Sarah Troughton

Lord Lieutenant of Wiltshire

Sarah Troughton
35th Lord Lieutenant of Wiltshire
Incumbent
Assumed office
February 2012
Preceded byJohn Barnard Bush
Personal details
Born
Sarah Rose Colman

(1953-05-03) 3 May 1953 (age 70)
London, England
Spouse
Peter Troughton
(m. 1977)
Children3
Parent(s)Sir Timothy Colman
Lady Mary Bowes-Lyon
OccupationPublic service

Sarah Rose Troughton DStJ (née Colman; born 3 May 1953) is the Lord Lieutenant of Wiltshire, appointed with effect from February 2012. She is the first woman to hold the position since it was created in the 16th century. A second cousin of King Charles III, for ten years she was lady-in-waiting to Katharine, Duchess of Kent. In 2022, she became one of the six women appointed as "Queen's companions" to Queen Camilla.

Early life

Troughton was born in London.[citation needed] She is the eldest of the five children of Sir Timothy Colman KG, a past Lord Lieutenant of Norfolk,[1][2] and Lady Mary Cecilia Bowes-Lyon, a granddaughter of Claude Bowes-Lyon, 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne. Her maternal grandfather was a brother of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, so that she is a second cousin once removed of the present Earl of Strathmore and a first cousin once removed of Queen Elizabeth II.[1] Her ancestor Jeremiah Colman (1777–1851) made a fortune from Colman's mustard, a business which eventually grew into Reckitt & Colman, of which her father was a director until 1989.[2]

Public life

From 1990 to 2000, Troughton was lady-in-waiting to the Duchess of Kent.[3]

Living at Wanborough, near Swindon,[4] she became a trustee of the Community Foundation for Wiltshire and Swindon, a role in which she still serves, and is also President of Community First/Youth Action Wiltshire.[5] She became a Deputy Lieutenant of Wiltshire in 2006.[4] In December 2011, with effect from February 2012, she was promoted to the Lord Lieutenancy.[5] Charles Petty-Fitzmaurice, 9th Marquess of Lansdowne, was her Vice-Lord-Lieutenant until 2016, and William Wyldbore-Smith now has that role.[6] In 2011, she was chairman of the Chelsea Physic Garden,[5] but retired from that role in 2020.[6]

As Lord Lieutenant, Troughton's public duties include overseeing arrangements for visits to Wiltshire by members of the Royal Family and escorting royal visitors; representing the King at events and presenting awards and medals on his behalf; liaising with the Wiltshire units of the Royal Navy, Army and Royal Air Force; leading the local magistracy as chairman of the Lord Chancellor's Advisory Committee on Justices of the Peace; and advising on nominations for national honours.

In January 2013, Troughton was made a Commander of the Order of St John by the Queen,[7] and raised to Dame of the order in 2021.[8]

In 2022, she was one of the first six women appointed as "Queen's companions" (replacing the traditional ladies-in-waiting) to Queen Camilla.[9] A BBC News article described Troughton as one of Camilla's longstanding personal friends.[9]

Personal life

In 1977 she married Peter Troughton (born 1948), a member of HM Diplomatic Service, [10] and the eldest son of Sir Charles Troughton, chairman of W H Smith.[11] They have a son and two daughters.[12] Her grandson, Nicholas Barclay, son of her daughter Rose, was a page of honour at the coronation of King Charles III.[13] Her husband was later a director of the Lowland Investment Company PLC in the City of London,[14] a trustee of the Royal Collection and Pro-Chancellor of the University of Bath. He is now a trustee of the Rothschild Foundation and a member of the Salisbury Diocesan Board of Finance.[6]

Honours

Notes

  1. ^ a b Charles Mosley, ed., Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 107th edition, vol. 2 (2003), p. 1639
  2. ^ a b ‘COLMAN, Sir Timothy (James Alan)’, in Who's Who 2012 (London: A & C Black, 2012)
  3. ^ Debrett's Peerage & Baronetage online edition, p. 1360 (subscription required), accessed 26 May 2012
  4. ^ a b London Gazette, issue 57993 of 26 May 2006, p. 7299
  5. ^ a b c Morwenna Blake, Queen appoints new Lord Lieutenant from Salisbury Journal, 3 December 2011 online at salisburyjournal.co.uk, accessed 7 May 2012
  6. ^ a b c Lord-Lieutenant of Wiltshire, wiltshire.gov.uk, accessed 12 September 2022
  7. ^ "Order of St John". The Gazette. 15 January 2013. Retrieved 10 January 2021.
  8. ^ "Other Notices | The Gazette". www.thegazette.co.uk. Retrieved 11 May 2021.
  9. ^ a b Sean Coughlan, "Camilla scraps ladies-in-waiting in modernising move", BBC News, 27 November 2022, accessed 27 November 2022
  10. ^ The Diplomatic Service List 1976 (London: HMSO, 1976), p. 425: "Troughton, Peter John Charles; Second Secretary FCO since June 1975; born 18.6.48; FCO 1970; Third later Second Secretary Jakarta 1973."
  11. ^ "TROUGHTON, Sir Charles (Hugh Willis)", in Who Was Who, online edition by Oxford University Press, 2007, accessed 26 May 2012 (subscription required)
  12. ^ Burkes Peerage, vol. 3 (2003), p. 3784
  13. ^ https://www.guardian-series.co.uk/news/national/23486758.pages-honour-ladies-attendance-coronation/
  14. ^ "Troughton, Peter John Charles" in The Directory of Directors (1997), p. 734
Preceded by Lord Lieutenant of Wiltshire
2012–present
Incumbent