Sir John Henry Geers Cotterell, 6th Baronet (8 May 1935 – 4 December 2017) was a Hereford businessman and politician.
Contents
Early life
Cotterell, usually went by his middle name of Henry, was born on 8 May 1935 in Belgrave Square, London. He was the son of Lt.-Col. Sir Richard Cotterell, 5th Baronet and Lady Lettice Lygon. His parents divorced in 1958 and his father married Hon. Molly Patricia Berry (daughter of William Berry, 1st Viscount Camrose) while his mother never remarried. Among his siblings was Rose Evelyn Cotterell, the wife of Charles Hambro, Baron Hambro, heir to the Hambros Bank fortune.
His paternal grandparents were Sir John Cotterell, 4th Baronet and Lady Evelyn Amy Gordon-Lennox (the eldest daughter of the former Amy Mary Ricardo and Charles Gordon-Lennox, 7th Duke of Richmond). His maternal grandparents were William Lygon, 7th Earl Beauchamp and Lady Lettice Mary Elizabeth Grosvenor (a daughter of Victor Alexander Grosvenor, Earl Grosvenor).
He was raised at Garnons, the family seat in Herefordshire, but later moved to Byford Court when Garnons was requisitioned during the War. He was educated at Eton before he was commissioned in the service of the Royal Horse Guards at Windsor in 1955. He later served in Knightsbridge as part of the Household Cavalry's mounted regiment and attended Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst.