Francis Baring, 6th Baron Northbrook

Francis Thomas Baring, 6th Baron Northbrook FRGS (born 21 February 1954), is a British peer and Conservative politician.[1]

The Right Honourable The Lord Northbrook FRGS
Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal
Incumbent
Assumed office 23 September 1991 Hereditary peerage
Preceded by	The 5th Baron Northbrook
Personal details
Born	21 February 1954
Political party	Conservative

The son of Francis Baring, 5th Baron Northbrook, and Rowena Margaret Manning, Northbrook was educated at Winchester College, and took a BA in history at the University of Bristol. He became a trainee chartered accountant at Dixon Wilson & Co from 1976 to 1980. He then worked at Baring Brothers & Co as a credit analyst between 1981 and 1983. In 1983, he moved into the asset management side at Baring Investment Management as an investment analyst between 1983 and 1985. From 1985 to 1989 he was in the Private Client Department at Baring Investment Management. He then became a Senior Investment Manager at Taylor Young Investment from 1990 to 1993 and at Smith and Williamson Securities from 1993 to 1995. He was then the co-founder and Director of the award-winning Mars Asset Management between 1996 and 2006. Now he is a founding Trustee of Fortune Forum (see below).

Lord Northbrook took his seat in the House of Lords on the death of his father in 1990. He is now one of the 92 hereditary peers who remain in the House of Lords after the House of Lords Act of 1999. He has since resisted further reform of the Lords, tabling amendments to a draft bill to abolish by-elections for hereditary peers, proposed by Lord Grocott in 2018.[2] Lord Northbrook sits on the Conservative benches and was an Opposition Whip in the House of Lords from 1999 to 2000. He speaks on treasury, constitutional, and agricultural matters.

In 1987, Lord Northbrook married Amelia Sarah Elizabeth Taylor. They have three daughters, but were divorced in 2006. In 2013, Lord Northbrook married Charlotte Pike, the publisher and editor of the Almanach de Gotha.

There is no heir to the Barony of Northbrook. His heir as Baronet Baring of Larkbeer is his fourth cousin Peter Baring.

Lord Northbrook's home in Hampshire was destroyed by fire on 4 December 2005. One hundred firefighters were at the scene (with the swimming pool being used as a water store[3]) in an attempt to salvage Lord Northbrook's personal belongings. Some art was saved and later sold to Hans-Adam II, Prince of Liechtenstein,[4] as a consequence of the divorce.

He is now a founding trustee of the Fortune Forum Charity which in its first year raised over £1 million for Global Poverty, Global Health, and Climate Change Charities with ex-President Bill Clinton as guest speaker at its first event in 2006. Al Gore, Nobel Prize winner and former Vice President of the United States, spoke at their second event at the end of November 2007.

He is a Member of the Advisory Board of the Iman Foundation which aims to promote dialogue to strengthen international understanding and co-existence through the exchange of ideas, people, culture and religion.

His main hobbies are shooting, cricket, fishing, and skiing. He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society: his clubs are Whites, Pratts, the Beefsteak, and the Worshipful Company of Gunmakers.

See also

• Politics of the United Kingdom

References

1. "Lord Northbrook". House of Lords.
2. Garland, Jessica. "A handful of hereditary peers are trying to resist reform – they are on the wrong side of history". Electoral Reform Society.
3. "Huge fire engulfs country manor". BBC. 4 December 2005. Retrieved 31 August 2016.
4. "Prince of Liechtenstein buys historic British collection". The Art Newspaper. 18 December 2006. Archived from the original on 28 September 2007.