De Lisle is the second son of stockbroker Major Everard John Robert March Phillipps de Lisle (1930–2003), of the
Royal Horse Guards, Adjutant of the
Household Cavalry Regiment from 1955 to 1958,
High Sheriff of Leicestershire in 1974, and Vice-
Lord Lieutenant of Leicestershire from 1990 to 2003, and his wife Hon. Mary Rose, daughter of Conservative politician
Osbert Peake, 1st Viscount Ingleby, His paternal grandfather was the cricketer, soldier and High Sheriff of Leicestershire
John de Lisle, of
Stockerston Hall,
Rutland, who was of a prominent family of
Leicestershire landed gentry that owned
Grace Dieu Manor and
Quenby Hall. His paternal grandmother was
Muriel de Lisle, a pioneering
Girl Guide executive. de Lisle was educated at
Eton and
Worcester College, Oxford. ==Career==