He is the great-great grandson of Lord Salisbury, the prime minister at the turn of the century.

Lord Cranborne is seen as the last great Tory aristocrat, emanating from a family that has dominated British politics for a century and beyond.

Lord Cranborne: Educated at Eton and Oxford

His full titles are Viscount Cranborne and Baron Essendon in the County of Rutland. He is also the heir to the Marquessate of Salisbury.

His grandfather, the fifth Marquess, was Lord President in the 1950s in the cabinets of Sir Winston Churchill, Anthony Eden and Harold Macmillan until his resignation in 1957 over the government's colonial policy.

It was in honour of the fifth Marquess that the present Lord Cranborne announced at his 21st birthday party he was changing his name from James to Robert.

Like his predecessors, he was educated at Eton and Oxford.

He was elected MP for Dorset South in 1979 and was tipped for a top job from early on.

But Lord Cranborne showed little interest in being promoted and when he swapped his parliamentary seat in 1987 for Cranborne Manor, many thought his political career was over.

It was John Major who persuaded him to return to Parliament in 1992 - to the upper chamber with his family name Baron Cecil.

The former prime minister used the rarely used Writ of Acceleration, to allow him to sit in the Lords even though his father was still alive.

A private man

The name was synonymous with aristocracy, earlier Cecils had been chief ministers to Elizabeth I and James I.

Lord Cranborne's successful management of the D-Day celebrations, rescuing the event from becoming an embarrassment centred on spam fritters, led to his being put in charge of the larger VE and VJ Day anniversary events.

He proved so successful, that in June 1995 John Major asked him to be his campaign manager for his re-election as Tory leader in the surprise leadership contest.

In 1994 Cranbo, as he is known to his friends, became Leader of the House of Lords.

Lord Cranborne is a private man, keen to keep his wife and five children away from public scrutiny.

Sir Winston Churchill: "Cranbornes were sick or resigning"

As leader of the Lords and, especially in opposition over the last year, Lord Cranborne has made the case for the hereditary element remaining in the upper chamber.

And although he realises politics and society is modernising, Lord Cranborne believes the great families will continue to form "part of the collective memory of the nation".

Even though he would regret the end of hereditary peers in the upper chamber, Lord Cranborne has been prepared to see them go as the price for an effective reformed second chamber.

Throughout the last year, Lord Cranborne has been loyal to William Hague, as he was loyal to John Major.

Sir Winston Churchill once complained that Salisburys were always either sick or resigning.

And true to form, the present Lord Cranborne offered Mr Hague his resignation when he became Tory leader in the summer of 1997, but the Yorkshireman would not hear of it.

Many believe this is not an exit from politics. His family motto: Late but in earnest.