Below are a couple of biographies corresponding to each title. The lower you go in the peerage, the more individual titleholders there are. For example, there are only 10 Dukes in the peerage of the United Kingdom, but there are many hereditary barons in the same peerage (for a list see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Hereditary_Barons_in_the_Peerage_of_the_United_Kingdom)
I. Duke
The Duke of Edinburgh
http://www.royal.gov.uk/OutPut/Page5551.asp
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, Earl of Merioneth and Baron Greenwich, has been married to The Queen since 1947. He was born Prince of Greece and Denmark in Corfu in 1921, but renounced his Royal title when he became a naturalised British subject in 1947.
Having joined the Royal Navy in 1939, Prince Philip saw active service throughout the Second World War, rising to the rank of Lieutenant. He was present in Tokyo harbour when Japan surrendered.
After Princess Elizabeth became Queen, Prince Philip gave up his naval career to support The Queen in her duties. The Duke of Edinburgh has no constitutional role other than as a Privy Counsellor, and sees no State papers. But through his active support of a wide range of charities, and through his own initiatives for young people, The Duke of Edinburgh has played a major role both nationally and internationally.
Like The Queen, Prince Philip is a great-great-grandchild of Queen Victoria. The Queen and Prince Philip are also related through his father's side. His paternal grandfather, King George I of Greece, was Queen Alexandra's brother.
The Duke of Westminster
Major-General Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor, 6th Duke of Westminster, KG, OBE, TD, DL, was born 22 December 1951 in Omagh, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland.
The richest aristocrat in the United Kingdom, the Duke of Westminster topped the Sunday Times Rich List as Britain's wealthiest individual for many years and was surpassed only in 2004 by Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich. The Duke of Westminster was 3rd in the Sunday Times Rich List 2007, behind Roman Abramovich and the Indian-born industrialist, Lakshmi Mittal, who currently holds first place.
The Duke of Westminster joined the Territorial Army in 1970 as a trooper. After long service and becoming an officer, including commanding 'C' squadron (The Cheshire Yeomanry) and his regiment, The Queen's Own Yeomanry, the Duke of Westminster became Honorary Colonel-in-Chief of several regiments, including The Royal Mercian and Lancastrian Yeomanry, 7th Regt. Army Air Corps, and the Canadian Royal Westminster Regiment and Colonel Commandant Yeomanry, Royal Armoured Corps.
In 2004 the Duke of Westminster was appointed to the new post of Assistant Chief of Defence Staff (Reserves and Cadets) with promotion to the rank of Major General. The Duke of Westminster retired from this post in 2007.
The Duke of Westminster is a member of the Prince’s Council of the Duchy of Cornwall and is involved with and actively supports over 250 charities and other organisations. In 2005, the Duke of Westminster became Chancellor of the University of Chester.
II.Marquess
Marquess of Salisbury
Robert Michael James Gascoyne-Cecil, 7th Marquess of Salisbury, was born on 30 September 1946 as the eldest child and first-born son of the Honourable Robert and Mollie Gascoyne-Cecil, who became Viscount and Viscountess Cranborne in 1947. Because he has the courtesy title of Viscount, the Marquess is known as Lord Cranborne.
Lord Cranborne attended Eton College and Christ Church, Oxford and became a merchant banker before going to work on the family estates. He was selected as Conservative candidate for South Dorset in 1976, where his family owned lands. He won the seat in the 1979 general election, the seventh consecutive generation of his family to sit in the Commons.
After the 1992 general election, John Major utilised a rarely-used process known as a writ of acceleration, to call Lord Cranborne up to the House of Lords in one of his father's junior baronies. Lord Cranborne was summoned as Baron Cecil of Essendon (his father's most junior dignity), though continued to be known by his courtesy style of Viscount Cranborne.
During the 1990s, Viscount Cranborne was Leader of the House of Lords under his courtesy title of Viscount Cranborne. He succeeded his father as 7th Marquess on July 11, 2003. He is currently the Chancellor of the University of Hertfordshire.
The Marquesses of Salisbury were descended from the 1st Marquess, a courtier and favorite of King George III of the United Kingdom, who was himself a descendant of Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury and one of the men who brought about the accession of King James I of England. Robert Cecil was himself a younger son of Elizabeth\'s courtier-advisor William Cecil, Lord Burghley, the descendant of a Welsh soldier David Cyssell.
The family seat is Hatfield House, once home to Queen Elizabeth I of England, which was given the family by James I of England in exchange for the Cecil family house Theobalds, which the king liked better. The Salisbury family is very wealthy, with land in Dorset, Hertfordshire, and in London; and with heirlooms at Hatfield House.
The Marquess of Salisbury's heir is his elder son Robert Edward "Ned" William Gascoyne-Cecil, called Viscount Cranborne (b. 1970).
Marquess of Winchester
The Marquessate of Winchester is the oldest English (and British) Marquessate still in existence, and as a result, the holder of the title is considered the Premier Marquess of England. The Marquess of Winchester, incidentally, is the only Marquess in the Peerage of England without a higher title; all other Marquesses in that Peerage are also Dukes. This makes the Marquessate paradoxically the Marquess with the highest in precedence in theory yet the lowest in reality. (The Marquesses of Bath and Salisbury--who also hold no dukedoms--were created as peers of Great Britain.)
Marquess of Winchester is a title that was created in 1551 for the prominent statesman William Paulet. He had already been created Baron St John in 1539 and Earl of Wiltshire in 1550, also in the Peerage of England. The first Marquess was one of the most noted statesmen of his time and served as Lord High Treasurer of England from 1550 to 1572.
On the seventeenth Marquess's death in 1968 the title passed to the late Marquess's first cousin once removed, Nigel George Paulet, 18th Marquess of Winchester. Born December 23, 1941, he is the grandson of Cecil Henry Paulet, uncle of the seventeenth Marquess. Winchester presently lives in South Africa. He married Rosemary Anne Hilton, on 25 November 1967. They have one son, Christopher Paulet, Earl of Wiltshire (b. 30 July 1969).
III. Earl
Earl Spencer
Earl Spencer is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain that was created on 1 November 1765, along with the title Viscount Althorp, of Althorp in the County of Northampton, for John Spencer, 1st Viscount Spencer, a great-grandson of the 1st Duke of Marlborough.
The family seat is Althorp in Northamptonshire. The family estate includes significant land holdings in other parts of the country, including the village of North Creake in Norfolk.
Charles Edward Maurice Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer, DL (born 20 May 1964) is the second and only surviving son of the 8th Earl Spencer by his first wife, the former Frances Burke Roche (later Frances Shand Kydd), daughter of the 4th Baron Fermoy. The youngest of his three elder sisters was Diana, Princess of Wales. His other sisters are Lady Sarah McCorquodale and Lady Jane Fellowes.
Lord Spencer is godson of Queen Elizabeth II, and was a Page of Honour from 1977 to 1979.
Spencer delivered a eulogy at the funeral of his sister Diana, Princess of Wales, in 1997, and managed her interment on the Althorp estate. He has written at least two books about his family, and has opened a museum in honour of Diana. In this museum, Diana's wedding dress and some of her personal effects are on display (on loan from her estate). Lord Spencer was educated at Eton College and obtained his degree in Modern History at Magdalen College, Oxford.
Earl of Derby
Edward Stanley, 19th Earl of Derby, was born 10 October 1962. He inherited the title in 1994 upon the death of his uncle.
Stanley lives at Knowsley Hall, six miles from Liverpool in northwest England. He also has a residence in London. He is married to Cassie, the daughter of The Lord Braybrooke of Audley End. The couple have three children: a daughter, Henrietta, and two sons, Edward and Oliver.
He is the owner of both Stanley Estate & Stud Co., the company name for the 100-acre Stanley House Stud in Newmarket, Suffolk and right next to his home, the Knowsley Safari Park, which is the biggest park of its kind in Britain and attracts over 500,000 annual visitors.
IV. Viscount
Viscount Melville
Viscount Melville, of Melville in the County of Edinburgh, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1802 for the notable lawyer and politician Henry Dundas. He was succeeded by his son, the second Viscount, who was also a noted politician.
He assumed for himself the additional surname of Saunders, which was that of his father-in-law. His son, the third Viscount, was a General in the British Army. His nephew, the sixth Viscount, was a diplomat.
As of 2007 the titles are held by Robert David Ross Dundas, 9th Viscount Melville (b. 1937), who succeeded his uncle in 1971. The family seat is Wey House, near Norton Fitzwarren in Somerset.
Viscount Hereford
Viscount Hereford is a title in the Peerage of England. It was created in 1550 for Walter Devereux, 9th Baron Ferrers of Chartley. The Devereux family is of Norman descent and came to England after the Norman conquest in 1066, and settled in Herefordshire
The viscountcy of Hereford is the senior viscountcy in the Peerage of England. The Viscount Hereford is also the only one of the three English Viscounts who does not hold a higher title.
The family surname is pronounced "Deverooks".
The current titleholder is Charles Robin De Bohun Devereux, 19th Viscount Hereford (b. 1975). The Heir Presumptive is the present holder's brother the Hon. Edward Mark de Breteuil Devereux (b. 1977).
V. Baron
**Note that many Barons hold multiple titles.
Baron Sandys
Richard Michael Oliver Hill, 7th Baron Sandys DL (b. 21 July 1931), is a British landowner and Conservative politician. Sandys is the only son of Arthur Fitzgerald Sandys Hill, 6th Baron Sandys, and his wife Cynthia Mary (née Gascoigne), and was educated at the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth. He served with the Royal Scots Greys from 1950 to 1955, achieving the rank of Lieutenant.
In 1961 he succeeded his father in the barony and took his seat on the Conservative benches in the House of Lords. He served under Edward Heath as a Lord-in-Waiting (government whip in the House of Lords) in 1974 and was an Opposition Whip in the House of Lords from 1974 to 1979.
Between 1979 and 1982 he was Captain of the Yeomen of the Guard (Deputy Chief Whip in the House of Lords) in the first Conservative administration of Margaret Thatcher. Apart from his political career he was also a Deputy Lieutenant of Worcestershire in 1968.
Lord Sandys married Patricia, daughter of Captain Lionel Hall, in 1961. They have no children. The heir presumptive is the present holder's kinsman Arthur Francis Nicholas Wills Hill, 9th Marquess of Downshire (b. 1959).
Baron Coleridge
Baron Coleridge, of Ottery St Mary in the County of Devon, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom.
It was created in 1874 for Sir John Coleridge, a prominent lawyer, judge and Liberal politician. He served as Lord Chief Justice of England from 1880 to 1894. His son, the second Baron, represented Attercliffe in the House of Commons and served as a Judge of the High Court of Justice. The first Baron was the son of Sir John Taylor Coleridge and the great-nephew of the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
As of 2007 the title is held by the latter's great-grandson, the fifth Baron, William Duke Coleridge (b. 1937) who succeeded in 1984. The heir is the present holder's only son The Hon. James Duke Coleridge (b. 5 June 1967).
