Nathaniel Fiennes, 21st Baron Saye and Sele

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Major The Right Honourable
The Lord Saye and Sele
DL
Personal details
Born
Nathaniel Thomas Allen Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes

(1920-09-22)22 September 1920
Died20 January 2024(2024-01-20) (aged 103)
NationalityBritish
Spouse
Mariette Salisbury-Jones
​
​
(m. 1958)​
Children5, including Susannah and William
Parent
Military career
Allegiance United Kingdom
Service/branch British Army
Years of service1941–1950
RankMajor
UnitRifle Brigade
Battles/wars
AwardsMentioned in dispatches

Nathaniel Thomas Allen Fiennes, 21st Baron Saye and Sele, DL (né Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes; 22 September 1920 – 20 January 2024), styled as Lord Saye and Sele, was an English peer, businessman, chartered surveyor and army officer.

Early life and education[edit]

Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes was born on 22 September 1920, the son of Ivo Murray Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes, 20th Baron Saye and Sele, and Hersey Cecilia Hester Butler. Despite a family connection with Winchester College, he was educated at Eton and then at New College, Oxford.[1] While still a student at Eton, he played cricket at minor counties level for Oxfordshire, making a single appearance in the 1938 Minor Counties Championship against Cornwall.[2] Whilst studying at Oxford, Fiennes did not play first-class cricket for Oxford University Cricket Club, given the suspension of first-class cricket during the Second World War.

Army career[edit]

During the Second World War Fiennes served in the Rifle Brigade (Prince Consort's Own). He received an emergency commission in the Rifle Brigade on 19 April 1941,[3] and was promoted war-substantive lieutenant on 1 October 1942 and temporary captain on 3 September 1943.[4] In March 1945 he was mentioned in dispatches for service in North-West Europe.[5]

In April 1945 Fiennes and his regiment, the 8th Battalion of the Rifle Brigade, were among the first troops to reach Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. In 2020 he recalled for the Daily Telegraph: "We turned down a small track, and it opened into a sight you would never want to see again ... People being chopped up, people on the ground, pits with three or four hundred dead bodies in each ... It was like something from a nightmare, and the smell was overpowering". He met with Bergen-Belsen survivor Mala Tribich (originally from Piotrków Trybunalski, Poland) at his family seat, Broughton Castle, shortly before the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the camp, and was ready "to grovel before [Tribich], because I have such a respect and admiration for her. She is the most remarkable lady ... all these survivors are". Tribich, who was 14 and ill with typhus when Bergen-Belsen was liberated, had previously survived the ghetto in her hometown and Ravensbrück concentration camp.[6]

After the war, Fiennes remained in the army, receiving promotion to war-substantive captain and temporary major on 15 January 1946.[7] On 22 May 1948 he received a regular commission as a lieutenant in the Rifle Brigade (seniority from 22 May 1943),[8] with promotion to captain effective from the same date (seniority from 22 November 1947).[9] He was stationed in Palestine during the Palestine Emergency in 1946–1947, for which he was again mentioned in dispatches in January 1949.[10] He resigned his commission on 8 February 1950, leaving with the honorary rank of major.[11]

Later work[edit]

Fiennes was a trustee of the Ernest Cook Trust, which works for the preservation of English country houses and estates, from 1959 until 1995, serving as chairman from 1964 until 1990. He was also a Fellow of Winchester College from 1967 to 1983.

He became a chartered surveyor and was a partner in the company Laws and Fiennes before becoming a regional director within Lloyds Bank from 1983 to 1990.

In 1979 Fiennes was appointed Deputy Lieutenant (DL) of Oxfordshire.[1]

Family[edit]

In 1958 Fiennes married Mariette Helena Salisbury-Jones (born 1935), daughter of Major-General Sir Arthur Guy Salisbury-Jones,[1] and had five children:

In 1965 he changed his surname by deed poll to Fiennes thereby relinquishing the surnames Twisleton and Wykeham.

Fiennes's brother Ingelram was killed on 30 August 1941 when his Wellington bomber was shot down, and his other brother, Oliver, was a clergyman who served as Dean of Lincoln from 1969 to 1989.

When his father died on 21 October 1968, Fiennes succeeded him as 21st Baron Saye and Sele. He died on 20 January 2024, at the age of 103.[13]

Notes[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c "Saye and Sele, 21st Baron, (Nathaniel Thomas Allen Fiennes) (born 22 Sept. 1920)". WHO'S WHO & WHO WAS WHO. 2007. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u33970. ISBN 978-0-19-954088-4. Retrieved 8 February 2021.
  2. ^ "Minor Counties Championship Matches played by Nat Fiennes". CricketArchive. Retrieved 24 January 2024.
  3. ^ "No. 35153". The London Gazette (Supplement). 9 May 1941. p. 2590.
  4. ^ The Quarterly Army List: July-September 1945. HM Stationery Office. 1945. pp. 1368g.
  5. ^ "No. 36994". The London Gazette (Supplement). 20 March 1945. p. 1561.
  6. ^ Kelly, Guy (15 April 2020). "'A sight you would hope to never see again'". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 10 May 2020.
  7. ^ The Quarterly Army List: December 1946. HM Stationery Office. 1946. p. 1322.
  8. ^ "No. 38294". The London Gazette (Supplement). 18 May 1948. p. 3058.
  9. ^ "No. 38325". The London Gazette (Supplement). 15 June 1948. p. 3579.
  10. ^ "No. 38505". The London Gazette (Supplement). 7 January 1949. p. 126.
  11. ^ "No. 38832". The London Gazette (Supplement). 7 February 1950. p. 648.
  12. ^ "Banbury Guardian, report of death, published 19 April 2001". Archived from the original on 3 April 2015. Retrieved 2 April 2015.
  13. ^ "Lord Saye and Sele, custodian of Broughton Castle and one of the first soldiers to enter Belsen – obituary". The Telegraph. 22 January 2024. Retrieved 22 January 2024.

Links and sources[edit]

Peerage of England
Preceded by Baron Saye and Sele
1968–2024 		Succeeded by
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