Robert Shirley, 13th Earl Ferrers

The Earl Ferrers PC DL
Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal
In office 1954 – 13 November 2012 Hereditary Peerage
Preceded by	Robert Walter Shirley
Succeeded by	Matt Ridley

Robert Washington Shirley, 13th Earl Ferrers PC DL (8 June 1929 – 13 November 2012), styled Viscount Tamworth between 1937 and 1954, was a British Conservative politician and member of the House of Lords as one of the remaining hereditary peers. He was one of the few people to serve in the governments of five different Prime Ministers.

Lord Ferrers was the eldest child and only son of Robert Shirley, 12th Earl Ferrers. Educated at the West Downs School, Winchester College and Magdalene College, Cambridge, he succeeded to become 13th Earl Ferrers in 1954 on the death of his father, and consequently was allowed to sit in the House of Lords.

He received an emergency commission as a second lieutenant in the Coldstream Guards on 27 November 1948, serving in Malaya. His commission was regularized on 4 March 1950, with seniority from 1 January 1949. Tamworth was promoted to lieutenant on 3 August 1950.

Ferrers served as a Lord-in-Waiting (government whip) from 1962 until 1964 under both Harold Macmillan and Sir Alec Douglas-Home. When the Conservatives were returned to power under Edward Heath, he once again served as a Lord-in-Waiting from 1971 to 1974, then serving as a Parliamentary Secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food at the beginning of 1974.

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