Ralph Francis Julian Stonor, 5th Baron Camoys (26 January 1884 – 3 August 1968) was an English Aristocrat and Lord of Stonor Park who married an American heiress.

Early life

Lord Camoys was born on 26 January 1884 at Stonor Park in Stonor, north of Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire, England. He was the son of Francis Robert Stonor, 4th Baron Camoys (1856–1897) and the former Jessie Philippa Carew. His father was the Lord-in-Waiting to Queen Victoria in 1886 and again from 1892 to 1895. His paternal grandparents were Hon. Francis Stonor (second son of the Thomas Stonor, 3rd Baron Camoys) and Eliza Peel (a daughter of British prime minister Sir Robert Peel). His maternal grandfather was Robert Russell Carew of Carew & Co., Ltd. and his maternal aunt, Katherine Jane Carew, was married to Edward Bosc Sladen, the British army officer. He was educated at the Oratory School in London and at Balliol College, Oxford and served as Attaché to Madrid.

Career

Upon his father's death in 1897, he succeeded as Baron Camoys and was thereafter known as Lord Camoys. Lord Camoys identified himself with the pure food reform movement and was elected chairman of the executive committee of the Pure Food and Health Society. Lord Camoys was a captain in the Royal Flying Corp and, during World War II, was also a Captain with the Buckinghamshire Home Guard from 1940 to 1945.

Personal life

On 25 November 1911, Ralph was married to American heiress, Mildred Constance Sherman (1888–1961), the daughter of William Watts Sherman and the former Sophia Augusta Brown, a granddaughter of the founder of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. Together, they were the parents of the following children: Lord Camoys died at his American home, Stonor Lodge in Newport, Rhode Island (in the United States), on 3 August 1968. At his death, he had seven grandsons and three great-grandchildren.

Descendants

Through his son, he was the grandfather of The Hon. Julia Camoys Stonor (b. 1939), who married Donald Saunders in 1963; Thomas Stonor, 7th Baron Camoys (1940−2023), who married who Elisabeth Hyde Parker in 1966; The Honourable Georgina Stonor (b. 1941); The Honourable Harriet Stonor (b. 1943), who married Julian Cotterell in 1965; and The Honourable John Stonor (1946–1994), who died unmarried. Through his youngest daughter, he was the grandfather of Pamela Drexel; John Rozet Drexel IV, who married to Mary Jacqueline Astor, daughter of John Jacob Astor VI and Gertrude Gretsch; and Noreen Drexel O'Farrell.