Geoffrey Alexander Rowley-Conwy, 9th Baron Langford


Geoffrey Alexander Rowley-Conwy, 9th Baron Langford, was a British-Irish peer and British Army officer. He is the longest-lived peer on record.

Biography

The only son of two children born to Major Geoffrey Seymour Rowley-Conwy, who was killed in action at Gallipoli, and Bertha Gabrielle Cochran, JP, Langford was educated at Marlborough College and Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. Commissioned a second lieutenant in the Royal Artillery on 1 September 1932, he was promoted to lieutenant on 1 September 1935 and to captain on 1 September 1940.

He served as an army officer with the Royal Artillery in World War II, being captured at the Japanese taking of Singapore in 1942, but escaping, before seeing further active service in Burma. In May 1943, by then a temporary major, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, for distinguished service in the South-West Pacific theatre. He reached the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in 1945, and was promoted to the substantive rank of major on 1 July 1946. On 1 April 1954, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel, and retired from the regular army on 31 December 1957. He was appointed an Honorary Colonel in 1967.
He inherited the Bodrhyddan estate in Rhuddlan, on the death of his unmarried and childless paternal uncle Captain Rafe Grenville Rowley-Conwy RN CMG in April 1951 and succeeded to the Barony as the ninth holder of the title on the death of his childless second cousin once removed Arthur Sholto Langford Rowley, 8th Baron Langford CMG in August 1953. He was Constable of Rhuddlan Castle and Lord of the Manor of Rhuddlan. He turned 100 in March 2012. He died on 12 November 2017 at the age of 105.

Marriage and children

He married, firstly, Ruth St John Murphy, on 24 January 1939. She was the daughter of Albert St John Murphy and Rose Davis, of The Island House, Little Island, County Cork, Ireland. They divorced in 1956. They had no children.
He married, secondly, Grete von Freiesleben, on 7 February 1957. She was the daughter of Colonel Erik Theodor Christian von Freiesleben, of Hjortekaer, Kongens Lyngby, Copenhagen, Ch Kings's Adj's Staff to His Majesty The King of Denmark. They had three children and seven grandchildren:
He married, thirdly, Susan Winifred Denham, daughter of Cyril Henry Charles Denham, of Wrexham, Denbighshire, Wales, on 3 February 1975. Lady Langford is a patron of St Kentigern Hospice, St Asaph. They have two children:
He was succeeded by his third son from his second marriage, Hon. Owain Grenville Rowley-Conwy.