Ralph Dutton, 8th Baron Sherborne
Last Baron Sherborne (1898–1985)
Ralph Stawell Dutton, 8th Baron Sherborne (1898–1985), was the 8th and last Baron Sherborne. He created the gardens at Hinton Ampner, near Alresford in Hampshire, England, and on his death left the house and garden to the National Trust. It is now open to the public.
Early life
Ralph Dutton was born on 25 August 1898. He was the only son of Henry John Dutton (1847–1935) and Eleanor Cave (1866–1946), the third of four children, with two elder sisters and one younger sister.
He attended West Downs, a preparatory school near Winchester, before studying at Eton College. After Eton, he went to Oxford University, where he formed the Uffizi Society, and later also studied at Cirencester Agricultural College.
He started to create the garden at Hinton Ampner in the 1930s, with funding from his father. Previously, the parkland came directly up to the house, which was designed to be a hunting lodge. He worked for a time for the College of Arms and Lloyd's of London, while living in Eaton Square in London.
“Ralph Dutton, 8th Baron Sherborne” enters the record as last Baron Sherborne (1898–1985). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Ralph, Dutton and Baron can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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This entry incorporates text from “Ralph Dutton, 8th Baron Sherborne” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.