Peter St John, 9th Earl of Orkney

Oliver Peter St John, 9th Earl of Orkney (born 27 February 1938) is a retired Canadian political scientist and Scottish peer.

He inherited the Earldom of Orkney in 1998 and briefly had a right to a seat in the House of Lords until the House of Lords Act 1999 came into effect.

Early life Orkney is the son of Lieutenant Colonel Frederick Oliver St John, whose parents were Sir Frederic Robert St John and his wife Isabella Annie FitzMaurice, a granddaughter of the 5th Earl of Orkney.

He inherited the earldom after his father's maternal relative Cecil FitzMaurice, 8th Earl of Orkney died childless in 1998 and briefly had a right to a seat in the House of Lords until the House of Lords Act 1999 came into effect.

Personal life In 1963, in Marylebone, St John married firstly Mary Juliet Scott-Brown, daughter of Dr W. G. Scott-Brown CVO FRCS. Together they had one son and three daughters. Their son, Oliver Robert St John, Viscount Kirkwall, is heir to the earldom. After his first marriage ended in divorce in 1985, in that year he married secondly Mary Barbara Huck, daughter of Dr David B. Albertson, gaining four step-children. As a male-line descendant of the 3rd Viscount Bolingbroke, he is also in remainder to that title.

Selected works