Oliver Wallop, 8th Earl of Portsmouth
Oliver Henry Wallop, 8th Earl of Portsmouth was a British peer and also served in the Wyoming State Legislature in the United States.
Wallop was born at Eggesford House in Devon, England, to Isaac Newton Fellowes, 5th Earl of Portsmouth, and Lady Eveline Alicia Juliana Herbert, daughter of Henry Herbert, 3rd Earl of Carnarvon. As the third son, he was not expected to inherit his father's earldom, and in 1883 moved to the American West to become a rancher and stockman. He settled in Miles City, Montana, before coming to Big Horn, Wyoming in 1891 and purchasing the Canyon Ranch. He became a United States citizen in 1904 and, as O.H. Wallop, was first elected to the Wyoming Legislature in 1908, serving two terms as a Republican in the Wyoming House of Representatives.
From 1917 to 1919, he served in the British Army in the First World War.
His elder brothers, the 6th and 7th earls, both died without male heirs. In 1925, he succeeded as the 8th Earl. Wallop was allowed to take his seat in the House of Lords after first renouncing his American citizenship.
Wallop died in Colorado Springs, Colorado in 1943, after being ill for a year.Marriage and issue
Wallop married Marguerite Walker, daughter of Samuel Johnson Walker of Kentucky, and had two sons, Gerard Vernon Wallop and Oliver Malcolm Wallop.
His granddaughter Jean Margaret Wallop, born in Big Horn, Wyoming, married Henry Herbert, 7th Earl of Carnarvon, whose seat was Highclere Castle. She was close friends with Queen Elizabeth II, who is godmother to his great-grandson George Herbert, 8th Earl of Carnarvon. His grandson Malcolm Wallop also served in the Wyoming State Legislature, and three terms in the United States Senate.
