Euan Howard, 4th Baron Strathcona and Mount Royal

Who is Euan Howard, 4th Baron Strathcona and Mount Royal?

Donald Euan Palmer Howard, 4th Baron Strathcona and Mount Royal, is a British Conservative politician.

Howard is the eldest son of Donald Howard, 3rd Baron Strathcona and Mount Royal, and his wife the Hon. Diana Evelyn, daughter of Gerald Loder, 1st Baron Wakehurst. He was educated at King's Mead, Seaford, Eton, Trinity College, Cambridge, and McGill University, Montreal, and served in the Royal Navy from 1942 to 1947, achieving the rank of Lieutenant. Howard succeeded his father in the barony in 1959 and took his seat on the Conservative benches in the House of Lords. He served under Edward Heath as a Lord-in-Waiting from 1973 to 1974 and as Joint Under-Secretary of State for the Air Force in 1974. After the Conservatives lost power in 1974 he was Joint Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the House of Lords between 1976 and 1979. When the Conservatives returned to office in 1979 under Margaret Thatcher, Howard was appointed Minister of State at the Ministry of Defence, a post he held until 1981. He lost his seat in the House of Lords after the passing of the House of Lords Act 1999.

Lord Strathcona and Mount Royal married firstly Lady Jane Mary, daughter of Geoffrey Waldegrave, 12th Earl Waldegrave, in 1954. They had two sons and four daughters but were divorced in 1977. He married secondly Patricia, widow of John Middleton, in 1978.