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The Most Honourable
The Marquess of Queensberry
The Most Honourable The Marquess of Queensberry
Personal details
Born	19 December 1929 (age 95); London, England
Spouses	; Ann Jones (m. 1956; div. 1969) ; Alexandra Sich (m. 1969; div. 1986) ; Hsueh-Chun Liao (m. 2000)
Children	8
Parent(s)	Francis Douglas, 11th Marquess of Queensberry; Cathleen Sabine Mann
Alma mater	Eton College

David Harrington Angus Douglas, 12th Marquess of Queensberry (born 19 December 1929) is an Anglo-Scottish aristocrat and pottery designer. He is the elder son of Francis Douglas, 11th Marquess of Queensberry, and his only son by his second wife, artist Cathleen Sabine Mann (married 1926 – divorced 1946). His maternal grandparents were an interior decorator, Dolly Mann (née Florence Sabine-Pasley) and artist Harrington Mann. He succeeded his father in 1954.

Early life

He was born in London,^[1] and was educated at Ashbury College Ottawa and Eton College.

Career

He served in the Royal Horse Guards. In the 1950s he worked in the pottery industry.^[2] He was Professor of Ceramics at the Royal College of Art from 1959 to 1983. He belongs to the Crafts Council, was President of the Design and Industries Association from 1976 to 1978, is a Fellow of the Chartered Society of Designers (and recipient of the Minerva Medal, the Society's highest award), and was Senior Fellow of the Royal College of Art from 1990^{[citation needed]}, and Professor of Ceramics there.^[3]

Membership of House of Lords

When Queensberry succeeded to his peerages in 1954, he didn't become a member of the House of Lords, the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, because he was a Peer of Scotland but he became it after the Peerage Act 1963 when all Scottish Peers were given seats in the House. This right was lost under the House of Lords Act 1999 which as from November 1999 reduced the number of hereditary peers with seats in the Lords from several hundred to only ninety-two, most elected from the peers' own ranks.^[4]

Views on LGBT issues

As a hereditary peer, Queensberry spoke in the House of Lords during the passage of the Sexual Offences Act 1967,^[5] which legalized homosexual acts in England and Wales. In 2016 he drew a contrast between his views on homosexuality and those of his great-grandfather John Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensberry, well known for his role in the downfall of the Irish author and playwright Oscar Wilde. The 12th marquess explained that he had been delighted to associate his family with a liberalising measure because the Queensberry name "had become so associated with the way Oscar Wilde was pilloried in 1895".^[6]

Personal life

Queensberry has been married three times: first in 1956 (div 1969) to Ann Jones (the actress Ann Queensberry),^{[citation needed]} by whom he had two daughters; secondly in 1969 (div 1986) to Alexandra "Lexa" Mary Clare Wyndham Sich (daughter of Rev. Guy Wyndham Sich and Jean Denise Theobald), by whom he had three sons (the eldest born during his first marriage) and one daughter; and thirdly in 2000 to Hsueh-Chun Liao (廖雪君), by whom he had a daughter, legitimated by marriage (d. 2018).^[7]

Issue:

Lady Emma Cathleen Douglas (b. 1956) married 1986 Damon Lewis Vincent Heath, and has issue
(illegitimate) Ambrose Jonathan Carey (b. 1961), see below
Lady Alice Douglas (b. 1965) married 1stly 1989 (div) Ali Ugan; md 2ndly 1995 (div) Simon Melia, and has surviving issue, a daughter named Hero and a son named Tybalt.
Sholto Francis Guy Douglas, Viscount Drumlanrig (born 1 June 1967), legitimated by decision of Lord Lyon when his parents married^[8]
Lady Kate Cordelia Sasha Douglas (b. 1969) married 1999 Tom Weisselberg, and has issue
Lord Milo Luke Dickon Douglas (1975–2009)
Lord Torquil Oberon Tobias Douglas (b. 1978)
Lady Beth Shan Ling Douglas (1999–2018), legitimised later in 2000 by her parents' marriage^[9]

Queensberry's eldest but illegitimate son, Ambrose Jonathan Carey (b. 1961), is head of a British security and intelligence firm. His half-sister Caroline Carey (b. 1959), an English art student, married Salem bin Laden, prior head of the global Bin Laden family corporation.^[10]^[11] Ambrose Carey has been married since 1995 to Christina Weir, a daughter of Sir Michael Scott Weir and his first wife, Alison Walker.^[12] They have two sons, Angus Carey-Douglas and James Carey-Douglas.^[13] As Ambrose is illegitimate, he and his two sons are not in remainder to the Marquessate and subsidiary titles.

Queensberry has several siblings. By his father's first wife, he has an elder half-sister, Lady Patricia Douglas, whose daughter Countess Emma de Bendern was the first wife of gossip columnist Nigel Dempster. He has a late sister, Lady Jane Cory-Wright (1926–2007), twice married to David Arthur Cory-Wright, of the Cory-Wright baronets. He has a younger half-brother, Lord Gawain Douglas (born 1948), who is married with issue, one son and five daughters. ^{[citation needed]}

References

^ England & Wales Births (Douglas, David), findmypast.co.uk. Retrieved 24 June 2014 (subscription required). This source gives the district of London as St George, Hanover Square, possibly referring to the former civil parish.
^ "Designs for Life" Archived 15 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine, queensberryhunt.com, May–June 2009.
^ "Oscar Wilde love letter celebrated 'behind bars'". BBC News. 6 September 2016. Retrieved 6 September 2016.
^ "House of Lords Act 1999 (original text)". 11 November 1999. Retrieved 21 May 2008.
^ Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by the Marquess of Queensberry
^ "Oscar Wilde love letter celebrated 'behind bars'". BBC News. 6 September 2016. Retrieved 6 September 2016.
^ "逃不掉「家族詛咒」？台英音樂貴族才女嗑藥狂歡2天暴斃". ETtoday. 16 November 2018. Retrieved 7 July 2021.
^ In Scots law, the Legitimation (Scotland) Act 1968 extended legitimation by the subsequent marriage of the parents to children conceived when their parents were not free to marry, but this was repealed in 2006 by the amendment of section 1 of the Law Reform (Parent and Child) (Scotland) Act 1986 (as amended in 2006) which abolished the status of illegitimacy stating that "(1) No person whose status is governed by Scots law shall be illegitimate ...".
^ "In Memory of Ling Ling Douglas". The Purcell School. Archived from the original on 10 November 2018. Retrieved 10 November 2018.
^ "Outcast disowned by his outraged family", The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 24 June 2014.
^ Ambrose Carey was described correctly as Queensberry's son in Tatler articles.
^ Obituary: Sir Michael Weir Archived 5 July 2008 at the Wayback Machine, The Independent, 2006. See also Obituary: Sir Michael Weir^{[dead link‍]}, The Times, 2006
^ Memorial Service: Sir Michael Weir^{[dead link‍]}, The Times, 22 September 2006. This lists Mr Carey, his wife, and two sons.

Sources

Memorial Service: Sir Michael Weir^{[dead link‍]}, The Times, 22 September 2006.

External links

Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by the Marquess of Queensberry

Peerage of Scotland
Preceded by Francis Douglas	Marquess of Queensberry 1954–present	Incumbent
Orders of precedence in the United Kingdom
Preceded by The Most Hon. the Marquess of Huntly	United Kingdom Order of Precedence gentlemen	Succeeded by The Most Hon. the Marquess of Tweeddale