George Courthope, 1st Baron Courthope

The member of a family that had been settled at Whiligh in Sussex for many centuries, Courthope was the son of Lieutenant-Colonel George John Courthope and his wife Elinor Sarah, daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel Edward Loyd.

He was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford and was later called to the Bar, Inner Temple.

[2] He was also a Colonel in the 5th Battalion of the Royal Sussex Regiment (Territorial Army) and fought in the First World War, where he was wounded, mentioned in despatches and awarded the Military Cross.

[4] Lord Courthope married firstly Hilda Gertrude, daughter of Major-General Henry Pelham Close, in 1899.

[5] He famously supplied oak wood for the repair of the 14th-century roof of Westminster Hall, some cut from trees over 600 years old,[6] from the same forest in Whiligh, Sussex, which had supplied some of the original timber in 1393.