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Lord Charles Arthur Francis Cavendish

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Lord Charles Cavendish
Adele and Charles Cavendish (1932)
Born(1905-08-29)29 August 1905
Cark-in-Cartmel, Lancashire[1]
Died23 March 1944(1944-03-23) (aged 38)
Lismore Castle, County Waterford, Ireland
Burial placeLismore Cathedral
Spouse
​
(m. 1932)​
Parent(s)Victor Cavendish, 9th Duke of Devonshire
Lady Evelyn Petty-FitzMaurice

Lord Charles Arthur Francis Cavendish (29 August 1905 – 23 March 1944)[2] was the second son of Victor Cavendish, 9th Duke of Devonshire and his wife, Lady Evelyn Petty-FitzMaurice. Married to American dancer Adele Astaire, he died young of alcoholism.

Biography

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The 9th Duke of Devonshire in 1919 with four of his children, including Lord Charles (seated, bottom left)

Cavendish was born in 1905 at Holker Hall, Lancashire,[1] the sixth child and second son of Victor Cavendish and Lady Evelyn Cavendish. At the time of his birth, his father was M.P. for West Derbyshire. His mother was the daughter of statesman Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice, 5th Marquess of Lansdowne, Viceroy of India and Governor General of Canada.

In 1908, his father succeeded his uncle as the 9th Duke of Devonshire. He grew up at the family seats, Chatsworth House in Derbyshire, Lismore Castle in Ireland, and Devonshire House in Mayfair.

He was educated at St Cyprian's School, Eastbourne, Eton, and at Trinity College, Cambridge. He joined the Royal Tank Regiment where he became a Lieutenant.

Marriage

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Cavendish was first introduced to dancer and actress Adele Astaire in London in 1927, on the closing night of her show Funny Face.[3] He courted her while he worked for the bank J.P. Morgan & Co. in New York City.[4] Adele proposed to Lord Charles at the 21 Club in Manhattan.[5] They were married in 1932, at his family seat of Chatsworth House in Derbyshire. Their children – a daughter born in 1933 and twin sons born in 1935 – lived only a few hours. The couple lived at Lismore Castle in County Waterford, Ireland, which had been given to them as a wedding present by Lord Charles's father, the 9th Duke of Devonshire.[6]

Death

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Cavendish died at Lismore Castle, aged 38, of long-term acute alcoholism and was buried at Lismore Cathedral.[7][8][9] A clause in Lord Charles's will stipulated that Lismore Castle was to go to his nephew, Lord Andrew Cavendish (later the 11th Duke of Devonshire), if Adele remarried, which she did in 1947.[6]

Ancestry

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References

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  1. ^ a b "Births". The Times. The Times Digital Archive. 1 September 1905. p. 1.
  2. ^ CAVENDISH, Lord Charles A. F., Who Was Who, A & C Black, 1920–2015; online edn, Oxford University Press, 2014
  3. ^ Astaire, Fred (1959). Steps in Time. HarperCollins. p. 159.
  4. ^ Time Inc (19 November 1945). LIFE. Time Inc. pp. 67–. ISSN 0024-3019.
  5. ^ Terry Reksten (1994). The Dunsmuir Saga. Douglas & McIntyre. pp. 195–. ISBN 978-1-926706-06-1.
  6. ^ a b Deborah Devonshire (15 September 2011). All in One Basket. John Murray. pp. 292–. ISBN 978-1-84854-594-6.
  7. ^ "Two-Step: The Astaires" New York Times, 31 May 2012
  8. ^ Deborah Devonshire (9 September 2010). Wait for Me!. John Murray. pp. 120–. ISBN 978-1-84854-457-4.
  9. ^ Brendan Lehane (2001). The Companion Guide to Ireland. Companion Guides. pp. 227–. ISBN 978-1-900639-34-7.
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