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Michael Brudenell-Bruce, 8th Marquess of Ailesbury

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The Most Honourable
The Marquess of Ailesbury
Born(1926-03-31)31 March 1926
Marlborough, Wiltshire, England
Died12 May 2024(2024-05-12) (aged 98)
London, England
EducationEton College
Occupations
Spouses
  • Edwina Sylvia de Winton-Wills
    ​
    ​
    (m. 1952; div. 1961)​
  • Juliet Adrienne Lethbridge Kingsford
    ​
    ​
    (m. 1963; div. 1974)​
  • Caroline Elizabeth Wethered
    ​
    ​
    (m. 1974; div. 1992)​
PartnerTeresa Marshall de Paoli
Children5, including David
Parents
Military career
Allegiance United Kingdom
Service / branch British Army
Years of service1945–1959
RankCaptain
UnitRoyal Horse Guards

Michael Sydney Cedric Brudenell-Bruce, 8th Marquess of Ailesbury (31 March 1926 – 12 May 2024), styled Viscount Savernake until 1974, was a British peer.

Although since the death of James Brudenell, 7th Earl of Cardigan that Earldom has been the senior subsidiary title of the Marquesses of Ailesbury, the future 8th Marquess did not take it on the death of his grandfather the 6th Marquess in 1961 and remained known as Viscount Savernake, as he had been since birth.[1][2]

Biography

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The Marquess was born on 31 March 1926,[3] the son of Cedric Brudenell-Bruce, 7th Marquess of Ailesbury. He attended Eton College before serving in the Royal Horse Guards. He received an emergency commission as a second lieutenant on 12 August 1945, three weeks before the end of the Second World War.[4] He was promoted to lieutenant on 1 September 1946,[5] and entered the reserves with the same rank on 1 September 1949, with the honorary rank of captain.[6] He relinquished his reserve commission on 1 July 1959, retaining the honorary rank of captain.[7]

In 1954, he became a member of the London Stock Exchange. He joined the stockbrokers Bragg, Stockdale, Hall & Co, founded in 1824, in the City of London, which merged with Fiske & Co in 1975; he became a partner of Fiske.[8] He became a director of Fiske & Co when it became a limited company, and remained so when it went public as Fiske plc.[9]

On 15 July 1974, he succeeded his father as 8th Marquess and then took up his hereditary seat in the House of Lords as a crossbencher. He was among the 667 hereditary peers who lost the right to sit in the Lords in the 1999 reforms.[3]

The family seat was Tottenham House, in Savernake Forest, Wiltshire, but they ceased to live there in 1946 when it became Hawtreys school.[10] Professing no interest in rural affairs, he handed over the wardenship of Savernake Forest to his son and heir, David, in 1987.[3] The Marquess owned Avebury Manor, also in Wiltshire, from 1976[11] to 1981.

Death

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On 12 May 2024, The 8th Marquess of Ailesbury died after falling from a window at his home in the Shepherd's Bush area of London, at the age of 98. His partner told police that he had been attempting to let his cat out when he accidentally fell, but some family members publicly disputed this, pending an inquest.[12]

Marriages and issue

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The Marquess was married three times. His first wife, Edwina Sylvia de Winton-Wills (1933–2023), was the daughter of Lt. Col. Sir Ernest Edward de Winton-Wills, 4th Baronet Wills of Hazelwood, of the W.D. & H.O. Wills tobacco company, by his wife Sylvia Margaret Ogden. They were married on 17 March 1952 and were divorced in 1961. They had three children:

Edwina married secondly Major Christopher Bonn, with whom she had four further children.

On 10 July 1963, the Marquess married a second time, to Juliet Adrienne Lethbridge Kingsford, daughter of Edward Hilary Lethbridge Kingsford. The couple divorced in 1974 after having two children:

  • Lady Louise Brudenell-Bruce (born 1964), and
  • Lady Kathryn Juliet Brudenell-Bruce (born 1965).

On 18 September 1974, shortly after his second divorce, he married for the third time. The bride, Caroline Elizabeth Wethered, was the daughter of Commander Owen Francis MacTier Wethered. They had no children, and the couple divorced in 1992. At the time of his death, he had lived with Teresa Marshall de Paoli for over 30 years.[12]

References

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  1. ^ Whitaker's Almanack 1969 edition page 225.
  2. ^ Who's Who 1972 edition page 2833 and 1974 edition page 2905.
  3. ^ a b c "The Marquess of Ailesbury obituary: much-married stockbroker". The Times. 29 August 2024. Retrieved 29 August 2024.
  4. ^ "No. 37288". The London Gazette (Supplement). 28 September 1945. p. 4844.
  5. ^ "No. 37788". The London Gazette (Supplement). 12 November 1946. p. 5611.
  6. ^ "No. 38710". The London Gazette (Supplement). 13 September 1949. p. 4385.
  7. ^ "No. 42643". The London Gazette (Supplement). 6 April 1962. p. 2921.
  8. ^ http://www.burkespeerage.com/record_to_view.php?book=Burke's Peerage 107th Edition&ref=107th&totalPages=4689&page=187
  9. ^ 'Stockbroking merger', The Times. 17 October 1975
  10. ^ "Avebury Manor Timeline". Avebury Manor and Gardens. 28 July 2013. Retrieved 8 August 2021.
  11. ^ Baggs, A. P.; Freeman, Jane; Stevenson, Janet H. (1983). "Parishes: Avebury". In Crowley, D. A. (ed.). A History of the County of Wiltshire, Volume 12. Victoria County History. University of London. pp. 86–105. Retrieved 8 August 2021 – via British History Online.
  12. ^ a b Cumming, Ed (17 June 2024). "A 98-year-old aristocrat fell out of a window. His death sparked a family feud". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 20 July 2024.

Sources

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  • 'AILESBURY', Who Was Who, A & C Black, 1920–2007; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2007
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Peerage of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Marquess of Ailesbury
1974–2024 		Succeeded by
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