Shannon’s One and Only Lord

While European nobility gathered in Westminster Abbey for April’s royal wedding, one British lord was content to watch the nuptials on television in Shannon, the small New Zealand farming town he calls home. Lord Kevin Couling, a dapper 48-year-old, is one of only a handful of British lords living in New Zealand. His title relates to a small manor in the village of Little Neston in Cheshire, north-west England. Couling, who was born in New Zealand, does not stand on ceremony when out-and-about in Shannon and locals greet him with a cheery “Hello Kevin” and no sign of lordly deference. “Most people don’t even know I have one,” he says when quizzed on attitudes to his title. Couling, who makes his living as a marriage celebrant, has also received a number of honours and titles through his charity work, including a project to give orphans in Malta holidays in New Zealand.