George Herbert, 8th Earl of Carnarvon


George Reginald Oliver Molyneux Herbert, 8th Earl of Carnarvon, styled Lord Porchester from 1987 to 2001, is a British peer and arable farmer.
His family seat, Highclere Castle, has achieved notability as the primary filming location for the television series Downton Abbey. Carnarvon and his family live in part of the house, while the rest is used as a venue for hire and is also open to the public much of the summer and some dates during other months.

Early life

Herbert was born in Lambeth, London, the son of Henry Herbert, 7th Earl of Carnarvon and an American mother, Jeanie Margaret Wallop, His mother was born in Big Horn, Wyoming, the granddaughter to Oliver Wallop, 8th Earl of Portsmouth, who had not expected to inherit the title and moved to the American West to become a rancher. His maternal uncle Malcolm Wallop, a rancher in Wyoming, served three terms in the United States Senate. His mother was close friends with Queen Elizabeth II, his godmother. Herbert was a Page of Honour to the Queen. He was educated at Eton and St John's College, Oxford.
He succeeded to the title of Earl of Carnarvon when his father died on 11 September 2001. After the death in 2003 of the 17th Earl of Pembroke, a distant cousin, he also became heir to the Earldoms of Pembroke and Montgomery, held by patrilineal cousin, William Herbert, 18th Earl of Pembroke, and is currently third in line.

Family

Lord Carnarvon married Jayne M. Wilby on 16 December 1989, daughter of racehorse owner Kenneth A. Wilby and Princess Prospero Colonna di Stigliano. They had two children before divorcing in 1998:
Then, on 18 February 1999, he married fashion designer Fiona J. M. Aitken, daughter of Ronnie Aitken and Frances Farmer; they had one son:
The current Countess of Carnarvon is a historian who has written two biographies about her predecessors, the first of her husband's great-grandmother, Almina, Countess of Carnarvon and the second about his grandparents.

Arms