Viscount Cowdray

Title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom

Weetman Pearson

1st Viscount Cowdray
Known for| Engineering projects, Oil companies, MP Colchester, Philanthropy
Born| Weetman Dickinson Pearson
15 July 1856
Shelley, Kirkburton, West Yorkshire
England
Died| 1 May 1927(1927-05-01) (aged 70)[1]
Dunecht House, Aberdeenshire, Scotland
Spouse(s)| Annie Cass Pearson, 1st Viscountess Cowdray
Issue| Harold Pearson, 2nd Viscount Cowdray
Bernard Clive Pearson
Francis Geoffrey Pearson
Gertrude Denman, Baroness Denman
Occupation| Engineer, building contractor, Member of Parliament

Viscount Cowdray, of Cowdray in the County of Sussex, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom.[2] It was created in 1917 for the industrialist Weetman Pearson, 1st Baron Cowdray, head of the Pearson conglomerate. He had already been created a Baronet, of Paddockhurst, in the Parish of Worth, in the County of Sussex, and of Airlie Gardens, in the Parish of St Mary Abbots, Kensington, in the County of London, on 26 June 1894,[3] and Baron Cowdray, of Midhurst in the County of Sussex, in 1910.[4] His son, the second Viscount, sat as a Liberal Member of Parliament for Eye. His son, the third Viscount, after serving in World War II where he lost an arm, was Chairman of the family firm of Pearson Plc from 1954 to 1977. The titles are held by the latter's son, the fourth Viscount, who succeeded in 1995.[5]

The family seat is Cowdray Park, West Sussex, near Midhurst, Sussex,[6] which the 4th Viscount put up for sale in 2011 and later proposed converting into apartments.[7]

## Viscounts Cowdray (1917)[edit]

* Weetman Dickinson Pearson, 1st Viscount Cowdray (1856–1927)
* (Weetman) Harold Miller Pearson, 2nd Viscount Cowdray (1882–1933)
* Weetman John Churchill Pearson, 3rd Viscount Cowdray (1910–1995)
* Michael Orlando Weetman Pearson, 4th Viscount Cowdray (born 1944)

The heir apparent is the present holder's son Hon. Peregrine John Dickinson Pearson (born 1994).[8]

## References[edit]

1. ^ Spender, J. A., Weetman Pearson; First Viscount Cowdray (1930), Cassel and Company, LTD., Printed in London, pgs. 2, 272
2. ^ "No. 29924". The London Gazette. 30 January 1917. p. 1053.
3. ^ "No. 26526". The London Gazette. 26 June 1894. p. 3652.
4. ^ "No. 28398". The London Gazette. 22 July 1910. p. 5268.
5. ^ "Obituaries: Viscount Cowdray". independent.co.uk. 21 January 1995.
6. ^ "Meet the Cowdrays: The family at the heart of British polo". tatler.com. Retrieved 6 June 2019.
7. ^ Viscount Cowdray to Convert Ancestral Home into Luxury Flats
8. ^ "Viscount Cowdray". cracroftspeerage.co.uk.

### Attribution[edit]

* Hesilrige, Arthur G. M. (1921). Debrett's Peerage and Titles of courtesy. London: Dean & Son. p. 244.
* Kidd, Charles, Williamson, David (editors). Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage (1990 edition). New York: St Martin's Press, 1990,[page needed]
* Leigh Rayment's Peerage Pages [self-published source][better source needed]

## External links[edit]

* "The Cowdray Estate". Cowdray.co.uk.
* Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Weetman John Churchill Pearson, 3rd Viscount Cowdray
* Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Michael Orlando Weetman Pearson, 4th Viscount Cowdray

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