Gerald Legge, 9th Earl of Dartmouth


Gerald Humphry Legge, 9th Earl of Dartmouth FCA, styled Viscount Lewisham between 1958 and 1962, was a British peer and businessman.

Background and education

Legge was the only son of Humphry Legge, 8th Earl of Dartmouth, and his wife, Roma Ernestine. He was educated at Eton College.

Career

On leaving Eton in 1942, he joined the Coldstream Guards as a Captain and served with them until the end of the Second World War, having been mentioned in despatches. He was subsequently a director of the farming company Rea Bros from 1958 to 1989, chairman of the Royal Choral Society from 1970 to 1992 and chairman of the Anglo-Brazilian Society from 1975 to 1994. He succeeded his father in the earldom in 1962.

Family

Lord Dartmouth married Raine McCorquodale, the only child of the romance novelist Barbara Cartland and her first husband, Alexander McCorquodale, on 1 July 1948. They had four children:
Lord and Lady Dartmouth divorced in 1976. Lady Dartmouth later married the 8th Earl Spencer and became the stepmother of Lady Diana Spencer, while Lord Dartmouth married Gwendoline May Seguin four years later. Lord Dartmouth died on 14 December 1997 and was succeeded by his oldest son, William.