Spencer, Albert Edward John, 7th Earl Spencer (1892 -1975)

Albert Edward John Spencer, styled The Honourable Albert Spencer until 1910, and as Viscount Althorp from 1910 to 1922, was known less formally as "Jack" Spencer. He was born in London, the son of Charles Spencer, 6th Earl Spencer, and his wife, the former Margaret Baring, second daughter of Edward Baring, 1st Baron Revelstoke. Albert was educated at Harrow School and Trinity College, Cambridge. On 5 August 1914, Spencer was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the 1st Regiment of Life Guards, was promoted to lieutenant on 21 October 1914, appointed an aide-de-camp on 9 May 1917, and promoted to captain on 15 June 1917. When 1st Life Guards merged with the 2nd Life Guards on November 1922, Spencer was appointed a captain in the new regiment. He retired from the army in 1924, but remained a member of the Regular Army Reserve of Officers until reaching the mandatory retirement age on 2 June 1943. On 9 April 1935, Lord Spencer was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant of Northamptonshire, and became Lord Lieutenant of Northamptonshire on 11 March 1952, serving until 31 July 1967. He was made a knight of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem on 1 July 1955. Lord Spencer was active in the local politics of Northamptonshire as a Conservative councillor. He opened his ancestral home, Althorp, to the public. He was a well-known art connoisseur, being a trustee of the Wallace Collection. He was a Fellow of both the Society of Antiquaries of London, and the Royal Society of Arts, and for eight years in the 1960s he was Chair of the Advisory Council of the Victoria and Albert Museum. In 1919 Lord Spencer married Lady Cynthia Hamilton, second daughter of the 3rd Duke of Abercorn, and they had two children. Lord Spencer died at St Matthews Nursing Home, Northampton, after a short illness, and was succeeded by his son, John Spencer, the father of Diana, Princess of Wales.