I was researching local history in the Southampton Archives in the Civic Centre when a piece of family history unrelated to Southampton or my search jumped out of the documents I was viewing.
I was educated at Eton then St John’s College Oxford and have been involved in the management and preservation of Highclere Castle and Estate originally in partnership with my father since my late twenties and with my wife Fiona after his death in 2001. In the late 1980s and during the 1990s I was an investor in technology startups in automated telephone services and early internet companies.
Today I manage the Castle visitor business and Estate with my wife and we continue to farm at Highclere with arable crops, sheep and an oats/haylage business for performance horses.
I am on the Board and Hon Treasurer of the Historic Houses Association and also the regional Chairman of the Thames & Chilterns HH area.