Forms of Address
The formal style for life peers is "The Rt Hon The Lord/Baroness X" and referred to as "Firstname, Baron/Baroness/Lady X", or less formally, "Lord/Baroness/Lady X". X is often the holder's surname at the point of ennoblement, but it need not be. Life peers who, like the actor Laurence Olivier, have achieved wide fame under their original name "Firstname Lastname", are often incorrectly referred to as Lord or Lady Firstname Lastname after their ennoblement.
Most life peers take a title based on their surname (e.g. Baron Hattersley, Baroness Kennedy of The Shaws) but there are exceptions, such as with Ian Paisley who opted for the title of Baron Bannside, and John Gummer who chose the title of Baron Deben.
Read more about this topic: Life Peer (United Kingdom)
Famous quotes containing the words forms of, forms and/or address:
“The highest perfection of politeness is only a beautiful edifice, built, from the base to the dome, of ungraceful and gilded forms of charitable and unselfish lying.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)
“The method of authority will always govern the mass of mankind; and those who wield the various forms of organized force in the state will never be convinced that dangerous reasoning ought not to be suppressed in some way.”
—Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914)
“If you address a ghost as “Thing!”
Or strike him with a hatchet,
He is permitted by the King
To drop all formal parleying—
And then you’re sure to catch it!”
—Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson] (1832–1898)