Nicholas Lowther, 2nd Viscount Ullswater

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Nicholas James Christopher Lowther, 2nd Viscount Ullswater LVO PC (born January 9, 1942), succeeded his great-grandfather in the Viscountcy of Ullswater in 1949. He is one of very few peers to have succeeded a great-grandfather in a title.

An amateur jockey in his youth, he began to hold political posts in the British government of Margaret Thatcher, and under John Major rose to Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen at Arms (Government Chief Whip in the House of Lords) in 1993 and Minister of State for the Environment (as well as member of the Privy Council) in 1994. However, he left the Government in a 1995 reshuffle and in 1998 became the Private Secretary to Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon and continued in this office until her death in 2002.

As a member of a Royal Household he could not take part in partisan politics and did not seek to remain in the House of Lords when the House of Lords Act 1999 was passed. However, after the death of the Viscount of Oxfuird in January 2003, he emerged as the Conservatives' preferred candidate and won the by-election enabling him to return to the House of Lords.

On 22 May 2006, he was nominated for the newly-created post of Lord Speaker. If he wins the election, he will become the first occupant of the role. His great-grandfather, James Lowther, served as Speaker of the House of Commons.

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