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Harry John Neville Vane, 11th Baron Barnard (21 September 1923 – 3 April 2016), was an English peer and landowner in Northumbria and County Durham.

Life

Born at Raby Castle in County Durham, the son of Christopher Vane, 10th Baron Barnard, the young Vane was educated at Eton College. On leaving school in 1942 he joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, training in South Africa, although he would never see combat. In the aftermath of the war he was commissioned into the Northumberland Hussars. From 1952 to 1961, as John Vane, he was a county councillor for County Durham and also, from 1956 to 1970, a Deputy Lieutenant of Durham.

In 1960, Vane was awarded the Territorial Decoration, and in 1961 he became a Justice of the Peace for County Durham.

In 1964, on his father's death, he succeeded him as Baron Barnard, with a seat in the House of Lords, and inherited an estate of some 60,000 acres.

He was Lieutenant Colonel of the Northumberland Hussars between 1964 and 1966, Lord Lieutenant of Durham between 1970 and 1988, and Honorary Colonel of the 7th (Durham) Battalion, Light Infantry, between 1979 and 1989.

At the age of 63, Lord Barnard, who had missed his university years in his youth because of the war, surprised friends by enrolling at Durham University Business School and taking an MSc in Management Studies.

He was initiated into freemasonry in Agricola Lodge No. 7741 in 1961. He served as Provincial Grand Master of the Provincial Grand Lodge of Durham from December 1969 until January 1998, and served as Senior Grand Warden of the United Grand Lodge of England in 1970–1971.

On his death in 2016, he left an estate valued at £94 million (equivalent to £129,378,320 in 2023).

Family

He married Lady Davina Mary Cecil (1931–2018), daughter of David Cecil, 6th Marquess of Exeter, on 8 October 1952 at St Margaret's, Westminster. They were divorced in 1992. They had five children; Henry, who succeeded as the 12th Baron, and four daughters.

Lady Barnard retired to Barningham, where she died in 2018.

Notes

1. Under the House of Lords Act 1999.

References

1. ^ "Lord Barnard – obituary". The Daily Telegraph. 4 May 2016. Retrieved 3 March 2020.
2. ^ "Lord Barnard dies aged 92". Sunderland Echo. 4 April 2016. Archived from the original on 15 April 2016. Retrieved 3 March 2020.
3. ^ Cahal Milmo, "Britain's 600 aristocratic families have doubled their wealth in the last decade and are as 'wealthy as at the height of Empire'", i (newspaper), 19 July 2019, accessed 19 February 2023.
4. UK Retail Price Index inflation figures are based on data from Clark, Gregory (2017). "The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)". MeasuringWorth. Retrieved 7 May 2024.
5. "Tributes paid to Lady Davina Barnard, who died aged 87". The Northern Echo. 19 September 2018. Retrieved 17 August 2020.
6. Oxley, Lyndsay (21 September 2018). "Tributes paid to Lady Barnard – 'she was a very kind, caring and gentle person'". Teesdale Mercury. Retrieved 16 August 2021.

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