The 3rd Baron Colwyn, CBE, who died 4 August, 2024, aged 82, was a long-serving Conservative peer whose interests ranged from dentistry to jazz – as a dentist and jazz aficionado, Colwyn championed fluoride in water, chaired the Lords’ refreshment committee and was a Deputy Speaker in the Lords.
Colwyn was a prominent London dentist who sat in the Lords as a Conservative from 1966 to 2022; he was one of the 90 hereditaries elected to stay on in 1999 when most were excluded.
Colwyn chaired the Lords’ refreshment committee from 1997 to 2004, and from 2007 until his retirement in 2022 was a Deputy Speaker. He was vice-chairman of the all-party group on dentistry – and co-chairman of the group on jazz, his great passion.
He was born Ian Anthony Hamilton-Smith, 1 January, 1942, to the 2nd Baron Colwyn (1914-1966), and his first wife Miriam Gwendoline Ferguson (who died 8 Jan, 1996). His great-grandfather had been a Liberal supporter, made a baronet by Asquith in 1912 then given a peerage by Lloyd George five years later.
Tony’s childhood was overshadowed by seismic events. His stockbroker father, wounded during war service with the Gordon Highlanders, was cashiered in 1947 after admitting five charges of gross impropriety with Italian men on Ischia and at Turin. Lady Colwyn testified to the court-martial over her husband’s moral character, but the marriage broke up soon after; the 2nd Baron married twice more, but there were no further children.
Colwyn succeeded to his title on his father’s death, 29 May, 1966. Initially his attendance was low-key, but by the time Tony Blair’s administration removed most of the hereditaries, Colwyn’s work in the upper house was felt to merit his staying on. From 2006 to 2010 he served on the Science and Technology Select Committee. He was also president of the all-party group for Complementary and Integrated Healthcare, and chairman of the group for Emergency Ambulance and Paramedic Services.
In 2005 he took the chair of the financial services company Campbell Montague International, but he stepped down three years later because of his commitments in the Lords.
Colwyn at various times was president of the Natural Medicines Society, the Huntington’s Disease Association, the Arterial Health Foundation, the Society for Advancement of Anaesthesia in Dentistry and the Metropolitan Branch of the British Dental Association; chairman of Raw FM and Banbury Local Radio; patron of the Research Council for Complementary Medicine and a trustee of the Portman Estate.
He was appointed CBE in 1989.
Lord Colwyn married, firstly, 31 May, 1964 (div 1977), Sonia Jane Morgan (died 4 September, 2006), 2nd daughter of Peter Henry Geoffrey Morgan, of Upton-on-Severn, co. Worcester ; and married 2ndly, 24 March, 1977, Nicola Jeanne Tyers, daughter of Arthur Tyers, of The Avenue, Sunbury-on-Thames, co. Middlesex.
He is survived by Lady Colwyn, with a son Craig, and a daughter, Jacqueline, from his first marriage and two daughters, Kirsten and Tanya, from his second union. His eldest daughter, Jacqueline, a former love of pop star Robbie Williams, is married to the actor Sean Pertwee.
He is succeeded as 4th Baron by his son, the Hon Craig Peter Hamilton-Smith, born 13 October, 1968.
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