Christopher James, 5th Baron Northbourne

Christopher George Walter James, 5th Baron Northbourne, 6th Baronet (18 February 1926 – 8 September 2019), was a British farmer and aristocrat. He was one of the ninety hereditary peers elected to remain in the House of Lords after the passing of the House of Lords Act 1999 until his retirement in 2018, and sat as a crossbencher.

Biography

The son of Walter James, 4th Baron Northbourne, and his wife, Katharine Louise Nickerson of Boston, Massachusetts, he succeeded to his father's title in 1982. He was educated at Eton College in Berkshire and Magdalen College, Oxford, where he graduated with a Master of Arts in 1959.

Lord Northbourne served as the Crossbench spokesman for families and children in the House of Lords. He was deputy chair of Toynbee Hall and had been chair of Betteshanger Farms Ltd until 1997. Since 1999, he has been chair of the Parenting Support Forum and governor of Wye College. Since 2002, he has been also chair of the Stepney Children's Fund. He was a Deputy Lieutenant and a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (FRICS).

He retired from the House of Lords on 4 September 2018.

He died on 8 September 2019 at the age of 93.

Lord Northbourne's garden at Elizabethan Northbourne Court near Deal in Kent, set within the standing former outbuildings (the manor house burned in the 18th century) and upon ancient terracing, nurtured for a century, is reputed one of the finest in England; it is not generally open to the public.

Family On 18 July 1959, the future Baron married Aliky Louise Hélène Marie-Sygne Claudel, daughter of Henri Charles Claudel, and granddaughter of Paul Claudel.

They had four children:

Charles Walter Henri James, 6th Baron Northbourne (14 June 1960); married Catherine Lucy Burrows on 3 October 1987. They have three children, two sons and a daughter: Henry Christopher William James (born 3 December 1988), the heir apparent Anastasia Aliki James (born 18 February 1992) Alexander Oliver Charles James (born 27 February 1996) Hon. Anthony Christopher Walter Paul James (14 January 1963); married with two children. Hon. Sebastian Richard Edward Cuthbert James (11 March 1966); married Anna Katherine Gregory in August 1997. They have three sons and a daughter. Hon. Ophelia Mary Katherine Christine Aliki James (23 August 1969); married Jocelyn Charles Stewart Hoare. They have two children.