County aristocrat dies

A well-known member of Staffordshire's aristocracy has died suddenly at his home at Sandon Hall, near Stafford.

The Earl of Harrowby, who was 84, collapsed on Tuesday morning following a suspected heart attack.

Lord Harrowby, whose full name was Dudley Danvers Granville Coutts Ryder, was the seventh earl and will be succeeded by his son Viscount Sandon.

The earl was educated at Eton and Oxford and served with the Army during the Second World War, when he was wounded in north-west Europe, and rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.

He spent all his life in the banking world and was deputy chairman of the National Westminster and managing director of Coutts.

The earl inherited the title in 1987 and in recent years devoted a great deal of his time to the Sandon Estate and in particular the hall's conservatory extension, known as the Nineveh Room.

It was officially opened in 2006 and this year was one of the winners in the Southern Staffordshire Design Awards.

Its recognition came for outstanding building work in the commercial sector and the extensions incorporate a bar, lift and disabled access.

Ben Duncan, agent for the Harrowby Estate, said: "Lord Harrowby was extremely pleased about the award.

"In recent years he has been extremely active, working on the running of the estate and the promotion of Sandon Hall as a venue for conferences and social events."

Mr Duncan added that a public funeral service will be held at All Saints Church, in the village of Sandon, at 3pm on Friday, October 19.