I was interested in finding out why John Selwyn Gummer chose the title Baron Deben, of Winston in the County of Suffolk. The name Deben has many associations in his former constituency, including a firm with a great website which sell microscopes and a school .
I had forgotten that John gummer’s brother is already a life peer, Baron Chadlington of Dean in the County of Oxfordshire. Which set me to wondering how many other pairs (or maybe even triplets) of relatives sit in the House of Lords. There are the former Mr & Mrs Kinnock of course, each of whom has been ennobled in their own right.
It would be interesting to see one of those modern computer graphics showing the networks of family in Parliament & comparing the current picture with that of the C19th when the hereditary principle held sway*. Did the House of Commons become less of a family business in the mid C20th , & have the greater numbers of women in politics helped to bring back the family connections?
*Somebody would of course have to do the hard work of compiling all the data first
