George Herbert, 7th Earl of Powis

George William Herbert, 7th Earl of Powis (4 June 1925 – 13 August 1993), was a British peer who sat in the House of Lords between 1988 and 1993.

Herbert was born on 4 June 1925. He was the eldest son of the Hon. Elaine Letitia Algitha Orde-Powlett and Rt. Rev. Percy Mark Herbert, Bishop of Norwich, Kingston, and Blackburn who served as Clerk of the Closet.^[1] Among his younger siblings (who were granted the rank of earl's children in 1991) were Hon. David Mark Herbert (chief executive of Studio Vista),^[2] Lady Elizabeth Barbarina Herbert (wife of Maj. Hubert Robert Holden of Sibdon Castle, the High Sheriff of Shropshire),^[3] and the Hon. Andrew Clive Herbert.^[4][5]

His paternal grandparents were Sybella Augusta Herbert (née Milbank) and Maj.-Gen. The Hon. William Henry Herbert, Mayor of Shrewsbury (and younger son of Edward Herbert, 2nd Earl of Powis and Lucy Herbert, Countess of Powis).^[6] His maternal grandparents were William Orde-Powlett, 5th Baron Bolton and Elizabeth née Gibson, a daughter of the 1st Baron Ashbourne).^[7]

He was educated at Eton College before attending Trinity College, Cambridge, from where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1949.^[1]

Between school and university, Herbert served in the Rifle Brigade from 1943, during the Second World War, until demobilised in 1947.^[8] Herbert was appointed a Fellow of the Land Agents' Society^[1] and of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors and worked as a land agent on estates in Bedfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk before returning to Shropshire in 1970 to farm his estate in Chirbury,^[8] described as "straddling the Welsh border" and "let his cottages in Chirbury at low rents, safeguarding the village school, and led an appeal to restore the parish church."^[9]

Upon the death of his bachelor cousin, Christian Herbert (both great-grandchildren of the 2nd Earl), on 7 October 1988,^[10] he succeeded as the 7th Earl of Powis, in addition to a number of subsidiary titles including the Baron Clive of Plassey, Baron Clive of Walcot, Baron Herbert of Chirbury, Viscount Clive of Ludlow and the Baron Powis of Powis Castle.^[1]

On 26 July 1949, Herbert was married to the Hon. Katharine Odeyne de Grey, daughter of Lt.-Col. George de Grey, 8th Baron Walsingham and the former Hyacinth Lambart Bouwens.^[4] Together, they lived at Marrington Hall in Chirbury, Shropshire, and were the parents of:^[1]

• John George Herbert, 8th Earl of Powis (b. 1952), who married Marijke Sofia Guther, daughter of Maarten Nanne Guther, in 1977.^[5] They have four children.
• Hon. Michael Clive Herbert (b. 1954), who married Susan Mary Baker, daughter of Guy Baker, in 1978.^[1] They have three children.
• Hon. Peter James Herbert (b. 1955), who married Terri McBride, daughter of Sean McBride, in 1978.^[1] They had two daughters and a son, he then remarried and had another two children.
• Hon. Edward David Herbert (1958–2008), who married Diana Christine Shore, daughter of Cedric Shore, in 1985.^[1] They have two children.
• Lady Lorraine Elizabeth Herbert (b. 1961), who married Roger Samuel Jones in 1981.^[1] They have two children.
• Lady Nicola Wendy Herbert (b. 1962), who married Robert Thomas Buxton in 1985.^[1] They have one daughter, Kim.

After being ill with cancer for eleven months,^[8] Lord Powis died at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital in Shropshire on 13 August 1993 at age 68.^[11][12]

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by the Earl of Powis