Grey Gowrie

The Right Honourable The Earl of Gowrie PC FRSL
Portrait by Nick Sinclair, 1992
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
In office 11 September 1984 – 2 September 1985
Prime Minister	Margaret Thatcher
Preceded by	The Lord Cockfield
Succeeded by	Norman Tebbit
Minister of State for the Arts
In office 11 June 1983 – 2 September 1985
Prime Minister	Margaret Thatcher
Preceded by	Paul Channon
Succeeded by	Richard Luce
Minister of State for Northern Ireland
In office 15 September 1981 – 10 June 1983
Prime Minister	Margaret Thatcher
Preceded by	Michael Alison
Succeeded by	The Earl of Mansfield
Minister of State for Employment
In office 7 May 1979 – 15 September 1981
Prime Minister	Margaret Thatcher
Preceded by	Harold Walker
Succeeded by	Michael Alison
Lord-in-waiting Government Whip
In office 7 April 1972 – 4 March 1974
Prime Minister	Edward Heath
Preceded by	new appointment
Succeeded by	The Lord Jacques
Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal
In office 27 November 1960 – 11 November 1999 Hereditary Peerage
Preceded by	The 1st Earl of Gowrie
Succeeded by	Seat abolished
Personal details
Born	Alexander Patrick Greysteil Hore-Ruthven (1939-11-26)26 November 1939 Dublin, Ireland
Died	24 September 2021(2021-09-24) (aged 81) Llanfechain, Wales
Nationality	British
Political party	Conservative
Spouses	Alexandra Bingley ​ ​ (m. 1962; div. 1973)​ Adelheid Gräfin von der Schulenburg ​ ​ (m. 1974)​
Children	1
Parents	Patrick Hore-Ruthven (father) Pamela Cooper (mother)
Alma mater	Eton College Balliol College, Oxford Harvard University

Alexander Patrick Greysteil Hore-Ruthven, 2nd Earl of Gowrie,^[1] PC, FRSL (26 November 1939 – 24 September 2021), usually known as Grey Gowrie or Lord Gowrie, was an Irish-born British hereditary peer, politician, and businessman. Lord Gowrie was also the hereditary Clan Chief of Clan Ruthven in Scotland. He was educated at Eton and Oxford, and held posts in academia for a period, in the US and London, including time working with poet Robert Lowell and at Harvard University.

Gowrie was a Conservative Party politician for some years, including a period in the British Cabinet. He held ministerial posts under Margaret Thatcher, in the areas of employment and Northern Ireland, and was Minister of State for the Arts, as well as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, with responsibility for Civil Service reform. Offered a promotion to full Secretary of State, with responsibility for education across the UK, he turned it down. Previously an arts dealer, he moved to Sotheby's for a reputed salary of around £150,000, chairing parts of the art auction business. He later chaired the Arts Council of England (1994–1998).

He published several volumes of poetry, with a collected edition released in 2014, and a volume on the artist Derek Hill; he was also a contributing author for a book on British painting. He underwent a heart transplant at Harefield Hospital in his early sixties. He died at his home in Llanfechain, Powys, Wales, in September 2021.