Major-General Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor, 6th Duke of Westminster, KG, CB, OBE, TD, DL (born 22 December 1951 in Omagh, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland), is the son of Robert George Grosvenor, 5th Duke of Westminster, and his wife Hon. Viola Maud Lyttelton. In 2005, he became Chancellor of the University of Chester. He was educated at Harrow School and Sandhurst. According to the Sunday Times Rich List 2008, The Duke of Westminster is worth £7 Billion (£7,000m) placing him 3rd in the list behind Roman Abramovich and Lakshmi Mittal.
The Duke is the richest property developer in Britain and Britain's largest landowner, owning vast estates in Lancashire, Cheshire and Scotland as well as great swathes of Mayfair and Belgravia in central London. Internationally the Duke also owns vast estates in Canada and Spain.
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After leaving Harrow School with a single O-level, the Duke failed the entrance examination to the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst.[1] The Duke joined the Territorial Army in 1970 as a trooper.
Later in 1973 the Duke attended Sandhurst and subsequently commanded the North Irish Horse, The Cheshire Yeomanry Squadron, founded by his ancestors, and the The Queen's Own Yeomanry. He was also appointed the Honorary Colonel of several Regiments, including the 7th Regt. Army Air Corps, the Royal Mercian and Lancastrian Yeomanry, the Queen's Own Yeomanry, Northumbria Universities Officer Training Corps, Colonel in Chief of the Canadian Royal Westminster Regiment, the North Irish Horse and Colonel Commandant Yeomanry.
In 2004 he was appointed to the new post of Assistant Chief of Defence Staff (Reserves and Cadets) with promotion to the rank of Major General. He was the first reservist holding such rank since the 1930s, but it was said that he 'privately never kidded himself that he would have achieved such seniority but for his wealth and social status'.[1]
In March 2007, having served in the Ministry of Defence for four years he handed over the responsibility of 50,000 Reservists and 138,000 Cadets to Major General Simon Lalor. The Duke is now engaged in the Reserve Review in the same Rank. He was appointed Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) for his military service in the 2008 Birthday Honours.
As a child the Duke lived on an island in the middle of Loch Erne. His early education was in Ulster and then he went to Sunningdale School and then on to Harrow.
The Duke married Natalia Ayesha Phillips, the daughter of Lt.-Col. Harold Pedro Joseph Phillips and his wife Georgina Wernher, in 1978. The Duchess is a direct descendant of the Russian poet Alexander S. Pushkin, and therefore of his ancestor Ibrahim Hannibal. The Duchess' older sister is Alexandra Hamilton, Duchess of Abercorn, wife of James Hamilton, 5th Duke of Abercorn.
The Duke's company, Grosvenor Continental Europe, bought the up-market Serpette and Paul-Bert sections of the 120-year-old Saint-Ouen market, just north of the 18th arrondissement in Paris, in 2005.
Antiques dealers at the Saint-Ouen flea market, which attracts millions of visitors every year, launched an Asterix-style protest in October, 2007 at the duke's attempt's to impose "exorbitant" rent rises. Traders accused the duke of wanting to transform the traditional flea-market into a luxury market like the Louvre des Antiquaires, an expensive antiques arcade in central Paris. The combined rental value of the 420 pitches at the flea market amounts to almost €4 million.[2]
On 11 February 2007, the tabloid News of the World alleged the Duke had hired four prostitutes in six weeks to visit him at his mews house in the West End of London and that during one of the encounters he claimed to know the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden.[1]
The Duke was also alleged to have been a client of the United States-based Emperors Club VIP, a high class prostitution ring which led to the resignation of New York governor Eliot Spitzer. On 12 March 2008, the Daily Mail reported that the Duke was a patron of the escort agency as "Client No. 6" at the heart of Eliot Spitzer prostitution scandal.[3] His lawyers denied the allegations, claiming he was not in London on the dates in the report.[4][5]
| Honorary titles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by None |
Chancellor of the University of Chester 2005–present |
Succeeded by (current incumbent) |
| Peerage of the United Kingdom | ||
| Preceded by Robert Grosvenor, 5th Duke of Westminster |
Duke of Westminster 1979–present |
Succeeded by (current incumbent) Heir Apparent Hugh Grosvenor, Earl Grosvenor |
| Order of precedence in the United Kingdom | ||
| Preceded by His Grace The Duke of Abercorn |
His Grace The Duke of Westminster United Kingdom Order of Precedence Gentlemen |
Succeeded by His Grace The Duke of Fife |
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