The Duke of Devonshire | |
|---|---|
 Portrait byAllan Warren | |
| Minister of State for Commonwealth Relations | |
| In office 6 September 1962 – 16 October 1964 | |
| Prime Minister | Harold Macmillan Alec Douglas-Home |
| Preceded by | The Lord Alport |
| Succeeded by | Cledwyn Hughes |
| Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations | |
| In office 28 October 1960 – 6 September 1962 | |
| Prime Minister | Harold Macmillan |
| Preceded by | Richard Thompson |
| Succeeded by | John Tilney |
| Member of theHouse of Lords | |
Lord Temporal | |
| In office 26 November 1950 – 11 November 1999 as ahereditary peer | |
| Preceded by | The 10th Duke of Devonshire |
| Succeeded by | Seat abolished [a] |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Andrew Robert Buxton Cavendish 2 January 1920 London, England |
| Died | 3 May 2004(2004-05-03) (aged 84) Chatsworth, Derbyshire |
| Party | National Liberal (1940s) Conservative (1950–1982) SDP (1982–1988) 'Continuing' SDP (1988–1990) None (1990–2001) UKIP[1] (2001–2004) |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 7, includingPeregrine Cavendish, 12th Duke of Devonshire, and Lady Sophia Topley |
| Parent(s) | Edward Cavendish, 10th Duke of Devonshire Lady Mary Gascoyne-Cecil |
| Alma mater | Trinity College, Cambridge |
Andrew Robert Buxton Cavendish, 11th Duke of Devonshire (2 January 1920 – 3 May 2004), styledLord Andrew Cavendish until 1944 andMarquess of Hartington from 1944 to 1950, was a British peer and politician. He was a minister in the government of Prime MinisterHarold Macmillan (his uncle by marriage), and is also known for openingChatsworth House to the public.
 | This sectiondoes notcite anysources. Please helpimprove this section byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged andremoved.(June 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Cavendish was the second son ofEdward Cavendish, 10th Duke of Devonshire, andMary Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire, the former Lady Mary Alice Gascoyne-Cecil, daughter ofJames Gascoyne-Cecil, 4th Marquess of Salisbury. He was educated atLudgrove School,Eton College andTrinity College, Cambridge. Growing up, his elder brother,William Cavendish, Marquess of Hartington, was the heir apparent to the dukedom.
Cavendish served in theBritish Army duringWorld War II. Having attended an Officer Cadet Training Unit, he was commissioned into theColdstream Guards as asecond lieutenant on 2 November 1940.[2] On 7 December 1944, while holding the rank ofactingcaptain, he was awarded theMilitary Cross 'in recognition of gallant and distinguished services in Italy'.[3] The action took place on 27 July 1944 when hiscompany was cut off for 36 hours in heavy combat nearStrada, Italy. He held the rank of major at the end of the war.
In later life, he took on a number of honorary positions within the military. On 2 December 1953, he was appointedHonorary Colonel of aTerritorial Army unit of theRoyal Regiment of Artillery.[4] On 2 October 1981, he was appointed Honorary Colonel of the Manchester and Salford UniversitiesOfficers' Training Corps.[5] He relinquished this appointment on 2 January 1985.[6]
Cavendish, now styled as Marquess of Hartington, ran unsuccessfully as aNational Liberal candidate forChesterfield in the1945 general election and as aConservative for the same seatin 1950. He succeeded as 11thDuke of Devonshire in November 1950, and served as Mayor ofBuxton from 1952 to 1954. Devonshire served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Commonwealth Relations from 1960 to 1962, Minister of State at theCommonwealth Relations Office from 1962 to 1963, and for Colonial Affairs from 1963 to 1964. He once said that these appointments by his uncle,Harold Macmillan, the then-prime minister, were "the greatest act ofnepotism ever".[7][8]
He joined theSocial Democratic Party (SDP) in early 1982, having contacted the party's leaderRoy Jenkins directly to offer his support soon after theWarrington by-election the previous summer.[9] Latterly a supporter ofDavid Owen – whom he later described as "the best of them"[10] – Devonshire chose to remain with the rump'continuing' SDP after the majority of the party's members voted to merge with theLiberal Party in 1988.[11] He later sat as acrossbencher during his rare appearances in theHouse of Lords.[12][13]
The duke followed the family tradition of owning racehorses, the most famous of which wasPark Top, the subject of the duke's first published book,A Romance of The Turf: Park Top, which was published in 1976. His autobiography,Accidents of Fortune, was published just before his death in 2004. The duke had many disputes over the years with theramblers who used the paths near Chatsworth. Eventually though, in 1991, he signed an agreement with thePeak National Park Authority opening1,300 acres (5 km2) of his estate to walkers. He said that everyone was "welcome in my back garden". The duke's real estate holdings were vast. In addition to Chatsworth he also ownedLismore Castle in Ireland andBolton Abbey in North Yorkshire. He also owned the bookshopHeywood Hill and the gentleman's clubPratt's.
Devonshire was a major collector of contemporary British art, known especially for his patronage ofLucian Freud. He was one of the founders, and the chief patron of, the Next Century Foundation, in which capacity he hosted the private Chatsworth talks between representatives of the governments of the Arab world and Israel. The duke was listed at number 73 in theSunday Times Rich List of the richest people in Great Britain in 2004.
| This sectiondoes notcite anysources. Please helpimprove this section byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged andremoved.(June 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
In 1941, the then Lord Andrew Cavendish marriedThe HonourableDeborah Freeman-Mitford (31 March 1920 – 24 September 2014), youngest daughter ofDavid Freeman-Mitford, 2nd Baron Redesdale, and one of theMitford sisters, in the Priory Church ofSt Bartholomew-the-Great,Smithfield, London.
Four of the couple's seven children died soon after birth, and the Duke's extramarital affairs became public after he appeared as a witness at a burglary trial and was forced to admit, under oath, that he was on holiday with one of a series of younger women when the crime occurred at his London home.
The Duke, however, claimed that much of his marriage's success was due to the Duchess's tolerance and broadmindedness. The Duchess, aschâtelaine, was largely responsible for the success of Chatsworth as a commercial endeavour.
Devonshire and his wife had seven children, three of whom died in infancy.[14] The three surviving children were a son,Peregrine Cavendish, 12th Duke of Devonshire, and two daughters, Lady Emma Cavendish and Lady Sophia Topley.
In December 1946, the Duchess had a miscarriage; had the child been born, it would have been a twin of Victor Cavendish, born in 1947.[15]
Devonshire's older brotherWilliam, Marquess of Hartington, who would have inherited the dukedom, was killed in combat near the end of theSecond World War. With William's death, Andrew became heir and received thecourtesy title ofMarquess of Hartington, by which he was known from September 1944 until November 1950.
Devonshire's uncle,Lord Charles Cavendish, died aged 38 as a result of alcoholism.[16] Lord Charles's will bequeathedLismore Castle to Andrew upon the remarriage of Charles's wife,Adele Astaire, in 1947.[16]
The 10th Duke died of a heart attack while visitingEastbourne in November 1950 and Andrew, who was in Australia at the time, inherited the title.[7] The Duke died while being attended by suspectedserial killerDr John Bodkin Adams, who was his doctor when visiting Eastbourne. No proper police investigation was ever conducted into the death, but Devonshire later said "it should perhaps be noted that this doctor was not appointed to look after the health of my two younger sisters, who were then in their teens";[7] Adams had a reputation for grooming older patients to extract bequests.
Devonshire inherited the estate but also aninheritance tax bill of£7 million (£303 million in 2023), nearly 80 per cent of the value of the estate.[17][18] To meet this, the Duke had to sell off many art objects and antiques, including severalRembrandts,Van Dycks andRaffaello Santis, as well as thousands of acres of land.[18]
The Duke is buried in the churchyard ofSt Peter's Church, Edensor – in the grounds of Chatsworth.[citation needed]
In 1996 he was made aKnight Companion of the Garter. He was elected to theAmerican Philosophical Society later that year.[19]
On 10 December 1955, he was made aGrand Cross of theOrder of Christ by the Portuguese government.[20]
 |
|
He once told an interviewer:
"Wonderful things have happened in my life — it's time my son had his turn. When I was young I used to like casinos, fast women and God knows what. Now my idea of Heaven, apart from being at Chatsworth, is to sit in the hall ofBrooks's, having tea."
[...] the three dukes among Ukip's patrons – Somerset, Rutland and the late Devonshire, as well as the Earl of Bradford and Lord Neidpath, heir to the earldom of Wemyss [...]
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Under-Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations 1960–1962 With:Bernard Braine1961–1962 John Tilney1962 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister of State for Commonwealth Relations 1962–1964 | Succeeded by |
| Peerage of England | ||
| Preceded by | Duke of Devonshire 1950–2004 Member of theHouse of Lords (1950–2004) | Succeeded by |
| Earl of Devonshire 1950–2004 | ||
| Baron Cavendish of Hardwick 1950–2004 | ||
| Peerage of the United Kingdom | ||
| Preceded by | Earl of Burlington 1950–2004 | Succeeded by |
| Barons Cavendish of Hardwick |  | |
|---|---|---|
| Earls of Devonshire |
| |
| Dukes of Devonshire |
| |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Artists | |
| People | |
| Other | |
