This is the Lieutenancy of Kent | The Viscount De L'Isle MBE Personal Profile

The Viscount De L'Isle MBE

The Viscount De L'Isle, of Penshurst Place, near Tonbridge, was born Philip Sidney in 1945, a descendant of the great 16th Century soldier poet.

Commissioned in the Grenadier Guards in 1966, he served on Regimental duty in the British Army of the Rhine, Northern Ireland, Belize and Berlin. From 1974-76 he held an operational Staff appointment at Headquarters, 3 Infantry Brigade and was awarded an MBE in 1977.

He retired from the Army as a Major in 1979 to manage the Penshurst Place Estate and chaired Kent Country Landowners Committee from 1983-85. Succeeding his father, the 1st Viscount De L'Isle VC KG, in 1991, he sat in the House of Lords from 1991-1999.

Viscount De L'Isle was Honorary Colonel of the 5th Battalion, The Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment from 1992-99. Since 1992 he has been a Trustee of Canterbury Cathedral Trust, becoming Chairman in 2007. In 2004-09 he was a Member of the Lord Chancellor’s Advisory Panel on National Records and Archives, and a Kent Ambassador. In August 2006 he was additionally appointed Honorary Colonel of Kent Army Cadet Force.

Lord De L'Isle

He was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant of Kent in 1996 and Vice Lord Lieutenant in 2002, taking up his appointment as Lord Lieutenant of Kent on 1 September 2011.

Viscount De L'Isle married Isobel, née Compton, in 1980, and they have two children: Sophia (born 1983) and Philip (born 1985).

Their family home, Penshurst Place, was judged best visitor attraction by Tourism South East in 2003.

Viscountess De L’Isle (Isobel), née Compton, daughter of Sir Edmund Compton GCB KBE (d 1994) and Betty Williams (d1987). Sir Edmund was a senior Civil Servant, Comptroller and Auditor General and appointed first Parliamentary Commissioner (Ombudsman) by the then Prime Minister Harold Wilson. Lady De L’Isle was educated at St Mary’s Calne, Wiltshire, and taught cooking at the Cordon Bleu, before starting her own cookery school. Subsequently she was Secretary to two Charitable Trusts before marriage in 1980. Appointments she has held include Regional Committee Member of the National Trust 1982-1997, Chairman of Rural Development Commission Committee for Kent, Sussex and Surrey 1991-1997, and President of the League of Friends at Pembury Hospital since 1992.