Viscount Cowdray

Viscount Cowdray
Escutcheon of the Viscounts Cowdray
Creation date	3 January 1917; 107 years ago (3 January 1917)[1]
Created by	George V
Peerage	Peerage of the United Kingdom
First holder	Weetman Pearson, 1st Viscount Cowdray
Present holder	Michael Pearson, 4th Viscount Cowdray
Heir apparent	Peregrine Pearson
Status	Extant
Seat(s)	Cowdray Park
Motto	Do it with thy might[1]

Viscount Cowdray, of Cowdray in the County of Sussex, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom.^[2][3] It was created in 1917 for the industrialist Weetman Pearson, 1st Baron Cowdray, head of the Pearson conglomerate. He had already been created a Baronet, of Paddockhurst, in the Parish of Worth, in the County of Sussex, and of Airlie Gardens, in the Parish of St Mary Abbots, Kensington, in the County of London, on 26 June 1894,^[4] and Baron Cowdray, of Midhurst in the County of Sussex, in 1910.^[5] His son, the second Viscount, sat as a Liberal Member of Parliament for Eye. His son, the third Viscount, after serving in World War II where he lost an arm, was Chairman of the family firm of Pearson Plc from 1954 to 1977. The titles are held by the latter's son, the fourth Viscount, who succeeded in 1995.^[6]

The family seat is Cowdray Park, West Sussex, near Midhurst, Sussex,^[7] which the 4th Viscount put up for sale in 2011 and later proposed converting into apartments.^[8]

• Weetman Dickinson Pearson, 1st Viscount Cowdray (1856–1927)^[9]
• (Weetman) Harold Miller Pearson, 2nd Viscount Cowdray (1882–1933)^[10]
• Weetman John Churchill Pearson, 3rd Viscount Cowdray (1910–1995)^[11]
• Michael Orlando Weetman Pearson, 4th Viscount Cowdray (born 1944)^[12]

The heir apparent is the present holder's son Hon. Peregrine John Dickinson Pearson (born 1994).^[12][13]

• "The Cowdray Estate". Cowdray.co.uk.
• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Weetman John Churchill Pearson, 3rd Viscount Cowdray
• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Michael Orlando Weetman Pearson, 4th Viscount Cowdray