Alexander Macmillan, 2nd Earl Of Stockton

Alexander Daniel Alan Macmillan, 2nd Earl of Stockton, was born on October 10, 1943, in Oswestry, Shropshire, England. He is a British hereditary peer and politician affiliated with the Conservative Party.

He is the eldest son of Maurice Macmillan, Viscount Macmillan of Ovenden, and the Honorable Katharine Ormsby-Gore, daughter of William Ormsby-Gore, 4th Baron Harlech. His paternal grandfather was Harold Macmillan, who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1957 to 1963. Alexander Macmillan was educated at Eton College, the University of Paris, and Strathclyde University.

In February 1984, Harold Macmillan, then aged ninety, accepted a peerage becoming the Earl of Stockton. Maurice Macmillan died three weeks later, making Alexander Macmillan the heir to the earldom. He succeeded to the title upon his grandfather's death at the end of 1986. As a member of the House of Lords, he did not record any debates and was among the hereditary peers who lost their legislative seats following the House of Lords Act 1999.

In electoral politics, Macmillan was an unsuccessful candidate in Bristol in 1994. Subsequently, he served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) representing South West England from 1999 to 2004. He has also participated in sixteen by-elections among hereditary peers for seats in the House of Lords; his notable attempts include finishing third in the 2007 contest to replace Lord Mowbray, second in the 2010 by-election for Lord Northesk, and other losses in 2011 and 2014.

Additionally, Macmillan was elected as a Conservative district councillor for South Bucks district council in May 2011, representing Denham South. He served for four years but did not stand in the 2015 local elections.

Coming from a family heavily involved in publishing, both his father and grandfather were chairman of Macmillan Publishers Ltd., a company now owned by the Holtzbrinck group, which Macmillan sold. In 2004, he was ranked 253rd in The Sunday Times Rich List, with an estimated wealth of £165 million. He renovated Hayne Manor in Devon with his second wife and listed the property for sale.

On April 29, 2002, Macmillan appeared at Buckingham Palace alongside family members of deceased former prime ministers and prominent political figures, including then-Prime Minister Tony Blair, for a celebration related to the Golden Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. He holds the position of vice president of the Royal Crescent Society in Bath.

In his personal life, Macmillan married Hélène Birgitte Hamilton in 1970; they divorced in 1991, with three children from this marriage: Daniel Maurice Alan Macmillan, Viscount Macmillan of Ovenden, born October 9, 1974; Lady Rebecca Elizabeth Macmillan, born in 1980; and Lady Louisa Alexandra Macmillan, born in 1982. He married Miranda Quarry, the third wife of actor Peter Sellers, on December 23, 1995; this marriage ended in divorce in 2011, and produced no children.

Macmillan resides in Denham, Buckinghamshire. In August 2022, he was fined £7,616 and banned from driving for 13 months after pleading guilty to a charge of drink driving. The incident involved swerving his Range Rover into parked cars after consuming wine at an event on July 31, causing minor damage.

He holds a coat of arms as part of his hereditary peerage.