James Charteris, 13th Earl of Wemyss

James Donald Charteris, 13th Earl of Wemyss and 9th Earl of March, DL (/ˈtʃɑːrtərɪs/;^[1] born 22 June 1948), also known as Jamie Neidpath,^[2] is a British peer and landowner.

The Right Honourable The Earl of Wemyss DL
Pictured at the 2008 World Psychedelic Forum in Basel, Switzerland
Born	James Donald Charteris (1948-06-22) 22 June 1948 (age 76)
Other names	Jamie Neidpath
Alma mater	Eton College Oxford University (BA, 1969; MA, 1974) St Antony's College, Oxford (DPhil, 1975) Royal Agricultural College (1978)
Spouses	Catherine Guinness ​ ​ (m. 1983; div. 1988)​ Amanda Feilding ​ ​ (m. 1995)​
Children	2, including Lady Mary Charteris
Parent(s)	David Charteris, 12th Earl of Wemyss Mavis Murray

Lord Wemyss' coat of arms Quarterly: 1st & 4th argent, a fess azure within a double tressure flory-counterflory gules (Charteris); 2nd & 3rd, Or, a lion rampant gules armed and langued azure (Wemyss)

Biography

Early life

Wemyss is the second son of Francis David Charteris, 12th Earl of Wemyss, and his first wife, Mavis Murray. He was educated at Eton College. While a teenager he was Page of Honour to the Queen Mother. He went to Oxford (BA 1969, MA 1974), obtaining a DPhil from St Antony's College in 1975.^[3] He obtained a diploma from the Royal Agricultural College in 1978.^[3] He is known to have undergone an operation of trepanation in 1996 in Cairo, drilling holes in the head, a practice undergone apparently to relieve depression and stimulate creativity. He said, "It seemed to be very beneficial."^[2]

Career

He runs Alro Group, a real estate fund management group.^[2]

He became heir apparent to the Earldoms of Wemyss and March on the death of his elder brother, Iain David Charteris, Lord Elcho, in 1954. He was subsequently known as Lord Neidpath, as opposed to the usual courtesy title of Lord Elcho. He was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant of Gloucestershire in 2005.^[3]

He donated £58,000 between 2001 and 2015 to the political party UKIP as Lord James D Neidpath^[4] or Lord James Charteris,^[5] with no further donations registered to those names or Wemyss as of 2023^[update].^[6]

Personal life

He married Catherine Guinness (born 1952), daughter of Jonathan Guinness, 3rd Baron Moyne (and granddaughter of Diana Mitford and Bryan Guinness), in July 1983. They have a son, Francis Richard (Dick) Charteris, Lord Elcho (b. 1984),^[7] who is the heir to the earldoms, and a daughter, Lady Mary Olivia Charteris, a model and singer.^[8] James and Catherine were divorced in 1988, and she married Robert Hesketh in 1990.

He later married Amanda Feilding in January 1995.^[3] In 1996 she founded The Foundation to Further Consciousness, renamed the Beckley Foundation in 1998, a non-profit organisation which carries out psychedelic research, and continued as its director as of 2023^[update].^[9] They live at Stanway House in Gloucestershire and at Gosford House in East Lothian.^[10]

His uncle Martin Charteris, Baron Charteris of Amisfield was Private Secretary to Queen Elizabeth II.