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Lord Carrington wearing his robes as a Knight Companion of the Order of the Garter, in procession to St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle for the annual service of the Order of the Garter.

Peter Alexander Rupert Carrington, 6th Baron Carrington KG, GCMG, CH, MC, PC, DL (born 6 June 1919) is a British Conservative politician and served as British Foreign Secretary between 1979 and 1982 and as Secretary-General of NATO from 1984 to 1988.

Carrington was educated at Eton and RMA Sandhurst. In 1938 he succeeded his father as 6th Baron Carrington and took his seat in the House of Lords on his 21st birthday in 1940. During the Second World War he served as a major in the Grenadier Guards and was awarded the Military Cross.

After the war Lord Carrington became involved in politics and served in the Conservative administrations of Winston Churchill and Anthony Eden as Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry for Agriculture and Food from November 1951 to October 1954 and to the Ministry of Defence from October 1954 to October 1956. The latter year Carrington was appointed High Commissioner to Australia, a post he held until October 1959.

After his return to Britain he served under Harold Macmillan as First Lord of the Admiralty until October 1963 and was then Minister without Portfolio and Leader of the House of Lords under Sir Alec Douglas-Home until October 1964, when the Conservatives fell from power. From 1964 to 1970 he was Leader of the Opposition in the House of Lords. When the Conservatives returned to power in 1970 under Ted Heath, Carrington became Defence Secretary, where he remained until 1974. He also served as Chairman of the Conservative Party from 1972 to 1974, and was briefly Secretary of State for Energy from January to March 1974.

A stone set by Lord Carrington while High Commissioner to Australia, at the All Saints Church, Canberra

Lord Carrington was again Leader of the Opposition in the House of Lords from 1974 to 1979. In 1979 he was made Foreign Secretary and Minister for Overseas Development as part of the first Cabinet of Margaret Thatcher. He chaired the Lancaster House conference in 1979, a wrapup of Zimbabwe's revolutionary war attended by Ian Smith, Abel Muzorewa, Robert Mugabe, Joshua Nkomo, Josiah Tongogara that paved the way for second elections in February, 1980. He was Foreign Secretary in 1982 when the Falkland Islands were invaded by Argentina. He took full responsibility for the complacency and failures in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to foresee this development and resigned. Lord Carrington then served as Secretary-General of NATO from 1984 to 1988.

In 1991, Lord Carington presided over diplomatic talks about the breakup of the Former Yugoslavia and attempted to pass a plan that would end the wars and result in each republic becoming an independent nation.

Apart from his political posts he is an emeritus Chancellor of the University of Reading and has served as chairman of several companies, including Christie's, and as a director of many others, including Barclays Bank, Schweppes and the Daily Telegraph. He also chaired the Bilderberg conferences for several years in the late 90s, being succeeded in 1999 by Étienne Davignon.^[1] In 1983 he became president of the Pilgrims Society.^[2]

After the House of Lords Act 1999 removed the automatic right of hereditary peers to sit in the House of Lords, Carrington (along with all former Leaders of the House of Lords) was given a life peerage as Baron Carington of Upton, of Upton in the County of Nottinghamshire, and therefore still sits in the House of Lords. He is currently the longest serving member of the House of Lords and is the second longest serving member of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom after the Duke of Edinburgh.

His surname (which the family assumed in 1839 in lieu of Smith) and life peerage are both spelt Carington (single "r"), and the hereditary peerages are spelt Baron Carrington (double "r").

• Military Cross, 1945.
• Lord of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, 1959.
• Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour, 1983.
• Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, 1985.
• Knight Grand Cross of the Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George, 1988.
• Life peerage, as Baron Carington of Upton, 1999.
• Medal of Honour for his contribution regarding Serbian war crimes committed against civilians in Croatia (especially in the Vukovar massacre and rough displacement of citizens), 1999.

Lord Carrington married Iona McClean, daughter of Lt.-Colonel Sir Francis Kennedy McClean, on 25 April 1942. They have three children:

• The Hon. Alexandra Carington DL, (Norfolk), (born 1943), married 1965 Major Peter de Bunsen, and has three children: Victoria de Bunsen (born 1968) Charles Rupert de Bunsen (born 1970) and James Peter de Bunsen (born 1973).
• The Hon. Virginia Carington (born 1946), married 1973 (divorced 1979) Henry Cubitt, 4th Baron Ashcombe
• The Hon. Rupert Francis John Carington DL, (Buckinghamshire), (born 1948), married 1989 Daniela Diotallevi, and has three children: Robert Carington (born 1990), Francesca Carington (born 1993), and Isabella Iona Carington (born 1995).

1. ^ Rockefeller, David (2002). Memoirs. Random House, p.412. ISBN 0-679-40588-7. 
2. ^ (1999) Who's Who. 

Further reading: 'Reflect on Things Past - The Memoirs of Lord Carrington'. Published by William Collins, 1988.

• Announcement of his taking the oath under his new title at the House of Lords House of Lords minutes of proceedings, 17 November 1999
• Lord Carrington's views on the EU from the Daily Telegraph
• Burke's Peerage entry.

v • d • e Secretaries General of NATO
Hastings Ismay | Paul-Henri Spaak | Dirk Stikker | Manlio Brosio | Joseph Luns | Peter Carington | Manfred Wörner | Sergio Balanzino | Willy Claes | Sergio Balanzino | Javier Solana | George Robertson | Jaap de Hoop Scheffer