The Ninth Marquess of Hertford.
Lord Hertford has been patron of the Hertford British Hospital Corporation (now Hertford British Charitable Fund) since 2002 when he replaced Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Queen
Mother after her death. The appointment was a particular honour for him as he was the first patron not to be a senior member of the royal family. He lives in Ragley Hall, Warwickshire, the ancestral seat of the family.
He is a Fellow of the Royal Agricultural Society and High Steward of Stratford-Upon-Avon.
In September 2024 Lord Hertford was awarded the RASE Bledisloe Gold Medal for Landowners by the Royal Agricultural Society of England for outstanding land management of the Ragley Estate.
He was the estate’s farm manager from 1986 to 2001 having been flock master from 1980. Before this he worked as a cowboy in Amarillo, Texas, a shepherd and assistant to the gamekeeper on the Boughton Estate in Northamptonshire and a general farm worker.
He was educated at Harrow and the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester.
He is married to Beatriz Seymour, has four children and three grandchildren.
Tom Drew is His Majesty’s Ambassador to France. Previously, Tom was Director General, Defence and Intelligence, at the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) until December 2023. He had been Director General at the FCDO and previously the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) since January 2020.
Before this, Tom was British High Commissioner to Pakistan from February 2016 until October 2019. He was previously Principal Private Secretary (Chief of Staff) to Foreign Secretaries William Hague and Philip Hammond.
