Frederick Curzon, 7th Earl Howe

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For the light music composer, see Frederic Curzon.
The Right Honourable
The Earl Howe
PC
File:Lord Howe Official.jpg
Deputy Leader of the House of Lords
Assumed office
8 May 2015
Prime Minister David Cameron
Preceded by The Lord Wallace of Tankerness
Minister of State for Defence
Assumed office
May 2015
Prime Minister David Cameron
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health
In office
6 May 2010 – May 2015
Prime Minister David Cameron
Preceded by Anne Keen
Succeeded by The Lord Prior of Brampton
Under-Secretary of State for Defence
In office
1995–1997
Prime Minister John Major
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Agriculture
In office
1992–1995
Prime Minister John Major
Personal details
Born (1951-01-29) 29 January 1951 (age 73)
Political party Conservative
Spouse(s) Elizabeth Helen Stuart
Children 4
Alma mater Christ Church, Oxford
Occupation Business executive

Frederick Richard Penn Curzon, 7th Earl Howe, PC (born 29 January 1951) is a Conservative front bench member of the House of Lords. He is Minister of State for Defence and Deputy Leader of the House of Lords.

Background and education

Lord Howe was the son of the Royal Navy commander and film actor George Curzon, grandson of Richard Curzon-Howe, 3rd Earl Howe and Jane Victoria Fergusson. He was educated at King's Mead School, Seaford, Rugby School and Christ Church, Oxford, where he graduated in "Mods and Greats" in 1973 and, according to his Who's Who entry, earned the Chancellor's Prize in Latin Verse.

Business and political career

After leaving university in 1973, he joined Barclays Bank and served in a number of managerial and senior managerial posts in London and in other countries.[1] After succeeding his second cousin as 7th Earl Howe in 1984, he left banking to concentrate on his Parliamentary activities and on running the family farm (Seagraves Farm Co Ltd) and estate at Penn in south Buckinghamshire. In 1991, Howe became a Lord in Waiting (Government whip in the House of Lords) with responsibilities, successively, for transport, employment, defence and environment. Following the 1992 general election he was appointed Parliamentary Secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and in 1995 Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Ministry of Defence, a post he relinquished at the 1997 general election.

Howe was opposition spokesman for Health and Social Services in the House of Lords between 1997 and 2010. Howe was unique in being the only member of the Conservative Party to shadow the same portfolio throughout the thirteen years of opposition. Since the House of Lords Act 1999, hereditary peers do not have the automatic right to sit in the Lords. However the Act provides for 92 hereditary peers to remain, and representatives from each faction in the House are elected under Standing Orders of the House. At the election in 1999, Howe was the sixth most popular Conservative peer (Conservatives are by far the largest party grouping of hereditary peers). Apart from his frontbench responsibilities, his special interests include penal affairs and agriculture. He is a member of the all-party groups on penal affairs, abuse investigations, pharmaceuticals, adoption, mental health and epilepsy.

Following the resignation of Lord Strathclyde in January 2013, Earl Howe became the longest continuously-serving Conservative frontbencher.[2]

Higher private income for NHS foundation hospitals

Very shortly before Christmas 2011, Howe submitted a controversial amendment to the Health and Social Care Bill to change the limit on private income for NHS foundation hospitals from 2% to 49%. He also caused controversy by saying it should not matter "one jot" who provided care to NHS patients as long as it was free at the point of delivery. The comment - made in a speech to private health groups in London, reignited the row over the future role of competition in the NHS. NHS Hospitals could use their beds and theatre time for the health care of paying individuals and insurance firms,[3] notwithstanding the principal tenet of the NHS that care must be based on clinical need, not the ability to pay.[4]

Other public appointments

In 1999 Howe was appointed non-executive chairman of the London and Provincial Antique Dealers' Association (LAPADA),[5] the country's largest trade association for the fine art and antiques trade.

Involved in many charitable commitments, Howe is:

  • President of the Abbeyfield Beaconsfield Society
  • Patron of the Chiltern Society;[6]
  • Patron of Design & Manufacture for Disability (DEMAND)
  • Hereditary Governor of the King William IV Naval Foundation.
  • a trustee of Milton's Cottage
  • President of the Epilepsy Society, formerly the National Society for Epilepsy, for 25 years until his wife Countess Howe became president in September 2010.[7][8][9]
  • a trustee of RAFT (Restoration of Appearance and Function Trust);
  • a member of the Committee of Management of the RNLI;
  • a trustee of Sir William Borlase's Grammar School in Marlow, Buckinghamshire;
  • President of the South Buckinghamshire Association for the Disabled;
  • Honorary Treasurer of the Trident Trust
  • a trustee of Penn Street Village Hall
  • a Vice-President at Knotty Green Cricket Club

Titles and styles

  • Mr Frederick Curzon (1951–1984)
  • The Rt. Hon. The Earl Howe (1984–2013)
  • The Rt. Hon. The Earl Howe PC (2013–)

Personal life

Lord Howe married Elizabeth Helen Stuart, elder daughter of Captain Burleigh Edward St Lawrence Stuart, on 26 March 1983. They have four children:

  • Lady Anna Elizabeth Curzon (b. 1987) who studied music at the University of Nottingham[10]
  • Lady Flora Grace Curzon
  • Lady Lucinda Rose Curzon
  • Thomas Edward Penn Curzon, Viscount Curzon (b. 1994)

The family live at Penn House, Penn, Buckinghamshire.[11]

References

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  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ University of Nottingham Alumni
  11. ↑ Penn House website http://www.pennhouse.org.uk/

External links

Peerage of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Earl Howe
2nd creation
1984–present		 Incumbent
Heir apparent:
Viscount Curzon
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