William Pleydell-Bouverie, 9th Earl of Radnor (born 5 January 1955), of Longford Castle

Longford Castle

Longford Castle is located on the banks of the River Avon south of Salisbury, Wiltshire, England.In 1573 Thomas Gorges, of Langford acquired the manor , which was originally owned by the Cervingtons. Prior to this the existing mansion house had been damaged by fire...

, Wiltshire

Wiltshire

Wiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers...

, is an English

English people

The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...

 peer and landowner.

The son of Jacob Pleydell-Bouverie, 8th Earl of Radnor

Jacob Pleydell-Bouverie, 8th Earl of Radnor

Jacob Pleydell-Bouverie, 8th Earl of Radnor was a British nobleman. He was the son of William Pleydell-Bouverie and Helena Olivia Adeane....

 and Anne Garden Seth-Smith, daughter of Donald Farquharson Seth-Smith, Pleydell-Bouverie was educated at Harrow

Harrow School

Harrow School, commonly known simply as "Harrow", is an English independent school for boys situated in the town of Harrow, in north-west London.. The school is of worldwide renown. There is some evidence that there has been a school on the site since 1243 but the Harrow School we know today was...

 and the Royal Agricultural College

Royal Agricultural College

The Royal Agricultural College is a higher education institution located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, UK. Established in 1845, it was the first agricultural college in the English speaking world...

, Cirencester

Cirencester

Cirencester is a market town in east Gloucestershire, England, 93 miles west northwest of London. Cirencester lies on the River Churn, a tributary of the River Thames, and is the largest town in the Cotswold District. It is the home of the Royal Agricultural College, the oldest agricultural...

. Until the death of his father, he was known by the courtesy title

Courtesy title

A courtesy title is a form of address in systems of nobility used for children, former wives and other close relatives of a peer. These styles are used 'by courtesy' in the sense that the relatives do not themselves hold substantive titles...

 of Viscount Folkestone.

In 1996 he married Melissa Stanford, daughter of James Keith Edward Stanford, OBE, formerly Director-General of the Leonard Cheshire Foundation

Leonard Cheshire

Group Captain Geoffrey Leonard Cheshire, Baron Cheshire, VC, OM, DSO and Two Bars, DFC was a highly decorated British RAF pilot during the Second World War....

, and grand-daughter of the author J. K. Stanford

J. K. Stanford

John Keith Stanford OBE MC was a British writer of the mid 20th century.He was educated at Rugby School and St. John's College, Oxford. Stanford was commissioned into the Suffolk Regiment in 1915 and was attached to the Tank Corps from 1917. He ended the First World War with the rank of...

. They have four sons and two daughters, and the heir apparent is now their eldest son, Jacob Pleydell-Bouverie, Viscount Folkestone, born 7 April 1999.