Henry Herbert, 17th Earl of Pembroke
British noble and film director (1939-2003)
Henry George Charles Alexander Herbert, 17th Earl of Pembroke, 14th Earl of Montgomery (19 May 1939 – 7 October 2003), styled Lord Herbert between 1960 and 1969 and often known simply as Henry Herbert, was a British landowner, member of the House of Lords, film director, and producer.
Background and education
Herbert was the only son of the 16th Earl of Pembroke and 13th Earl of Montgomery and his wife, Mary (a daughter of the 1st Marquess of Linlithgow) and a godson of Prince George, Duke of Kent. Through the 11th Earl of Pembroke, he descended from Countess Catherine Vorontsov. He was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford and briefly served with the Royal Horse Guards from 1958 to 1960 before, in 1969, inheriting his father's titles and estate centred on Wilton House in Wiltshire.
Career in the film industry
Herbert began to take an interest in the film business in the 1960s and worked on the set of The Heroes of Telemark (1965). After making documentaries about musicians, the first feature film he directed was Malachi's Cove (1974), also known as The Seaweed Children, starring Donald Pleasence and Arthur English, but he is best remembered for his second film, Emily (1976), a picture set in the 1920s starring Koo Stark. He also worked on episodes of the TV series Shoestring and Bergerac, as well as directing the film Crossmaheart (1998). In 1997 he co-produced The Girl with Brains in Her Feet.
In their book Great Houses of England & Wales (1994), Hugh Massingberd and Christopher Simon Sykes commented that "The present Lord Pembroke is (as Henry Herbert) a film and television director, best known for the Civil War drama series By the Sword Divided and for Emily."
Family
On 20 January 1966, he married Claire Rose, daughter of Douglas Gurney Pelly, scion of the Pelly baronets. They had four children:
Lady Sophia Elizabeth Herbert (10 December 1966); married Alexander Murray Threipland in 2001.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7607335. VIAF identifies the subject as 66672433. The Library of Congress control number is no2011090049. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1939, 2003, 1960 and 1969.
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