Lord Michael Onslow, 1938–2011

Michael William Coplestone Dillon Onslow, the seventh Earl of Onslow, reveled in his role as one of the British House of Lords’ most colorful members. But he harbored no illusions about how his family gained its original baronetcy, which dates back to 1660. His ancestors, he said, were cattle thieves who continually upgraded their titles by currying favor with the powerful—or, as Onslow put it, by “getting pissed with Pitt the Younger.”

Irreverence was one of Onslow’s hallmarks, along with brightly colored socks and bow ties, said the London Guardian. Born into a politically active family, Onslow attended Eton and the Sorbonne before serving in Yemen and Oman with the British Life Guards. After he left the service, he worked briefly as a professional photographer before becoming an insurance broker, commuting to work with a pet monkey. It escaped one morning and was retrieved by the police. A nominal Conservative with a pronounced liberal streak, Onslow had an “instinct for troublemaking.” He didn’t know Tory policy on most issues, he said, “and I’d probably disagree with it even if I did.”

Joining the House of Lords when he inherited his title, in 1971, Onslow soon campaigned to overhaul the body, said The New York Times. He urged Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to reform it, but became a vocal opponent of reform when Labor Prime Minister Tony Blair swept out hundreds of hereditary members of the House and replaced them with retired members of Parliament, retired civil servants, and other political appointees. Onslow said he would “behave like a football hooligan” to thwart what he considered an ill-designed makeover. Mercurial as ever, he supported immigration, civil rights, drug legalization, and foxhunting, while opposing racism and Britain’s membership in the European Union.

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He was unpredictable outside of politics, too, said the Associated Press. In 1994 he hosted a program on “the BBC’s snooty classical music station to acquaint listeners with thrash metal, rap, jungle,” and other outré musical genres. “It’s time to get trippin’ with me, Lord Onslow,” he would say. His death left observers of the House of Lords wondering when they’d ever have another member who would chase a runaway bull along a major highway on horseback and proudly boast that he was “a pustule on the rump of the body politic.”