Newspaper Article

The ladies are for turning

Bell, Matthew

2013

Overview

Most vocal among them is Edward Lambton, 'Ned' to his friends, or the 7th Earl of Durham to readers of Debrett's. As the only son of the late Lord Lambton, the Tory minister who resigned in 1973 after being photographed in bed with a prostitute, he inherited the entirety of his father's 12m fortune, including Lambton Castle and Biddick Hall in County Durham, and Villa Cetinale in Tuscany, considered by some to be Italy's most beautiful house. As the elder Lambton spent the last 30 years of his life in Italy, under Italian law all his children are entitled to a share of the estate. Since his death in 2006, three of his daughters have been locked in a dispute with their brother, demanding their share. Just as they were preparing to settle for a payment of 1m each, events took an acrimonious turn when Ned served a High Court writ, designed to prevent them claiming anything at all. The issue is close to [Julian Fellowes]'s heart, as his wife, Emma Kitchener, is the great-great-niece of Field-Marshal Herbert Kitchener, who was created 1st Earl Kitchener at the start of the First World War, and is famous as the face of the 'Your Country Needs You!' posters. The current Earl Kitchener, Emma's uncle, has no children, so the title will die out with him. In an interview with the Radio Times, he said: \"If you're asking me if I find it ridiculous that a perfectly sentient adult woman has no rights of inheritance whatsoever when it comes to a hereditary title, I think it's outrageous, actually.\" He added: \"Either you've got to get rid of the system or you've got to let women into it. I don't think you can keep it as 'men only'. The point is not whether or not you approve of hereditary titles, but given the fact they do exist, the exclusion of women from them under English law is absolutely bizarre.\" In October 1998, the Fellowes all changed their names by deed poll to Kitchener-Fellowes, to preserve the name through their son Peregrine, 22, an actor and playwright, like his father. \"My father is the Earl of Macclesfield. If he were to die, the title will go to his younger brother, and after him it would go to his son, my cousin. It's basically sexual discrimination - it's as clear as that. It has taken a while for women generally to get equal rights, and while this is one of those things that doesn't directly affect every woman, it just sets a culture, that this is acceptable, that women are second-rate. I don't think I know anyone who disagrees - it's archaic. So I'm hopeful that we can change it - you're always surprised what people can do when they really want to get something achieved. So many times you hear people being told, 'You can't do that'. Well actually, if you really put your mind to it, you stand a pretty good chance. In my family, the money was carved up by my great-grandfather in a different way, so that it stopped coming down to the eldest son. So it would make no financial difference to me, or, if I'm honest, in my everyday working life. But it's just that cultural inequality I would like changed. I think it's wrong for the Government to sit back and accept an inequality like this.\"

• Publisher: Independent Digital News & Media
• Subject: Fellowes, Julian / Fortescue, Earl / Lambton, Edward / MacLeod, Mary