John Astor, 3rd Baron Astor of Hever John Astor, 3rd Baron Astor of Hever John Jacob "Johnny" Astor VIII, 3rd Baron Astor of Hever, PC DL (born 16 June 1946) is an English businessman and politician. He is an hereditary Lord Temporal, sitting with the Conservatives. Astor was Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Ministry of Defence from 2010–2015. Astor is a Deputy Lieutenant of Kent. Astor was born 16 June 1946. He is the eldest of the five children of Gavin Astor, 2nd Baron Astor of Hever, and Lady Irene Haig. Astor succeeded to the peerage after his father died from cancer in June 1984. His
Guy Hever surmised that he had gone AWOL and had subsequently committed suicide, citing his upcoming courtmartial and a history of previous clashes with commanding officers. Both the military and the police searched for him, including with divers, dogs, robots and aircraft, but no trace of his body or weapon was ever found. They refused to classify Hever as a missing soldier for three years. His mother however was convinced from the beginning that her son was kidnapped by Syrian forces, although the Syrian government consistently ignored overtures from former US president Jimmy Carter, former Israeli and Syrian US ambassador Edward Djerejian