Edward David Joseph Lyon-Dalberg-Acton FRHistS (born 4 February 1949) is a British academic and former Vice-Chancellor of the University of East Anglia.

[2] His title from birth is The Honourable but he is never referred to as such professionally or on the university website.

Through his maternal line he is also the great-grandson of the Nobel Prize-winning scientist John William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh.

[3] He worked at the Bank of England, and then held academic posts at Liverpool and Manchester, before becoming Professor of Modern European History at the University of East Anglia in 1991.

[4] He was portrayed by Ade Edmondson in The Trick, BBC One's 2021 dramatisation of the Climategate crisis.