The Hon. John West (1729-77), was the eldest son of John West, 6th Baron De La Warr, (created 1st Earl De La Warr in 1761), and whom he succeeded as 2nd Earl De La Warr in 1766. He was a military man, having joined the army in 1746, finally rising to the rank of Lieutenant-General in 1770. Moreover, following his succession, De La Warr served as Queen Charlotte's Master of the Horse in 1766-68, and Lord Chamberlain in 1768-77. He died in his house at 9 Audley Square.

Audley Square was created in the late 1740s by widening a portion of Audley Street at its southern end. In 1772 De La Warr commissioned Robert Adam to design a ceiling for one of his rooms at number 9. The exact location of this room is unknown, and Adam's scheme was not executed. The house was demolished at an unknown date, as the only surviving eighteenth-century building within Audley Square is number 3 at the southernmost end of the terrace.

Literature:
A.T. Bolton, The architecture of Robert and James Adam, 1922, Volume II, Index pp. 34, 68; D. King, The complete works of Robert & James Adam and unbuilt Adam, 2001, Volume II, p. 179; S. Bradley, and N. Pevsner, The buildings of England, 6: Westminster, 2003, p. 572

Frances Sands, 2013