John Charles Dodson, 3rd Baron Monk Bretton

John Charles Dodson, 3rd Baron Monk Bretton (born 17 July 1924) is an agriculturist, Sussex landowner, UK peer of the realm, and long serving member of the House of Lords.

John Dodson succeeded his father, John William Dodson, in 1933.MONK BRETTON, John Charles Dodson. (2008). In "Who's Who 2008". Retrieved February 26, 2008, from http://www.credoreference.com/entry/7441825] MONK BRETTON, John Charles Dodson, Debrett's People of Today.] MONK BRETTON, John Charles Dodson, Dod's Parliamentary Companion.] MONK BRETTON, John Charles Dodson, Burke's Peerage.]

He was only nine years old. Educated at Westminster and New College, Oxford, he became a member of Brooks's in 1949. He married Zoe Scott in 1958, and has two sons..

Between 1966-68 Lord and Lady Monk Bretton had Raymond Erith re-model a Queen Anne house his great-grandfather, Sir John Dodson, had acquired near Barcombe from the family of Percy Bysshe Shelley. The Dodsons had hitherto largely just rented it out; Bose, Lord Alfred Douglas, for example, was a tenant circa 1920. The house, "Shelley's Folly", Erith described as 'a little pavilion, on a knoll, built for the view'. Monk Bretton, having consequently sold another larger and newer nearby house, lived there until moving to Switzerland in 2004.

He has been a Deputy Lieutenant for East Sussex since 1983, and a stalwart of the South of England Agricultural Society show, at Ardingly, since its foundation in 1967.

Expulsion from the House of Lords in 1999 meant that he had few reasons left not to foresake the Thames, and the margins of the South Downs, and settle, like Gustave Courbet and Edmund Ludlow, for the charms of Lake Geneva's northern shore.

Monk Bretton in the Lords

Lord Monk Bretton 'Sat first in Parliament after the death of his father' on Tuesday, 27th January 1948. The 23 year old was greeted by the Second Reading of the infamous Parliament Act 1949. Over 51 years later the by then 75 year old peer was excluded by the House of Lords Act 1999.His maiden speech was made 18 March 1948 in Lord Dowding's "Notice" debate on the "Slaughter of Animals".

The 'capricious donation of birth' (a phrase coined by the late Lord Williams of Mostyn in 1999), it could be said, saw that he shares with his grandfather, 1st Lord Monk Bretton (a successful Chairman of Committees (1865-72) and friend of Gladstone)::'A cold formal manner, a dry voice, a level flow of speech, and a painfully practical turn of mind, [that] whilst making Mr. Dodson's intervention sometimes useful, do not endear him to his audience',:::("Men and Measures in Parliament", 1874, quoted in G.E.C. (1936), vol. 9, p.55).

At 5.30 p.m. on Tuesday 9 November 1999 Lord Grantchester "rose to ask Her Majesty's Government how their proposals for the milk industry and in particular for the supply of raw milk will affect the rural economy", in the ensuing debate Monk Bretton made his valediction.He concluded his 13 minute speech thus::That is the end of my remarks, but I wish also to say goodbye. It is likely that the noble Lord, Lord Grantchester, who initiated this debate, and I will no longer attend this House. I am delighted that a maiden speaker [ Lord Carlile of Berriew ] is to speak after me. I hope that he will carry the torch for British dairying.

Ancestry

Reference

*Lucy Archer, "Raymond Erith, Architect", The Cygnet Press, 1985, (pages 184 & 185).

External links

* [http://www.thepeerage.com/p5539.htm John Charles Dodson, 3rd Baron Monk Bretton] at ThePeerage.com
* [http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld199899/ldhansrd/vo990521/text/90521-05.htm#90521-05_time3 Lords' speech on 21 May 1999] in the second reading debate of Lord Renton of Mount Harry's Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Bill.
* [http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/1999/nov/05/lordreform.constitution Quoted in "The Guardian"] , 5th November 1999. The paper edition had a photograph of him on the front page.
* [http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld199899/ldhansrd/vo991109/text/91109-14.htm Valedictory Milk debate in Hansard] , House of Lords, 9 November 1999.
* [http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Tour-de-Peilz New Residence] (French Wiki)