Lord Charles Arthur Francis Cavendish (29 August 1905 – 23 March 1944) was the second son of Victor Cavendish, 9th Duke of Devonshire and his wife, Lady Evelyn Petty-FitzMaurice. Married to American dancer Adele Astaire, he died young of alcoholism.
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Biography
Cavendish was born in 1905 at Holker Hall, Lancashire, the sixth child and second son of Victor Cavendish and Lady Evelyn Cavendish. At the time of his birth, his father was M.P. for West Derbyshire. His mother was the daughter of statesman Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice, 5th Marquess of Lansdowne, Viceroy of India and Governor General of Canada.
In 1908, his father succeeded his uncle as the 9th Duke of Devonshire. He grew up at the family seats, Chatsworth House in Derbyshire, Lismore Castle in Ireland, and Devonshire House in Mayfair.
He was educated at St Cyprian's School, Eastbourne, Eton, and at Trinity College, Cambridge. He joined the Royal Tank Regiment where he became a Lieutenant.
Marriage
Cavendish was first introduced to dancer and actress Adele Astaire in London in 1927, on the closing night of her show Funny Face. He courted her while he worked for the bank J.P. Morgan & Co. in New York City. Astaire proposed to Cavendish at the 21 Club in Manhattan. They were married in 1932, at his family seat of Chatsworth House in Derbyshire. Their children included a daughter born in 1933 and twin sons born in 1935 – lived only a few hours. The couple lived at Lismore Castle in County Waterford, Ireland, which had been given to them as a wedding present by Cavendish's father, the 9th Duke of Devonshire.
Death
Cavendish died at Lismore Castle, aged 38, of long-term acute alcoholism and was buried at Lismore Cathedral. A clause in his will stipulated that Lismore Castle was to go to his nephew, Lord Andrew Cavendish (later the 11th Duke of Devonshire), if Adele remarried, which she did in 1947.