The Rt Hon. The Lord Lingfield

Robert, Baron Lingfield, DL KStJ is a British educationalist who has made a name for himself as an advocate and pioneer of school autonomy. He was also Director-General of St John Ambulance from 1984 to 1990. He can trace his interest in heraldry to boyhood.

Lord Lingfield was Chairman of the Grant-Maintained Schools Centre (formerly the Foundation) from 1989 to 1999. He has been Chairman of the Centre for Education Management (now CEFM) since 1995.

He was knighted in 1993. In 2010, he was created a life peer as Baron Lingfield, of Lingfield in the County of Surrey. He sits on the Conservative benches in the House of Lords and speaks in Parliament primarily on education issues.

His other roles include:  Deputy Lieutenant of Greater London, Chairman of the League of Mercy Foundation, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of ARNI, and Patron of the charity MaleVoicED (a charity supporting all men with eating disorders and other co-morbid illnesses). He is also Chairman of the Cadet Vocational Qualifications Organisation, a national charity that supports members of youth organisations in uniform to gain vocational qualifications for the jobs they do within their youth organisation.

He was Knight Principal of the Imperial Society of Knights Bachelor from 2006 to 2012, and has been an Honorary Colonel of the Humberside and South Yorkshire ACF since 1 May 2004.

Among his many honours and awards are: his life peerage (Baron Lingfield, 2010), Knight Bachelor (1993) and Knight of Justice of the Order of St John (1984). He is a freeman of the City of London and a liveryman of several worshipful companies. His foreign and dynastic honours include the Pro Merito Melitensi (Commander, 1987), Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Order of Francis I (2014) and Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Eagle (2014). He was made an Hon. Fellow of the Heraldry Society in 1987.

He is a founding Hon. Fellow of the Heraldic Institute.