Peter Carrington was born in Chelsea on 6 June 1919, the only son of the 5th Baron Carrington and Sibyl Colville. He was educated at Eton and Sandhurst, and after his father’s death in 1938 he succeeded his father as the 6th Baron when he was just 19 years old. During the war he served in the Grenadier Guards, reaching the rank of Major, and was awarded a Military Cross in 1945. In 1942 he married Ioana McClean, with whom he has two daughters and one son.
Although he did not leave the army until 1949 he first took his seat in the Lords in October 1945. On leaving the army he soon became involved in Conservative politics, holding junior cabinet posts in the 1950 and briefly serving as High Commissioner to Australia. He led Conservative Peers after 1963 and progressed into cabinet jobs, becoming Secretary of State for Defence under Heath. One of the few Conservatives close to both Heath and Thatcher, he became Foreign Secretary in Thatcher’s government, presiding over the Lancaster House conference in 1979 over the future of what was then Rhodesia. Having been taken by surprise by the Falklands War in 1981 Carrington resigned from the Foreign Office, and continued to serve other positions in the Conservative Party. Between 1984 and 1988 he was Secretary General of NATO.
Outside of the Lords he took on other diplomatic roles and was chair or director of several companies, including the Telegraph group. After the removal of hereditary peers from the Lords in 1999 he was created a life peer, and became the oldest member of the Lords in 2016.
Lord Carrington passed away on 9 July 2018.