View source for John Spencer, 8th Earl Spencer

{{Short description|Father of Princess Diana (1924–1992)}}
{{EngvarB|date=July 2020}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2020}}
{{Infobox nobility
| honorific_prefix = [[The Right Honourable]]
| name = The Earl Spencer
| honorific_suffix = {{Postnominals|country=GBR|size=100%|LVO}}
| image = John Spencer, Viscount Althorp in 1967.jpg
| caption = Spencer in 1967
| CoA = 
| tenure = 
| predecessor = 
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1924|1|24|df=yes}}
| birth_place = [[Paddington]], London, England
| successor = 
| birth_name = Edward John Spencer
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1992|3|29|1924|1|24|df=yes}}
| death_place = [[St John's Wood]], London, England
| resting_place = Ashes interred in the Church of St Mary the Virgin, [[Great Brington]]
| spouse = {{Ubl
  |{{Marriage|[[Frances Shand Kydd|Frances Roche]]|1954|1969|end=div.}}
  |{{Marriage|[[Raine Spencer, Countess Spencer|Raine, Countess of Dartmouth]]|1976}}
}}
| issue = {{Ubl
  |[[Lady Sarah McCorquodale]]
  |[[Lady Jane Fellowes]]
  |John Spencer
  |[[Diana, Princess of Wales]]
  |[[Charles Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer]]
}}
| parents = {{Ubl
  |[[Albert Spencer, 7th Earl Spencer]]
  |[[Cynthia Spencer, Countess Spencer|Lady Cynthia Hamilton]]
}}
| module = {{Infobox military person
| embed = yes
| allegiance = [[United Kingdom]]
| branch = {{tree list}}
* [[British Army]]
** [[Royal Scots Greys]]
{{tree list/end}}
| serviceyears = 1944–1945
| rank = [[Captain]]
| battles = [[World War II]]
}}
| noble family = [[Spencer family|Spencer]]
}}

'''Edward John Spencer, 8th Earl Spencer''' {{postnominals|country=GBR|LVO}} (24 January 1924{{Snd}}29 March 1992), styled '''Viscount Althorp''' until June 1975, was a British peer, military officer, and courtier. He was the father of [[Diana, Princess of Wales]], and the maternal grandfather of [[William, Prince of Wales]], and [[Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex]].

==Early life, education and military career==
Lord Spencer was born Edward John Spencer, [[Viscount Althorp]], the only son and younger child of [[Albert Spencer, 7th Earl Spencer]], and his wife the former [[Cynthia Spencer, Countess Spencer|Lady Cynthia Hamilton]], second daughter of the [[James Hamilton, 3rd Duke of Abercorn|3rd Duke of Abercorn]]. He was born on 24 January 1924 in their family home at 24 [[Sussex Square, London|Sussex Square]], [[Bayswater]], London.<ref name="nyt30mar">{{cite news|date=30 March 1992|title=The 8th Earl Spencer, 68, Dies; Father of the Princess of Wales|newspaper=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/03/30/world/the-8th-earl-spencer-68-dies-father-of-the-princess-of-wales.html|access-date=29 May 2013}}</ref> He was educated at [[Eton College|Eton]], the [[Royal Military College, Sandhurst|Royal Military College]] at [[Sandhurst, Berkshire|Sandhurst]], and the [[Royal Agricultural College]]. Popularly known to his family and friends as Johnnie Althorp, he served as a [[Captain (British Army and Royal Marines)|captain]] in the [[Royal Scots Greys]] from 1944 to 1945,<ref name="WP-Obituary">{{cite web|date=30 March 1992|title=The 8th Earl Spencer Dies|url=https://www.cwashingtonpost.com/archive/local/1992/03/30/the-8th-earl-spencer-dies/ecee3f61-444f-4ca5-8d21-293f6b063026/|access-date=7 December 2020|newspaper=The Washington Post}}</ref> and was [[Mentioned in Despatches|Mentioned in Dispatches]]. He landed in France the day after [[D-Day]]. He led a British Army unit in an operation to liberate two French towns, [[La Neuve-Lyre]] and [[La Vieille-Lyre]].<ref name="puente">{{cite news|last1=Puente|first1=Maria|date=4 September 2019|title=Princess Diana's dad was WWII hero, her brother Charles Spencer reveals in 'Today' sitdown|work=USA Today|url=https://usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2019/09/04/dianas-dad-william-harry-granddad-wwii-hero-says-her-brother/2200588001/|access-date=6 November 2019}}</ref><ref name="spencer">{{cite news|last1=Spencer|first1=Charles|date=4 September 2019|title=Charles Spencer, Princess Diana's brother, shares discovery of father's WWII heroism|work=Today|url=https://www.today.com/news/charles-spencer-princess-diana-s-brother-travels-normandy-uncover-father-t161710|access-date=6 November 2019}}</ref><ref name="Winston">{{cite web|last1=Winston|first1=George|date=24 September 2019|title=Father of Princess Diana Was Hero Who Liberated Two Towns in WWII|url=https://www.warhistoryonline.com/news/princess-diana.html|access-date=6 November 2019|website=warhistoryonline.com}}</ref> From 1947 to 1950, he served as [[Aide-de-Camp]] to [[Excellency|His Excellency]] [[Lieutenant General (United Kingdom)|Lieutenant-General]] [[Willoughby Norrie, 1st Baron Norrie|Sir Willoughby Norrie]], then [[Governor of South Australia]].<ref name="WP-Obituary"/>

He was engaged to 1950's [[debutante]] of the year, Lady Anne [[Earl of Leicester|Coke]] (later [[Anne Tennant, Baroness Glenconner]], lady-in-waiting to [[Princess Margaret]]).<ref>{{cite news|date=7 December 2019|title=Lady in Waiting by Anne Glenconner review – a bestselling glimpse of the royals|language=en|work=The Guardian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/dec/07/lady-in-waiting-by-anne-glenconner-review-a-glimpse-of-real-life-behind-the-crown|access-date=17 April 2021}}</ref> His father objected to the match on the grounds of "mad blood", a reference to the [[Nerissa and Katherine Bowes-Lyon|institutionalised relatives of the queen]], and the engagement was broken off. Much later, the director of the [[Murdoch Children's Research Institute]] thought that a [[genetic disease]] in the Hepburn-Stuart-Forbes-Trefusis family may have killed male members of the family in early childhood and caused learning disabilities in females.<ref>"[http://www.mcri.edu.au/pages/our-people/mcri-history.asp The History of the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110911094710/http://www.mcri.edu.au/pages/our-people/mcri-history.asp|date=11 September 2011}}" website, retrieved 14 November 2011.</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|last=Coke|first=Hope|date=19 November 2020|title=Behind The Crown: The true story of the Queen's cousins, Nerissa and Katherine Bowes-Lyon|url=https://www.tatler.com/article/real-story-nerissa-and-katherine-bowes-lyon-the-queens-cousins-the-crown-season-4|magazine=Tatler|access-date=15 March 2021}}</ref><ref>"[https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=i3czAAAAIBAJ&sjid=AZMDAAAAIBAJ&dq=nerissa%20bowes-lyon&pg=4737%2C5919064 Bowes-Lyon Retardation Gene May Have Killed Males&#x200E;]", ''The Age'', 9 April 1987.</ref>

Spencer held the offices of [[County Councillor]] for [[Northamptonshire]] (1952), [[High Sheriff of Northamptonshire]] (1959) and [[Justice of the Peace]] for [[Norfolk]] (1970).<ref name="WP-Obituary"/> He served as [[equerry]] to [[George VI|King George VI]] (1950–52) and to [[Elizabeth II|Queen Elizabeth II]] (1952–54),<ref>{{cite web|title=Diana, Princess of Wales biography|url=http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/page155.asp|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140525233322/http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/page155.asp|archive-date=25 May 2014|work=The official website of the British Monarchy|quote=Earl Spencer was Equerry to George VI from 1950 to 1952, and to The Queen from 1952 to 1954.}}</ref> and was invested as a Member (fourth class) of the [[Royal Victorian Order]] (MVO) in 1954.<ref>{{London Gazette
| issue = 40181
| date = 25 May 1954
| page = 3072
}}</ref> Prior to 1984, the grades of Lieutenant and Member were classified as Members (fourth class) and Members (fifth class), respectively, but both with the post-nominals MVO. He was known by the [[Courtesy titles in the United Kingdom|courtesy title]] Viscount Althorp until 1975 when he became the 8th Earl Spencer upon his father's death.<ref name="cnnfyi">{{cite news|title=Princess Diana: The Earl's daughter, born to life of privilege|publisher=CNN|url=http://edition.cnn.com/fyi/school.tools/profiles/princess.diana/student.storypage.html|access-date=30 May 2013|archive-date=4 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304135816/http://edition.cnn.com/fyi/school.tools/profiles/princess.diana/student.storypage.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> He was Member of the [[House of Lords]] from 9 June 1975 (the day his father died and he inherited the peerage) until his own death.

==Family life==
On 1 June 1954 Spencer and the [[The Honourable|Hon.]] [[Frances Shand Kydd|Frances Ruth Roche]], the younger daughter of the [[Maurice Roche, 4th Baron Fermoy|4th Baron Fermoy]], were married in [[Westminster Abbey]] by [[Percy Herbert (bishop)|Percy Herbert]], [[Bishop of Norwich]]. [[Elizabeth II|Queen Elizabeth II]] and other members of the [[British royal family|royal family]] attended the wedding ceremony.<ref name="mgaz1june">{{cite news|date=1 June 1954|title=Queen heads lists guests at wedding|newspaper=The Gazette|location=Montreal|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=PYEtAAAAIBAJ&pg=5838,281319&dq=frances+ruth+roche&hl=en|access-date=21 July 2013}}</ref> They had five children:
* [[Lady Sarah McCorquodale|Lady Elizabeth ''Sarah'' Lavinia Spencer]] (born 19 March 1955), goddaughter of [[Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother]], married Neil Edmund [[Clan McCorquodale|McCorquodale]] on 17 May 1980 and had issue
* [[Lady Jane Fellowes|Lady Cynthia ''Jane'' Spencer]] (born 11 February 1957), goddaughter of [[Prince Edward, Duke of Kent]], married [[Robert Fellowes, Baron Fellowes]], on 20 April 1978 and had issue
* [[The Honourable|Hon.]] John Spencer (12 January 1960 –&nbsp;12 January 1960), died within ten hours of his birth
* [[Diana, Princess of Wales|Lady Diana Frances Spencer]] (1 July 1961 – [[Death of Diana, Princess of Wales|31 August 1997]]), [[Wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer|married]] to Charles, [[Prince of Wales]] (later [[Charles III]]), from 1981 to 1996 and had issue
* [[Charles Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer|Charles Edward Maurice Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer]] (born 20 May 1964), godson of [[Elizabeth II|Queen Elizabeth II]], married first to [[Victoria Aitken|Victoria Lockwood]] from 1989 to 1997 and had issue, married second to Caroline Hutton from 2001 to 2007 and had issue, and married third to [[Karen Spencer, Countess Spencer|Karen Villeneuve]] on 18 June 2011 and had issue

According to author [[Penny Junor]] "Johnny could be violent, and [Frances] felt she and her children would be safer out of the home".<ref name="CNN-doc">{{cite web|url=https://www.insider.com/princess-diana-father-slap-her-mother-cnn-doc-2021-10|title=Princess Diana once witnessed her father 'slap' her mother during the royal's tumultuous childhood, CNN doc details|work=Insider|first=Rebecca|last=Cohen|date=8 October 2021|accessdate=9 January 2023}}</ref> Their daughter Diana also recalled "seeing my father slap my mother across the face and I was hiding behind the door and she was crying".<ref name="CNN-doc"/>

The marriage was not a happy one, and in 1967, Frances left John to be with [[Peter Shand Kydd]], an heir to a wallpaper fortune in Australia, whom she had met the year before. Frances lived with Diana and Charles in London during the separation, but during that year's Christmas holidays, Viscount Althorp refused to let his children return to London with their mother.<ref>{{cite book|last=Brown |first=Tina |author-link=Tina Brown |year=2007 |title=The Diana Chronicles |publisher=Doubleday |location=London; New York |isbn=978-0-385-51708-9 |url=https://archive.org/details/dianachronicles00brow_0|pages=40–41}}</ref> John and Frances Spencer were divorced in 1969. Immediately thereafter, Frances married Peter Shand Kydd and John was granted custody of their children by the courts after his former mother-in-law, [[Ruth Roche, Baroness Fermoy]], testified against her own daughter.<ref>''The Times (London)'', Thursday, 8 July 1993; p. 4 col. D and p. 19 col. A</ref> In 1976, Lord Spencer married [[Raine Spencer, Countess Spencer|Raine McCorquodale]], the former wife of the [[Gerald Legge, 9th Earl of Dartmouth|9th Earl of Dartmouth]] and daughter of Captain Alexander McCorquodale, a British Army officer, and the romantic novelist Dame [[Barbara Cartland]].

In 1978, Spencer suffered a severe stroke,<ref name=nyt30mar/> from which, at one stage, he was not expected to recover, and which kept him in hospital for eight months. Shortly before his death, he was hospitalised for pneumonia.<ref>{{cite web|date=30 March 1992|title=Edward John Spencer; Earl Was Princess Diana's Father|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-03-30-mn-33-story.html|access-date=7 December 2020|newspaper=Los Angeles Times}}</ref> He died of a heart attack in 1992, and was succeeded by his only surviving son, Charles.<ref name="lat30mar">{{cite news|date=30 March 1992|title=Edward John Spencer; Earl Was Princess Diana's Father|newspaper=Times Wire Services|location=London|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-03-30-mn-33-story.html|access-date=29 May 2013}}</ref> His funeral was held at the Church of St Mary the Virgin, [[Great Brington]], and his ashes were interred in the family vault beneath the Spencer chapel.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-kokomo-tribune-princess-dianas-fath/7306906/|title=Princess Diana's father, 68, dead of heart attack|agency=Associated Press|date=30 March 1992|access-date=21 April 2024}}</ref>

==Coat of arms==
{{Infobox COA wide
|image = [[File:Coat of arms of the Earl Spencer (2).svg|200px|center]]
|creation date= 1 November 1765
|crest = Out of a Ducal Coronet Or a Griffin's Head Azure gorged with a Bar Gemelle Gules between two Wings expanded of the second
|coronet = A [[Coronet]] of an Earl
|escutcheon = Quarterly Argent and Gules in the 2nd and 3rd quarters a Fret Or over all on a Bend Sable three Escallops of the first
|supporters = Dexter:  A Griffin per fess Ermine and Erminois gorged with a Collar Sable the edges flory-counterflory and chained of the last and on the Collar three Escallops Argent;  Sinister:  A Wyvern Erect on his tail Ermine similarly collared and chained
|motto = Dieu Defend Le Droit (God defend the right)
}}

== Ancestry ==
{{Ahnentafel
|collapsed=yes |align=center |ref={{sfn|Williamson|1981a|p= }}{{sfn|Williamson|1981b|p= }}<!--Reference for entire table-->
|boxstyle_1=background-color: #fcc;
|boxstyle_2=background-color: #fb9;
|boxstyle_3=background-color: #ffc;
|boxstyle_4=background-color: #bfc;
|1= 1. '''John Spencer, 8th Earl Spencer'''
|2= 2. [[Albert Spencer, 7th Earl Spencer]]
|3= 3. [[Cynthia Spencer, Countess Spencer|Lady Cynthia Elinor Beatrix Hamilton]]
|4= 4. [[Charles Spencer, 6th Earl Spencer]]
|5= 5. The Honourable Margaret Baring
|6= 6. [[James Hamilton, 3rd Duke of Abercorn]]
|7= 7. [[Rosalind Hamilton, Duchess of Abercorn|Lady Rosalind Cecilia Caroline Bingham]]
|8= 8. [[Frederick Spencer, 4th Earl Spencer]]
|9= 9. Adelaide Horatia Seymour
|10= 10. [[Edward Baring, 1st Baron Revelstoke]]
|11= 11. Louisa Emily Charlotte Bulteel
|12= 12. [[James Hamilton, 2nd Duke of Abercorn]]
|13= 13. [[Mary Hamilton, Duchess of Abercorn|Lady Mary Anna Curzon-Howe]]
|14= 14. [[George Bingham, 4th Earl of Lucan]]
|15= 15. Lady Cecilia Catherine Gordon-Lennox
}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

===Bibliography===
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite journal |last=Williamson |first=D. |year=1981a |title=The Ancestry of Lady Diana Spencer |journal=Genealogist's Magazine |volume=20 |number=6 |pages=192–199 }}
* {{cite journal |last=Williamson |first=D. |year=1981b |title=The Ancestry of Lady Diana Spencer |journal=Genealogist's Magazine |volume=20 |number=8 |pages=281–282 }}
{{refend}}

==External links==
{{Portal|Biography}}
* {{Hansard-contribs|mr-edward-spencer|John Spencer, 8th Earl Spencer}}
* {{NPG name|name=Edward John Spencer, 8th Earl Spencer}}

{{s-start}}
{{s-hon}}
{{succession box | before=[[Sir Gyles Isham, 12th Baronet|Sir Gyles Isham, Bt]] | title=[[High Sheriff of Northamptonshire]] | years=1959 | after=[[Evelyn Fanshawe]]}}
{{s-reg|gb}}
{{succession box | before=[[Albert Spencer, 7th Earl Spencer|Albert Spencer]] | title=[[Earl Spencer (peerage)|Earl Spencer]] | after=[[Charles Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer|Charles Spencer]] | years=9 June 1975 – 29 March 1992}}
{{s-end}}

{{Diana, Princess of Wales}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spencer, John Spencer, 8th Earl}}
[[Category:1924 births]]
[[Category:1992 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century British landowners]]
[[Category:Military personnel from London]]
[[Category:People from Paddington]]
[[Category:Earls Spencer|08]]
[[Category:People educated at Eton College]]
[[Category:Royal Scots Greys officers]]
[[Category:British Army personnel of World War II]]
[[Category:Graduates of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst]]
[[Category:Alumni of the Royal Agricultural University]]
[[Category:High sheriffs of Northamptonshire]]
[[Category:Lieutenants of the Royal Victorian Order]]
[[Category:Equerries]]
[[Category:Deaths from pneumonia in England]]