Name Reginald 9th Died May 18, 1981 | Education Eton College | |
Reginald George de Vere Capell, 9th Earl of Essex (9 October 1906 – 18 May 1981) was a British Peer.
Biography
Capell was the son of Algernon George de Vere Capell, 8th Earl of Essex and Mary Eveline Stewart Freeman. He had the courtesy title Viscount Malden, and was known as Reggie Malden. He was educated at St Cyprian's School, Eastbourne, Eton and Magdalene College, Cambridge. He served in the army during World War II and was awarded the T.D.. He became Lieutenant-Colonel in 1947 and was commanding officer of the 16th Airborne Division Signals Regiment (Territorial Army) in 1948. After the war he began farming in Buckinghamshire. He retained his military connections and became Honorary Colonel of the 16th & 40th Signal Regiments in 1957 and, on its replacement, of the 47th Signal Regiment in 1962.
Capell inherited the Earldom of Essex on the death of his father in 1966 and took his seat in the House of Lords. In his maiden speech in 1971, he opposed the recommendation of the Roskill Commission for the siting of a third London airport at Cublington. The third airport was eventually provided by the development of Stansted Airport.
On his death in 1981, the title became dormant, but it was revived eight years later by a distant cousin Robert Capell.
In 1967, Debrett's had identified Bladen Horace Capell, "a grocery clerk in Yuba City, California" as the person eligible to become the Earl of Essex, if no other heirs could be identified.
Capell married, firstly, Mary Reeve Ward, daughter of F. Gibson Ward, on 2 March 1937. They were divorced in 1957. His second wife was Nona Isabel Miller (1906–1997), daughter of David Wilson Miller, whom he married in November 1957. He had no children by either marriage.