explained that he had been delighted to associate his family with a liberalising measure because the Queensberry name "had become so associated with the way Oscar Wilde was pilloried in 1895".[6]
Personal life
Queensberry has been married three times: first in 1956 (div 1969) to Ann Jones (the actress Ann Queensberry),[citation needed] by whom he had two daughters; secondly in 1969 (div 1986) to Alexandra "Lexa" Mary Clare Wyndham Sich (daughter of Rev. Guy Wyndham Sich and Jean Denise Theobald), by whom he had three sons (the eldest born during his first marriage) and one daughter; and thirdly in 2000 to Hsueh-Chun Liao (廖雪君), by whom he had a daughter, legitimated by marriage (d. 2018).[7]
Issue:
Lady Emma Cathleen Douglas (b. 1956) married 1986 Damon Lewis Vincent Heath, and has issue
(illegitimate) Ambrose Jonathan Carey (b. 1961), see below
Lady Alice Douglas (b. 1965) married 1stly 1989 (div) Ali Ugan; md 2ndly 1995 (div) Simon Melia, and has surviving issue, a daughter named Hero and a son named Tybalt.
Lady Kate Cordelia Sasha Douglas (b. 1969) married 1999 Tom Weisselberg, and has issue
Lord Milo Luke Dickon Douglas (1975–2009)
Lord Torquil Oberon Tobias Douglas (b. 1978)
Lady Beth Shan Ling Douglas (1999–2018), legitimised later in 2000 by her parents' marriage[9]
Queensberry's eldest but illegitimate son, Ambrose Jonathan Carey (b. 1961), is head of a British security and intelligence firm. His half-sister Caroline Carey (b. 1959), an English art student, married Salem bin Laden, prior head of the global Bin Laden family corporation.[10][11] Ambrose Carey has been married since 1995 to Christina Weir, a daughter of Sir Michael Scott Weir and his first wife, Alison Walker.[12] They have two sons, Angus Carey-Douglas and James Carey-Douglas.[13] As Ambrose is illegitimate, he and his two sons are not in remainder to the Marquessate and subsidiary titles.
Queensberry has several siblings. By his father's first wife, he has an elder half-sister, Lady Patricia Douglas, whose daughter Countess Emma de Bendern was the first wife of gossip columnist Nigel Dempster. He has a late sister, Lady Jane Cory-Wright (1926–2007), twice married to David Arthur Cory-Wright, of the Cory-Wright baronets. He has a younger half-brother, Lord Gawain Douglas (born 1948), who is married with issue, one son and five daughters. [citation needed]
References
^England & Wales Births (Douglas, David), findmypast.co.uk. Retrieved 24 June 2014 (subscription required). This source gives the district of London as St George, Hanover Square, possibly referring to the former civil parish.
^In Scots law, the Legitimation (Scotland) Act 1968 extended legitimation by the subsequent marriage of the parents to children conceived when their parents were not free to marry, but this was repealed in 2006 by the amendment of section 1 of the Law Reform (Parent and Child) (Scotland) Act 1986 (as amended in 2006) which abolished the status of illegitimacy stating that "(1) No person whose status is governed by Scots law shall be illegitimate ...".
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