Christopher Bathurst, 3rd Viscount Bledisloe

Christopher Hiley Ludlow Bathurst, 3rd Viscount Bledisloe, QC (24 June 1934 – 12 May 2009), was a British barrister and politician.

The Right Honourable The Viscount Bledisloe QC
Bledislow in 2009
Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
as a hereditary peer 12 November 1979 – 11 November 1999
Preceded by	The 2nd Viscount Bledisloe
Succeeded by	Seat abolished
as an elected hereditary peer 11 November 1999 – 12 May 2009
Election	1999
Preceded by	Seat established
Succeeded by	The 5th Baron Aberdare
Personal details
Born	Christopher Hiley Ludlow Bathurst (1934-06-24)24 June 1934
Died	12 May 2009(2009-05-12) (aged 74)
Political party	Crossbench
Spouse	Elizabeth Mary Thompson ​ ​ (m. 1962; div. 1986)​
Children	3
Parent	Benjamin Bathurst, 2nd Viscount Bledisloe (father)
Alma mater	Eton College Trinity College, Oxford

Bledisloe was the son of Benjamin Bathurst, 2nd Viscount Bledisloe.[1] He was educated at Eton – having won a scholarship from Ludgrove – and Trinity College, Oxford, but left the latter after a year.[1] He served in the army as a Second Lieutenant of the 11th Hussars from 1954 to 1955 and was called to the Bar at Gray's Inn in 1959, after placing fourth out of 500 candidates in the Bar exams.[1] In 1978 he became a Queen's Counsel (QC).

He was one of the ninety hereditary peers elected by the other hereditary peers to take a seat in the House of Lords, which most hereditary peers lost by the House of Lords Act 1999. The Bledisloe seat is Lydney Park, Gloucestershire, from which the territorial designation of the peerage was taken. He sat as a crossbencher.

Bledisloe married Elizabeth Mary Thompson in 1962. They had two sons and one daughter and divorced in 1986. His elder son and successor, Rupert Bathurst, 4th Viscount Bledisloe, is a noted portrait artist. Bledisloe died on 12 May 2009.[2]

Bledisloe was the President of the St. Moritz Tobogganing Club (SMTC), also known as the Cresta.