Hugh Richard Arthur Grosvenor, 2nd Duke of Westminster (1879 – 1953). Biritish aristocrat and landowner. One of the wealthiest men in the world, he was the son of Victor Grosvenor, Earl Grosvenor, son of the 1st Duke of Westminster, and Lady Sibell Lumley, the daughter of the 9th Earl of Scarborough.
From his childhood and during his adult life he was known within family circles as "Bendor", which was also the name of the racehorse Bend Or owned by his grandfather the first Duke, which won The Derby in 1880, the year following his grandson's birth. The name is a jovial reference to the ancient lost armorials of the family: Azure, a bend or.
His ancestral country estate in Cheshire, the 54-bedroom Eaton Hall, consisted of 11,000 acres (45 km2) of parkland, gardens and stables. The main residence had its walls hung with master works, paintings by Goya, Rubens, Raphael, Rembrandt, Hals, and Velázquez. An avid participant in the hunting life, the Duke owned lodges reserved for the sport in Scotland and France (the Château Woolsack). For sea excursions, he had his choice of two yachts, Cutty Sark and Flying Cloud. For ground transportation he had 17 Rolls-Royce motor cars and a private train built to facilitate travel from Eaton Hall directly into London, where his townhouse Grosvenor House was located. Grosvenor House was later leased to the United States for use as the American Embassy.
In the First World War the Duke volunteered for front-line combat and served with distinction, showing both initiative in battle and technical skill with motor-cars. While attached to the Cheshire Yeomanry he developed a prototype Rolls-Royce Armoured Car for their use in France and Egypt.
The Duke received the DSO for his exploits in 1916. He was subsequently promoted colonel and on 26 May 1917, he was named honorary colonel of the regiment.
He was appointed Knight Grand Cross, Royal Victorian Order (G.C.V.O.) in 1907.
In Monte Carlo in 1923, Grosvenor was introduced to Coco Chanel by Vera Bate Lombardi. His affair with Chanel lasted ten years. The duke gave her extravagant jewels, costly art, and purchased a home for Chanel in London's prestigious Mayfair district, and in 1927 gave her a parcel of land on the French Riviera at Roquebrune-Cap-Martin where Chanel built her villa, La Pausa.
The Duke married four times and was divorced three times. He left two daughters from his first wife, Constance Edwina (Shelagh) Cornwallis-West. His titles and the entailed Westminster estate passed to his cousin, William Grosvenor, and thence to the two sons of his youngest half-uncle Lord Hugh Grosvenor (killed in action in 1914).
- "There is much that Henry VIII and Bend’Or had in common.... physically they were big men with red hair... Your mother tells me that the baby’s hair is red but she does not think it will stay as his eyelashes are dark’. The reddish hair stayed, as did his family nickname, Bend’Or. Bend’Or told a Cheshire squire that the name came about because his hair matched the light-chestnut forelock and tail of his grandfather’s 1880 Derby winner Bend’Or... He was tall (six foot two) with a dignified bearing, he had fine hair tinged with red, pale-blue eyes in a well-set face, and a manly figure." http://bear.buckingham.ac.uk/550/1/1302467%20Hugh%20Richard%20Arthur%20Grosvenor.pdf
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