George John Charles Mercer Nairne Petty-Fitzmaurice, 8th Marquess of Lansdowne, DL (27 November 1912 – 25 August 1999), was a British peer and Conservative politician.
[1] He was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, and served in the British Army in the Second World War.
[2] In August 1944, Petty-Fitzmaurice’s life was significantly changed when his cousins the 7th Marquess of Lansdowne and his younger brother were both killed in action in the War.
As a result, he suddenly and unexpectedly inherited the family peerages and estates, except for the Lordship of Nairne, which under Scottish law went to the 7th Marquess's sister Katherine Evelyn Constance Bigham (1912–1995).
The first Lady Lansdowne died on 18 February 1965, from injuries sustained in a shotgun blast in the gunroom at her Scottish home, Meikleour House, found by the police to be an accident.