William Lygon, 8th Earl Beauchamp

William Lygon, 8th Earl Beauchamp, JP, DL (3 July 1903 – 3 January 1979), styled as Viscount Elmley until 1938, was a politician in the United Kingdom.

Lygon, known in the House of Commons by his courtesy title of Viscount Elmley, retained his seat as a Liberal National in the 1935 general election.

Beauchamp had no issue of his own by this marriage, but he gained a stepdaughter, Agnete Regitze Dornonville de la Cour (1916–2010).

At one time, Lygon lived in the disused Winterton Lighthouse in Winterton-on-Sea, Norfolk, a village in his parliamentary constituency.

Lygon is sometimes said to be the model for the character of Lord Brideshead ("Bridey"), eldest son of the Marquess of Marchmain, in Evelyn Waugh's novel Brideshead Revisited, perhaps because both were heirs to ancient families and married elderly wives, and both had eccentric fathers.