William Harcourt, 2nd Viscount Harcourt

William Edward Harcourt, 2nd Viscount Harcourt (5 October 1908 – 3 January 1979) was an English aristocrat and businessman. Harcourt was a member of the distinguished Harcourt family, who descended from the ancient House of Harcourt in Normandy.

Early life Harcourt was born in London, the fourth and final child but only son born to Lewis Harcourt (1863–1922) and Mary Ethel Burns (1874–1961), an American heiress who in 1918 was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire. Doris Harcourt, a socialite and member of the Bright Young Things, was his eldest sister.

He was a grandson of Sir William Harcourt (1827–1904), the Chancellor of the Exchequer. His mother was a niece of banker J. Pierpont Morgan and a first cousin of J.P. Morgan Jr. He was appointed to an Officer in the same order (OBE) in the 1945 Birthday Honours.

In 1952, he was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant for Oxfordshire, and from 1963 to his death, he was served as Vice-Lieutenant of Oxfordshire.

Personal life Harcourt was twice married; firstly, he was married in 1931 to Hon. Maud Elizabeth Grosvenor (1909-2000), a daughter of Francis Egerton Grosvenor, 4th Baron Ebury and Mary Adela (née Glasson). They had three daughters before the marriage was dissolved in 1942: Hon. Penelope Mary Harcourt (1933–2023), who married Maj. Anthony David Motion, son of Maj. Malcolm Davie Motion. Hon. Virginia Vernon Harcourt (b. 1937), who married Julian Francis Wells, son of Dr. Arthur Quinton Wells, former High Sheriff of Oxfordshire.

In 1946, Harcourt married Elizabeth Sonia Gibbs, daughter of Sir Harold Snagge and widow of Capt. Lionel Gibbs. She died in 1959.

He died in Chelsea, London, aged 70, at which point the Harcourt Viscountcy again became extinct.