Lucius Cary, 15th Viscount Falkland


Lucius Edward William Plantagenet Cary, 15th Viscount of Falkland is a British nobleman and politician.

Background and education

Cary is the eldest of four children, and the only son of Lucius Cary, 14th Viscount of Falkland and Constance Mary Berry, daughter of Captain Edward Berry. The Viscount of Falkland is the senior viscountcy in the peerage of Scotland, created in 1620 by King James VI.
Cary was educated at Wellington College in Berkshire, and was formerly an officer in the Hussars.

Political career

Cary succeeded his father in the viscountcy in 1984 and sat in the House of Lords with the Social Democratic Party, later joining the Liberal Democrats. Following the removal of the majority of hereditary peers under the House of Lords Act 1999, he was one of the ninety-two elected to remain. In 2011 Falkland left the Liberal Democrats and now sits as a Crossbencher. He is a supporter of Humanists UK, and has been a Vice-President of the Royal Stuart Society since 2015.
Lord Falkland lives in a townhouse in Clapham, a few miles from the Palace of Westminster; however he became embroiled in the parliamentary expenses scandal in 2009, when it was brought to light that he had registered his main residence as a house in Kent belonging to his aunt-in-law, entitling him to substantial payments from the Government for travel expenses. Defending his actions, Falkland said: "I didn't do it to make £125,000, I claimed the expenses in order to be able to meet the expenses of my life. I haven't got another income. You might say I'm an impoverished peer: my family over many hundreds of years have been noted for their poverty."

Family

The Viscount married Caroline Anne Butler, daughter of Lieut-Cmdr George Butler, in 1962; they were divorced in 1990. They have four children:
He was married again in 1990 to Nicole Mackey, with whom he has one child: