Piers Wedgwood, 4th Baron Wedgwood

Piers Anthony Weymouth Wedgwood, 4th Baron Wedgwood ( born September 20, 1954 in Hillwood, Molo, Nakuru County, Kenya, † January 29, 2014 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States) was a British peer and politician ( Conservative Party ).

Life

Piers Anthony Weymouth Wedgwood, 4th Baron Wedgwood, was born as the son of Hugh Wedgwood, 3rd Baron Wedgwood ( 1921-1970 ), and his second wife Jane Weymouth, a daughter of Judge William James Poulton. His father lived from 1941 to 1964 as a farmer in Hillwood in Molo, Kenya. There Piers Wedgwood was on his parents' farm, outside Nairobi, was born.

Wedgwood was a direct descendant of Josiah Wedgwood, founder of the porcelain manufacturer Josiah Wedgwood & Sons Ltd.. He was the Urururururenkel by Josiah Wedgwood. Already as a teenager Wedgwood worked in the family business. He cleaned the furnaces and kilns of the Wedgwood factory in Barlaston in Staffordshire and learned the production of porcelain and pottery. He attended Marlborough College. With the death of his father inherited Wedgwood, on 25 April 1970 at the age of almost 16 years, the title of Baron Wedgwood. He completed his military training at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and became an officer. In June 1973, he was Second Lieutenant in the Royal Scots. The Royal Scots he was, inter alia, stationed in Cyprus. In June 1975 he became a lieutenant in December 1979 promoted to captain. In 1980 he gave up his military career. In 1976 he was awarded the General Service Medal for Northern Ireland.

In the summer of 1970 he worked as an intern in the family Wedgwood. Since 1980 until his death Wedgwood worked as a business owner, company heritage, representative and ambassador of the brand Wedgwood. He participated in the care and the development of Wedgwood collections in museums in the United Kingdom and the United States. In particular, he advocated for the butene Wedgwood Collection, which is now housed in a museum in Birmingham, Alabama. In 2009 he received an honorary doctorate from the Faculty of Art and Design Staffordshire University in recognition of his services " for the preservation and promotion of cultural heritage of North Staffordshire in the field of art and manufacture of pottery " ( "for his services to the preservation and promotion of North Staffordshire 's cultural heritage in the art and industry of English pottery ").

He also devoted himself to extensive charitable tasks and fundraising. In 2000 he founded the charity and charity The Lord Wedgwood Charity, which provides funding for high school sports programs in Birmingham available. The Foundation paid for, inter alia, Defibrillators, which are used in athletes who have suffered a cardiovascular arrest. Wedgwood called the foundation to life after doctors had saved him after a heart attack on a golf course in Alabama life.

He was a member of the Royal Automobile Club of England, in London Racquet Club and the Philadelphia Club. 2006 Wedgwood Freeman of the City of London was.

Membership in the House of Lords

With the heritage of the title of Baron Wedgwood was Piers Wedgwood official on April 25, 1970 Member of the House of Lords. In the House of Lords, he sat for the Conservative Party. His inaugural speech was made on 16 October 1991 during the debate on defense policy.

Wedgwood was an active member of the House of Lords. His political interest areas were especially the issues of defense policy and cultural heritage. He belonged to the House of Lords to the Defense and Heritage Parliamentary Groups. In Hansard total of 30 word posts Wedgwood from the years 1991 to 1999 are documented. On 26 October 1999, he spoke in a debate in passionate words against the House of Lords Act 1999. On 4 November 1999, he signed up with a question for the acquisition of relocation costs of leaving peers for the last time to speak. His membership in the House of Lords ended on 11 November 1999 by the House of Lords Act 1999 In the obituary end of Wedgwood's membership in the House of Lords was also dated to the year 2001.; however, this is not true.

In 2001, he stepped out in protest against the reform of the House of Lords by the House of Lords Act 1999 from the Conservative Party.

Family and Private

In 1985 he married Mary Regina Margaret Kavanagh Quinn, the daughter of Judge Edward Thomas Quinn and his wife, Helen Marie Buchanan Quinn. Her parents were from Philadelphia. Wedgwood had met his wife at a business meeting when he presented Wedgewwod porcelain, while the Marshall Field Company in Chicago. Mary Quinn headed the Public Relations Department. The marriage produced a daughter showed Alexandra Mary Kavanagh Wedgwood (* 1987). Wedgwood lived alternately in Chestnut Hill near Pennsylvania, in London and at the Jersey Shore.

Wedgwood died in January 2014 at the age of 59 years at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia of heart failure. Alleged heritage ( Heir Presumptive ) of the barony was to 2007 Wedgwood Uncle John Wedgwood. After his death his son Antony Wedgwood was ( b. 1944 ), the cousin of Piers Wedgewood, the presumptive heir. He is now heir apparent as Antony Wedgwood, 5th Baron Wedgwood.