The 15th (or 21st) Baron Saye & Sele, who died 20 January, 2024, aged 103, was a land
agent who devoted much of his energy to restoring and maintaining
Broughton Castle, the beautiful moated medieval mansion near Banbury,
Oxfordshire which had been in his family since 1377.
The custodian of Broughton Castle and one of the first soldiers to enter Belsen concentration camp at the end of the Second World War.
The peer served as a major, Rifle Brigade 1941-49; and was a Trustee, Ernest Cook Trust 1960-95 and Chairman of the Trustees 1965-92; he assumed the surname Fiennes in lieu of that of Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes by deed poll 1965; he was a Fellow of Winchester College 1967-83; and served as Deputy Lieutenant, Oxfordshire from 1979; he was a chartered surveyor, &c.
Nathaniel Thomas Allen Fiennes (previously Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes) was born 22 September, 1920, the son of the 14th Baron Saye & Sele, OBE, MC, DL (1885-1968), and his wife the former Hersey Cecilia Hester Butler (who died 31 Oct, 1968); and succeeded as 15th Baron (created E, 1603) on his father's death, 21 October, 1968.
His mother was the daughter of Sir Thomas Butler, Yeoman Usher of the Black Rod. Nathaniel Fiennes was born in his grandfather’s grace-and-favour apartment in the Victoria Tower of the House of Lords, making him – perhaps uniquely – a Lord born in the Lords.
He married 4 December, 1958, Mariette Helena Salisbury-Jones, DL, the only daughter of Major General Sir (Arthur) Guy Salisbury-Jones GCVO CMG CBE MC, of Mill Down, Hambledon, co. Hampshire, by his wife Hilda Violet Helena de Bunsen, dau. of Rt Hon Sir Maurice William Ernest de Bunsen, 1st Bt. GCMG GCVO CB, by whom he had issue, four sons, Richard, Martin, Thomas and William, and a daughter, Susannah, the artist. His eldest son, the Hon Richard Fiennes predeceased him 13 Apr, 2001. The second son, the Hon Martin Guy Fiennes (born 27 Feb, 1961), succeeds as 16th Baron Saye & Sele, and custodian of Broughton Castle, Banbury.
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