Sir Thomas Henry Milborne-Swinnerton-Pilkington, 14th Bt., 1934-2024

[JL]

The Telegraph of 24/12/24 carried the following death notice:

https://announcements.telegraph.co.uk/marketplace/advert/pilkington-notices_60262

Sir Thomas Henry Milborne-Swinnerton-Pilkington 14th Bt, died on 17th December 2024 aged 90, having lived an extraordinary, adventurous and happy life. A wonderful, much loved and devoted husband of Susan for 63 years, a thoughtful and loving father of Sarah, Richard and Joanna, a caring and fun grandfather to Elizabeth, Alexander, Henry, Georgina, Tamara, Hope, Edie and Romy, and great grandfather to Clemmie and Arthur. Adored brother to Sonia, Carole and Moira. Private family funeral with a memorial service at King's Walden Bury to be announced in due course.

The baronetcy, originally simply Pilkington, of Stanley in the County of York, is a Nova Scotia baronetcy created for Arthur Pilkington (d. 1650) in 1635 along with a substantial grant of land in Nova Scotia.  In 1836 the surname was changed to Milborne-Swinnerton by act of Parliament by by the heir to the 8th Baronet with a further change to restore Pilkington to the name as a triple-barrel in 1854, both being during the incumbency of the the same heir Baronet, who by then was the 9th Baronet.

Sir Thomas was born in London on 10th March 1934, the only son of Major Sir Arthur William Milborne-Swinnerton-Pilkington, 13th Bt. (1898-1952) by his wife Elizabeth (nee Harrison), the latter being the daughter of Major J.F. Harrison of King's Walden Bury, near Hitchin, Hertfordshire.  Sir Arthur (one of two sons) succeeded his father in 1944 and Sir Thomas succeeded him in 1952.  Sir Thomas, who married Susan Adamson of Durban, Natal in 1961, had one son and two daughters.  His address in Who's Who is given as Parsonage Farm in the above King's Walden Bury.

The heir is the 14th Baronet's only son, Richard Arthur Milborne-Swinnerton-Pilkington, born 4 Sep 1964.  His 1994 marriage to Katya Clemence resulted in 2 daughters but ended in divorce in 2000; his second (2001) marriage to Henrietta Kirk has produced one daughter. 

[dpth...@gmail.com]

His paternal grandmother was Lady Kathleen Mary Alexina Cuffe, of the Earls of Desart.



Sir Arthur PILKINGTON, of Stanley, cr Baronet [S] 1635, presumably with remainder to heirs male whatsoever, bur 5 Sep 1650; m.by 1613 Ellen Lyon (bur 5 Feb 1647)
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Sir Lyon, 2nd Bt. (bap 14 Nov 1613-bur 5 Nov 1684); m.1st a dau (dsp) of Sir Thomas Newton; m.2nd 1650 Phoebe Moyle (d.20 Jun 1686)
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Sir Lyon, 3rd Bt. (ca 1660-bur 7 Aug 1714); m.1st by 1683 Amy Eggleton (bap 8 Mar 1661-4 Apr 1695); m.2nd 1698 Mrs Lennox Smith, née Harrison, gdau of 1st Lord Langdale
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Sir Lyon, 4th Bt. (bap 5 Jun 1683-bur 26 Jun 1716); m.3 Feb 1705 Anne (16 Mar 1683-5 Aug 1764), dau of Sir Michael Wentworth of Woolley, and later wife of Sir Charles Dalston, 3rd Bt.
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Sir Michael, 6th Bt. (bap 25 May 1715-6 Feb 1788); m.1st 7 Dec 1738 Judith Nettleton (dsp, bur 29 Jan 1772); m.2nd 11 Nov 1772 Isabella Rawstorne (d.25 Feb 1823)
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Sir William, 8th Bt. (bap 14 Nov 1775-30 Sep 1850); m.25 Jun 1825 Mary (d.11 Dec 1854), dau of Thomas Swinnerton by Mary Milborne; she took surname MILBORNE-SWINNERTON-PILKINGTON 1836/7
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Sir Lionel PILKINGTON, 1856 MILBORNE-SWINNERTON, subsequently MILBORNE-SWINNERTON-PILKINGTON, 11th Bt. (7 Jul 1835-25 Jun 1901); m.3 Feb 1857 Isabella Elizabeth Kinleside (d.8 Jan 1894)
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Sir Thomas Edward, 12th Bt. (9 Dec 1857-17 Feb 1944); m.23 Jul 1895 Lady Kathleen Mary Alexina Cuffe (17 May 1872-5 Oct 1938), dau of 4th Earl of Desart
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Sir Arthur William, 13th Bt. (7 Apr 1898-24 Jul 1952); m.10 Nov 1931 (div 1950) Elizabeth Mary Harrison
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Sir Thomas Henry, 14th Bt. (10 Mar 1934-17 Dec 2024); m.17 Nov 1961 Susan Adamson

[bx...@yahoo.com]

DPB Online hasn't updated the page yet, but the new heir presumptive should be LIONEL ULICK M-S-P (b. 1956), a son of Ulick O'Connor M-S-P (1903-1979), 2nd son of the 12th Bt.

The line of succession to this baronetcy is very short:

1. LIONEL ULICK (b. 1956)

2. Colin Patrick (b. 1993), son of #1

3. Michael Gerald (b. 1959),  brother of #1.

Brooke

[colinp]

The two great-grandchildren Clemmie and Arthur are not in Debrett's

The new Baronet actually has (according to Debrett's) one daughter (Elizabeth) by his 1st m and two daughters (Georgina and Tamara) by his 2nd m

[bx...@yahoo.com]

A check of the DPB Online database shows that Terence J. Clemence had/has 3 daughters that married into the peerage and baronetcy.  

I'm not sure of their order of birth, so I will just list them alphabetically:

Claudia married and is still married to the 4th Viscount Rothermere.  Their son is the ha.

Katya Theresa was the first wife of Sir Thomas M-S-P, 14th Baronet.  No sons.

Sarah-Jane married twice.  Her first husband, Lord Francis Russell, is the son of the 13th Duke of Bedford.  Two sons, but down the list of succession.

Her second husband is Sir Mark Thatcher, 2nd Bt.  No children.

Brooke

[pyvery]

Katya Theresa had two daughters from her marriage to the 15th baronet and is now Mrs Richard Samuel

Her father died in 2020 and she was born in April 1971

[colinp]

Obituary in the Daily Telegraph 11 January 2025 -  Sir Thomas Pilkington, Bt, Jockey Club senior steward, landowner and shipping chief – obituary

EXTRACTS:

Sir Thomas Pilkington, Bt, senior steward of the Jockey Club, landowner and shipping chief

In Hertfordshire he knocked down his Victorian mansion to replace it with ‘arguably the most handsome country house built since the war’

Sir Thomas Pilkington, 14th Bt, who has died aged 90, was a leading figure on the Turf as senior steward of the Jockey Club and chairman of the British Horseracing Board; he was also a patriarch of the British maritime industry as chairman of his family’s historic shipping business, and the owner of landed estates in Hertfordshire and the north of England……………..

Thomas Henry Milborne-Swinnerton-Pilkington was born in London on March 10 1934 to Major Sir Arthur Milborne-Swinnerton-Pilkington MC, 13th Bt, and his wife Elizabeth, née Harrison. The baronetcy to which Thomas succeeded aged 18 on his father’s death was granted to Arthur Pilkington of Stanley in Yorkshire in 1635 as one of many such titles created by Charles I to encourage early English settlers in Nova Scotia.

Educated at Eton, Tommy played in the First XI, with the future Hampshire captain Colin Ingleby-Mackenzie, against Harrow at Lord’s.

His father’s family seat was Chevet Hall at Wakefield, but the house was demolished in the mid-1950s after mining subsidence and the land was sold to become a country park. 

Elsewhere, Tommy inherited a fine grouse moor in the Peak District. In 1966, through his mother (the eldest of eight daughters), he also inherited his Harrison grandfather’s extensive Kings Walden Bury estate in Hertfordshire. 

There, he knocked down the Victorian mansion in which he had spent part of his childhood and replaced it with what Country Life magazine described as “arguably the most handsome country house built since the war”, designed by “probably the two most convinced Classicists practising today”, Raymond Erith and Quinlan Terry, and completed in 1971…………….

……Pilkington’s lifelong love of racing was reinforced by family connections. His mother, Elizabeth Burke after her second marriage, became a celebrated breeder in Ireland. His sister Sonia Rogers owned the Airlie Stud in Co Kildare and was the first female member of the Turf Club. His second sister, Moira, married the Newmarket trainer Ben Hanbury; and his third sister Carole was the mother of the National Hunt trainer Henry Daly, with whom Pilkington had numerous successes………

He watched his Jour D’Evasion finish second at Sandown in November and attended his last Jockey Club meeting a few days before he ​died – suddenly, during lunch at White’s with an old friend.

He married, in Durban in 1961, Susan Adamson, who survives him with their son Richard, who succeeds as 15th ​Baronet, and daughters Sarah and Joanna.

Sir Thomas Pilkington, ​Bt, born March 10 1934, died December 17 2024

[bx...@yahoo.com]

DPB Online has updated this page.

The line of succession is the one I posted on Dec. 24, 2024.

Brooke

[colinp]

Sir Richard Arthur Milborne-Swinnerton-Pilkington is now entered on the Official Roll of the Baronetage as the the 15th Baronet Milborne-Swinnerton-Pilkington of Stanley