John Jacob Astor VIII, 3rd Baron Astor of Hever (born 16 June 1946), is an English businessman and politician from the Astor family. He sat in the House of Lords as a Conservative hereditary peer from 1984 to his retirement in 2022. Astor was Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Ministry of Defence from 2010 to 2015. Astor is a Deputy Lieutenant of Kent.
Contents
Family background
Astor was born 16 June 1946. He is the eldest of the five children of Gavin Astor, 2nd Baron Astor of Hever, and Lady Irene Haig. Astor succeeded to the peerage after his father died from cancer in June 1984. His younger siblings are Bridget, Elizabeth, Sarah, and Philip. His maternal grandfather was Field Marshal Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig.
Education and military career
Astor was educated at Eton College before serving with the Life Guards (the senior regiment of the British Army, part of the Household Cavalry) from 1966 until 1970, where he visited Malaysia, Hong Kong, and Northern Ireland as well as ceremonial duties in London.
He worked in France for 11 years, and is now patron of the Conservatives in Paris.
Political career
In 1994, Lord Astor was a British Parliamentary Observer in Johannesburg during the South African General Election. He was a member of the Executive, Association of Conservative Peers from 1996 to 1998. In 1999 he was elected to continue as a member of the House of Lords. Astor retired from the House of Lords on 22 July 2022.
From 1998 to 2001, he served as an Opposition Spokesman on Social Security and Health from 1998 to 2003. From 2001, he has been an Opposition Spokesman for Foreign & Commonwealth Affairs, and International Development, from 2003 to 2010, Opposition Spokesman for Defense, and from 2010 to 2011 a Lord in Waiting. From 2010 to 2015 he was parliamentary under-secretary of state at the Ministry of Defence. He is currently the Prime Minister's Trade Envoy to Oman and Defence Secretary's Adviser for Military Co-operation with the Sultanate of Oman.
He is former Hon. Vice-Chairman of the Conservative Middle East Council. In 1995 he piloted through the House of Lords the Road Traffic (New Drivers) Act and in 1996 the Trading Schemes Act.
Marriages and children
Astor married firstly Fiona Diana Lennox-Harvey, a daughter of Capt. Roger Harvey, on 1 July 1970. They had three daughters. They were divorced in 1990 and in the same year Astor married Elizabeth Constance Mackintosh, younger daughter of John Mackintosh, 2nd Viscount Mackintosh of Halifax. They have two children.