Gerald Grosvenor
Duke of Westminster
Died when: 64 years 231 days (775 months)Star Sign: Capricorn
Major General Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor, 6th Duke of Westminster, KG, CB, CVO, OBE, TD, CD, DL, Bt (22 December 1951 – 9 August 2016), was a British landowner, businessman, philanthropist, 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 (approximately £8.47 billion in today's value), with only The Queen above him.
Born in Northern Ireland, Grosvenor moved from an island in the middle of Lower Lough Erne to be educated at Sunningdale and Harrow boarding schools in the south of England.
After a troubled education, he left school with two O-levels.He entered the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, and served in the Territorial Army, where he was promoted to major-general in 2004.
Via Grosvenor Estates, the business he inherited along with the dukedom in 1979, the Duke was the richest property developer in the United Kingdom and one of the country's largest landowners, with property in Edinburgh, Liverpool, Oxford, Cambridge, Southampton and Cheshire, including the family's country seat of Eaton Hall, as well as 300 acres (0.47 sq mi) of Mayfair and Belgravia in Central London.
The business also has interests in other parts of Europe.According to The Sunday Times Rich List in 2016, the Duke was worth £9.35 billion, placing him sixth in the list and making him the third-richest British citizen.
The Duke died on 9 August 2016 after suffering a heart attack.The title then passed to his son, Hugh.
