He was s of the 6th Earl of ROSEBERY 1882-1974 and his 2nd w Hon Eva Isabel Marion BRUCE 1892-1987 d of 2nd Baron ABERDARE 1851-1929 and Constance Mary 1855-1932 d of Hamilton BECKETT 1829-83 (gs of Sir John BECKETT 1st Bt 1743-1826) and Hon Sophia Clarence COPLEY 1828-1911 d of 1st Baron LYNDHURST 1772-1863 and his 1st w (her 2nd h, she was wid of Lt Charles Thomas) Sarah Garay BRUNSDEN 1795-1834. He m 1955 Alison Mary Deirdre b 1931 d of Ronald William REID 1910-94 and Elinor Mary d of Percy Watt STUART 1869-1948 of Spring Creek, NZ and Elinor Mary 1874-1917 d of John Clervaux CHAYTOR 1836-1920 (gs of Sir William CHAYTOR 1st Bt 1771-1847) and Emma FEARON 1847-1913 of Nelson, NZ, and had a son and four daus. His son succeeds him:
HARRY RONALD NEIL Primrose [7th Earl of ROSEBERY] has yet to establish his claim: b 20 Nov 1967 he m 1st 1994 (div 2014) Caroline Julia d of Ronald DAGLISH and Mrs William WYATT-LOWE of Hemel Hempstead and had a son and four daus (incl triplets); m 2nd 2022 Harriet d of Barrie CLAPHAM.
SON LIVING (by 1st m)
CASPIAN ALBERT HARRY b 8 Sep 2005 [Lord Dalmeny]
DAUGHTERS LIVING (by 1st m)
Lady Marina Charlotte Elizabeth b 2002
Lady Lavinia Eva Marion b 2003
Lady Delphi Helen Isobel b 2003
Lady Celeste Margaret Louise b 2003
OTHERS IN LINE (according to DPB online) descendants of 3rd Earl of Scots cr, not in remainder to UK earldom
2. James Ralph PRIMROSE b 1952 (resident Nevada City, USA) m 1983 with a son and a dau
3. Andrew Gerald PRIMROSE b 1988 (son of 2)
4. David Neil PRIMROSE b 1945 (resident BC, Canada) m 1966 with two sons and an adopted dau
5. David Francis Neil PRIMROSE b 1966 (resident Sutton Coldfield, W Midlands, son of 4) m 1989 with two daus
6. Douglas James Baird PRIMROSE b 1970 (resident BC, Canada, son of 4) m 1994 with a son and an adopted dau
7. Jacob William PRIMROSE b 2002 (son of 6)
1st Earl succeeded by his eldest son,
2nd Earl succeeded by his younger surviving son,
3rd Earl succeeded by his son by his 2nd wife,
4th Earl succeeded by his grandson,
5th Earl succeeded by elder son,
6th Earl succeeded by his younger surviving son by his 2nd wife,
7th Earl succeeded by his only son, the present 8th Earl.
Remember that the Earldom of Rosebery has been created with remainder first to heirs male, in default of that to heirs female, hence why no woman has succeeded to the peerage yet.
The Earl of Rosebery and Midlothian, unconventional electrician who lit major exhibitions – obituary
He came to public notice at the ‘sale of the century’ of his house Mentmore, when mid-auction he leapt up and fixed the wiring
The 7th Earl of Rosebery and 4th Earl of Midlothian, who has died aged 95, was a scientist, electrical engineer and agriculturalist with a brilliant, if unconventional, mind.
The grandson of Queen Victoria’s last Liberal prime minister, the 5th Earl of Rosebery, and Hannah Rothschild, he came to public notice in 1977, three years after succeeding his father, at the famous sale of Mentmore in Buckinghamshire, the spectacular Rothschild house which his father had inherited.
At the start of the auction the public address system failed. Not pausing, the youthful Lord Rosebery leapt into the rostrum, upstaging the chairman of Sotheby’s, Peter Wilson, delved into the wiring and fixed the problem in a trice….
Neil Rosebery’s unusual aptitude for science was perhaps a manifestation of a Rothschild gene, for his cousins included the scientist Victor (Lord) Rothschild and the world expert on fleas, Miriam Rothschild. As a boy he had a tin hut in which he built transistors, and at the Rosebery seat of Dalmeny, a Regency gothic house designed by William Wilkins overlooking the Firth of Forth near Edinburgh, he undertook rewiring until he got stuck under the floorboards, much to the irritation of his mother.
Neil Archibald Primrose was born in Mayfair on 11 February 1929 to his father’s second wife, Eva Bruce, daughter of the 2nd Lord Aberdare and former wife of Algernon Strutt, the 3rd Lord Belper. His father, the 6th Earl of Rosebery, was a first-class cricketer, the owner of two Derby winners, and a Liberal politician who was briefly installed by Churchill as Secretary of State for Scotland.
Ronald, Lord Dalmeny, Neil’s elder half-brother by his father’s first marriage to Dorothy Grosvenor, died aged 21 in 1931, and Neil became the heir, taking the alternative courtesy title of Lord Primrose.
He was effectively an only child. His half-sister Lady Helen Primrose was already 16 when he was born, and there were three adult Strutt half-siblings by his mother’s first marriage, including Lavinia, later Duchess of Norfolk. The young Neil occupied himself with his electrical enthusiasms and Meccano, and to the delight of his mother shared her passion for bridge.
He was 11 when the Second World War broke out, and thanks to his parent’s friend, J Pierpont Morgan Jnr, was sent to the United States for two years, attending Millbrook School at Stanford, New York……
His career as a lighting professional coincided with marriage and the arrival of a large family, which gave Neil the secure emotional base he had lacked. He had met Deirdre Reid, an art student at the Ruskin, at the Oxford Playhouse, where he created the lighting and she painted the sets. They courted watching Marx Brothers’ films at the Walton Street cinema and married in 1955.
Deirdre Rosebery provided Neil with a strong centring force over the remarkable 70-year span of their marriage. Both were very strong characters. They had five children, four daughters and a soN.
Married life was divided between a London house in Orme Square, and Dalmeny, where Neil became a progressive forester and farmer. The Scottish estates, the historic base of the family, were given to him by his father in 1955 and Neil and Deirdre converted the upper floor at Dalmeny into a self-contained family house…..
Lord Rosebery is survived by his wife and children. His son Harry Dalmeny, chairman of Sotheby’s UK, succeeds to the earldoms.
The 7th Earl of Rosebery and 4th Earl of Midlothian, born February 11 1929, died June 30 2024