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James Hamilton, 5th Duke of Abercorn, KG (born 4 July 1934) is the current Duke of Abercorn in the Peerage of Ireland succeeding his father in June 1979. The son of James Edward Hamilton, 4th Duke of Abercorn and Lady Mary Crichton (daughter of Lt.-Col. Henry William Crichton, Viscount Crichton (1872-1914), eldest son of John Crichton, 4th Earl Erne). He is a former politician and Lord Steward of the Household.

[edit] Career

Educated at Eton College and the Royal Agricultural College, in 1952 he was commissioned into the Grenadier Guards. In 1964 he became Ulster Unionist MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone (when he held the courtesy title Marquess of Hamilton). He held his seat in the 1966 election but lost it to a Unity candidate, Frank McManus, in 1970 by 1,423 votes. In 1986 he was appointed Lord Lieutenant of County Tyrone and stood down in 2009. In 1999, he was appointed a Knight of the Order of the Garter, and was colonel of the Irish Guards from 2000 to 2008. Additionally, he was appointed Lord Steward of the Household in 2001 till 2009.

He is one of the largest land owners in Northern Ireland with more than 15,000 acres (61 km²). His seat is Baronscourt, near Newtownstewart, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland.

The Dukedom of Abercorn is in the Peerage of Ireland and did not carry an entitlement to a seat in the House of Lords, but until 1999 the Duke was entitled to sit there under his subsidiary title Marquess of Abercorn, in the Peerage of Great Britain.

[edit] Family

In 1966 he married Alexandra Anastasia "Sacha" Phillips (b. 27 February 1946), eldest daughter of Lt.-Col. Harold Pedro Joseph Phillips (1909–1980) and Georgina Wernher (b. 1919), elder daughter and co-heiress of Sir Harold Wernher, 3rd Baronet, of Luton Hoo, Bedfordshire). The Duchess is known by her second name Alexandra, and her nickname "Sacha". She is the elder sister of Natalia, wife of the Duke of Westminster.

The Duke and Duchess of Abercorn have two sons and a daughter:

• James Harold Charles Hamilton, Marquess of Hamilton (born 19 August 1969), who was married on 7 May 2004 at the Guards Chapel, Wellington Barracks, to Tanya Marie Nation (b. 1971), eldest daughter of Douglas Percy Codrington Nation, senior managing director of Bear Stearns (1942–2001) and his wife Barbara "Bobbie" Brookes. They have two children, James Alfred Nicholas Hamilton, styled Viscount Strabane (born 30 October 2005) and Lord Claud Douglas Harold Hamilton (b. 12 December 2007).
• Lady Sophia Alexandra Hamilton (b. 8 June 1973), who was a model before 1996. She married British war journalist Anthony Loyd in 2002, but they divorced, without children, in 2005.
• Lord Nicholas Edward Hamilton (b. 5 July 1979).