Gerald Grosvenor, 6th Duke of Westminster

Who they were

Major General Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor, 6th Duke of Westminster was a British landowner, businessman, aristocrat, Territorial Army general, and peer. He was the son of Robert Grosvenor, 5th Duke of Westminster, and Viola Lyttelton. He was Chairman of the property company Grosvenor Group. In the first-ever edition of The Sunday Times Rich List, published in 1989, he was ranked as the second-richest person in the United Kingdom, with a fortune of £3.2 billion, with only Queen Elizabeth II above him.

Early life

Educated at: Sunningdale School, Harrow School, and Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.

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." [ 1 ]

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,

Path and career

Awards / honours: Officer of the Order of the British Empire, Companion of the Order of the Bath, Commander of the Royal Victorian Order, and Knight of the Garter.

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 . [ 1 ] 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. [ 2 ] [ 3 ]

Why this date

Gerald Grosvenor, 6th Duke of Westminster appears on our August 9 calendar for 2016 as a death entry.