Gerald Grosvenor, 6th Duke of Westminster

Family and other businesses

The sixth Duke of Westminster inherited a crush of debt from death duties. With shrewd investments he and his advisors turned the family business, which was not personal wealth of the Grosvenor family anymore, into a healthy business. The sixth Duke of Westminster was a reluctant billionaire. "Given the choice, I would rather not have been born wealthy, but I never think of giving up. I can't sell. It does not belong to me."

Leslie Field—Tatler journalist and biographer of the second Duke of Westminster—explained why Gerard Grosvenor, the 6th Duke, was not the owner of the Grosvenor capital. In his last will, dated in November 1952, "Bendor" (Hugh Grosvenor, 2nd Duke of Westminster) provided that his direct survivors would not inherit his capital. Apart from numerous legacies and annuities he created a trust for the benefit of all future dukes. 'The trust was to be controlled in the first instance by his executors, and then by a Board of Trustees of whom the current duke might, or might not, be one. The scheme ensured that the bulk of the fortune would by-pass the three elderly cousins in line to succeed him and devolve upon the future 5th Duke's infant son. Assets were divided into twenty parts and at the time of Bendor's death, the present Duke (the 6th), received three parts. His portion was doubled when William, the 3rd Duke died in 1963, increased to nine-twentieths when Gerald the 4th and childless Duke, his uncle, died in 1967, and to twelve-twentieths when his father, the 5th Duke, died in 1979. Although Gerald the 4th and Robert the 5th Dukes controlled their Estate income absolutely, the capital value was held ‘in fee simple' by the trustees.'

The Grosvenor family became very rich as a result of lease constructions in Great Britain. In the 17th century Sir Thomas Grosvenor married Mary Davies, owner of land near London. Their son Richard (1689–1732) adopted the lease construction. In the explanation of Tom Quinn, in his critical book about the sixth Duke of Westminster: 'Rather than build houses himself, he adopted the system favoured by many landowners [...] at the time: he sold building leases on what is now Mayfair. The idea was that the buyer of a lease would build a house and then sell on the lease. The householder had the use of the house for sixty or a hundred years and the land then reverted to the Grosvenors. The value of improvements made at the expense of the leaseholder would all revert to the landowner after the expiration of the lease—an injustice created by the landed aristocracy for their own benefit and challenged only in the 1990s by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.'

Early life

As a child, the Duke lived on an island in the middle of Lower Lough Erne in Northern Ireland (Ely Lodge, Blaney, County Fermanagh). His early education was in Northern Ireland before he was sent at age seven to Sunningdale School in Ascot, followed by Harrow. Because of his Fermanagh accent, the Duke struggled to fit in at first, and even after his accent was "bullied" out of him, he found it difficult to make friends. His sense of isolation became worse after the death in 1967 of his uncle, the 4th Duke. His schoolmates ostracised him because the newly styled Earl Grosvenor became the heir to the Grosvenor fortune. "One's so-called friends," he recalled, "disappeared like snow in the summer."

Unhappy at boarding school, his education suffered. He left school with two O‑Levels in history and English.

Military career

As Earl Grosvenor he joined the Territorial Army in 1970, as a trooper, family estate responsibilities having caused him to abandon a Regular Army career in the 9th/12th Lancers. After entering RMA Sandhurst in 1973, he passed out as an officer cadet and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Territorial and Army Volunteer Reserve of the Royal Armoured Corps (Queen's Own Yeomanry) on 13 May 1973. He was promoted to lieutenant on 13 May 1975 and to captain on 1 July 1980. He was promoted to the acting rank of major on 1 January 1985 and to the substantive rank on 22 December.

Promoted to lieutenant-colonel on 1 April 1992, he subsequently commanded the North Irish Horse, the Cheshire Yeomanry Squadron, founded by his ancestors, and the Queen's Own Yeomanry. He was promoted to colonel on 31 December 1994 and was appointed honorary colonel of the 7th Regt Army Air Corps (1 January 1996) and the Northumbrian Universities Officer Training Corps (30 November 1995). Promoted to brigadier on 17 January 2000, he was also appointed Honorary Colonel of the Royal Mercian and Lancastrian Yeomanry on 14 May 2001. He was also appointed Colonel-in-Chief of the Canadian Royal Westminster Regiment, the North Irish Horse, and as Colonel Commandant Yeomanry.

The Duke was Grand Prior of the Priory of England of the Military and Hospitaller Order of St Lazarus of Jerusalem, 1995–2001. In 2004, he was appointed to the new post of Assistant Chief of the Defence Staff (Reserves and Cadets), with promotion in the rank of major-general. In March 2007, having served in the Ministry of Defence as Assistant CDS for four years, he handed over responsibility for 50,000 reservists and 138,000 cadets to Major General Simon Lalor, in the wake of the Eliot Spitzer prostitution scandal in which Westminster was also implicated. The Duke became Deputy Commander Land Forces (Reserves) in May 2011. He retired from the Armed Forces in 2012.

Benevolent work for service personnel

The Duke was President of the BLESMA from 1992, and the Yeomanry Benevolent Fund from 2005, national Vice-President of the Royal British Legion from 1993, and the Reserve Forces' Ulysses Trust from 1995, the Not Forgotten Society from 2004, and Chairman of the Nuffield Trust for the Forces of the Crown from 1992, all until his death. He was Vice-President of the Royal Engineers Music Foundation 1990–94.

In 2011, having already funded a feasibility study, the Duke purchased the estate at Stanford Hall, Nottinghamshire, to make possible the creation of a Defence and National Rehabilitation Centre (DNRC) to provide the highest-quality support for military casualties. Work started on the £300 million project in April 2016, and was completed in 2018 to replace those at Headley Court. The Duke remained actively involved in the project until his death.

He was Vice-President of the Royal United Services Institute from 1993 until 2012, President of The Tank Museum, Bovington, from 2002, and a committee member of the National Army Museum between 1988–1997 and from 2013 until his death. He was one of the founding trustees on the creation of National Museums Liverpool in 1986.

According to Tom Quinn, in his critical book The Reluctant Billionaire, the sixth Duke mainly acted as figurehead for charities. He rarely gave large sums of money directly to the numerous charities he supported officially. It was only towards the end of his life that he set up a charity himself, to help injured servicemen. In a few years he spent 50 million pounds to set up a rehabilitation centre: the DNRC. Quinn quotes the duke himself: 'In many ways I'm a perfect example of a person who is famous for being famous—I mean a sort of second-rate celebrity! I get invited to things not because I have achieved great things in life but I'm afraid just because I am a duke. I go along with it because what else is there for a duke to do? As I have said many times, we, the aristocracy, in practical terms, are an irrelevance in the modern world. We just cut ribbons, open supermarkets and look the part.'

Educational interests

Despite his poor educational attainments, Westminster was given several honorary degrees and fellowships (listed below) in later life and took an outward-looking interest in youth. He was Director of the International Students Trust from 1976 until 1993, Pro-Chancellor of Keele University from 1986 until 1993, Chancellor of Manchester Metropolitan University from 1992 until 2002, and first appointed Chancellor of the University of Chester in 2005, serving until his death.

He was a supporter of The Prince's Trust and was a committee member of the Trust and a Patron from 2001 for North West England.

Sports interests and conservation work

His main personal recreations were field shooting and fishing. He served as President of the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust for 1987–2000 and Vice-President thereafter, President of the British Association for Shooting and Conservation from 1992 until 2000, and the Atlantic Salmon Trust from 2004 until his death. He was a member of the MCC and Royal Yacht Squadron and President of Worcestershire County Cricket Club in 1984–1986 and of the Youth Sports Trust 1996–2004.

He was President of the committee planning the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester from 1998, and from 1991 until 1994 had been Director of the committee set up to coordinate the projected 2000 Summer Olympic Games and Paralympics that would have been held at Manchester had the British bid succeeded.

Other charities and organisations

President, Scope (formerly the Spastics Society), 1982–2005

President, National Kidney Research Fund, 1985–1997

President, Royal National Institute for the Blind, 1986–2012

President, North of England Zoological Society, 1987 until death

President, Drugs and Alcohol Foundation, 1987–1997

Vice-President, Royal Society of St George, 1987 until death

President, Holstein UK & Ireland (formerly British Holstein Society), 1988

Life Vice-President, National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, 1988 until death

President, Chester and District Scout Council, 1979 until death

President, Abbeyfield Society, 1989–1995

President, Institution of Environmental Sciences, 1989–2013

Director, Business in the Community (BITC), 1991–1995

Life Governor, Royal Agricultural Society of England

Committee member, North American Advisory Group, British Overseas Trade Board, 1994

Committee member, Nuffield Hospitals, 1995 until death

Personal life

The Duke of Westminster married Natalia Ayesha Phillips, the daughter of Lt-Col. Harold Pedro Joseph Phillips and his wife Georgina Wernher, in 1978. Their children are:

Lady Tamara Katherine Grosvenor (born 20 December 1979), married Edward van Cutsem (son of Hugh van Cutsem) on 6 November 2004.

Lady Edwina Louise Grosvenor (born 4 November 1981). She is a prison reformer and philanthropist, co-founding The Clink Restaurants. She married historian and television presenter Dan Snow on 27 November 2010.

Hugh Grosvenor, 7th Duke of Westminster (born 29 January 1991). He is the godfather of Prince George of Wales and Prince Archie of Sussex. He married Olivia Henson on 7 June 2024 at Chester Cathedral

Lady Viola Georgina Grosvenor (born 12 October 1992), married Angus Roberts, of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, in 2022.

In 1998, the Duke suffered a nervous breakdown and had a severe depression, citing the overwhelming pressures of business and public life. In 2007 he was alleged to have hired escort girls. His name was mentioned in the Eliot Spitzer prostitution scandal. Tabloid newspapers suggested that the Duke of Westminster was one of the wealthy clients of the New York-based Emperors Club VIP.

Death

The Duke died on 9 August 2016, aged 64, at Royal Preston Hospital in Preston, Lancashire, after suffering a heart attack at his Abbeystead Estate. A private funeral attended by close relatives was held on 12 August, and a memorial service was held at Chester Cathedral on 28 November. He is buried in the family plot at St Mary's Church, Eccleston.

That the Grosvenor family stood to pay very little, if any, inheritance tax on his £9 billion fortune led to calls for a review of how the inheritance of trust funds and similar assets are handled in the UK.

Honours

Other

1973 He received the Freedom of the City of Chester

20 July 1981 He received the Freedom of the City of London

29 March 1982 He was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant of Cheshire (DL)

1990 He received the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Laws from Keele University.

1990 He received an Honorary Fellowship from Liverpool Polytechnic

1993 He received the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters from Manchester Metropolitan University.

14 March 2000 He received the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters from University of Salford

2000 He received the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Laws from the University of Chester

2001 He received an Honorary Fellowship from the University of Central Lancashire

2013 He was awarded an Honorary Degree from Harper Adams University.

Honorary military appointments

Honorary Colonel The Queen's Own Yeomanry

Honorary Colonel 7th Regt. Army Air Corps (1 January 1996 – 9 August 2016)

Honorary Colonel The Queen's Own Yeomanry (14 May 2001 – April 2014)

Colonel-in-Chief Royal Westminster Regiment, New Westminster, BC, Canada

Honorary Colonel Yeomanry, Royal Armoured Corps

Honorary Colonel Northumbrian Universities Officer Training Corps (30 November 1995 – 9 August 2016)