Henry Herbert, 17th Earl of Pembroke


Henry George Charles Alexander Herbert, 17th Earl of Pembroke, 14th Earl of Montgomery, styled Lord Herbert between 1960 and 1969 and often known simply as Henry Herbert, was a British landowner, member of the House of Lords, film director, and producer.

Background and education

Herbert was the only son of the 16th Earl of Pembroke and 13th Earl of Montgomery and his wife, Mary and a godson of Prince George, Duke of Kent. Through the 11th Earl of Pembroke, he descended from Countess Catherine Vorontsov. He was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford and briefly served with the Royal Horse Guards from 1958–60 before in 1969 inheriting his father's titles and estate centred on Wilton House in Wiltshire.

Career in film industry

Herbert began to take an interest in the film business in the 1960s and worked on the set of The Heroes of Telemark.
After making documentaries about musicians, the first feature film he directed was Malachi's Cove, also known as The Seaweed Children, starring Donald Pleasence and Arthur English, but he is best remembered for his second film, Emily, a picture set in the 1920s starring Koo Stark. He also worked on episodes of the TV series Shoestring and Bergerac, as well as directing the film Crossmaheart. In 1997 he co-produced The Girl with Brains in Her Feet.
In their book Great Houses of England & Wales, Hugh Massingberd and Christopher Simon Sykes commented that "The present Lord Pembroke is a film and television director, best known for the Civil War drama series By the Sword Divided and for Emily."

Family

On 20 January 1966 he married Claire Rose, daughter of Douglas Gurney Pelly, scion of the Pelly baronets. The couple divorced in 1981. They had four children:
In 1988 he married Miranda Juliet, daughter of Lt John Somerville Kendall Oram, of Whitwick Manor, Ledbury, Herefordshire, and his first wife, Juliet Hermione, daughter of John Roland Abbey, of Redlynch House, Salisbury, the former High Sheriff of Sussex. They had three daughters.
Pembroke died in 2003, and his titles and estates passed to his only son, William Herbert.

Ancestry