Who is Hugh Grosvenor? 14 Things to Know About the Duke of Westminster, the UK’s Richest Millennial

 

Hugh Grosvenor inherited the title of Duke of Westminster and a vast international real-estate holdings at the age of 25. According to The Times of London, he is now the richest person under 35 in the UK, at £9.878 billion (roughly $12.5 billion).

Despite his extraordinary wealth and royal connections — he’s King Charles III’s godson and Prince George’s godfather — the duke lives a relatively low-key life, overseeing his family’s estate and charitable work, competing in skeet-shooting competitions, and planning his upcoming wedding.

Here’s a closer look at Britain’s richest millennial as highlighted by insider.com

The 7th Duke of Westminster, Hugh Grosvenor, was recently named the UK’s richest person under 35 by The Times of London. He is worth £9.878 billion.

According to the Times’ 2023 Rich List, published in May, Grosvenor is the 11th richest person in the United Kingdom. He was also named the country’s richest individual under the age of 35.

He was placed 12th on the Times Rich List in 2022. According to the Times, his fortune has risen to £9.878 billion from £9.726 billion in the year since.

 

He was just 25 when he inherited his wealth and title from his father, Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor, who died suddenly in 2016.

Gerald Grosvenor pictured in May 2016, just a few months before his death, with Prince Philip. Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images

Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor, the 6th Duke and a personal friend of the Queen and then-Prince Charles, died of a heart attack on August 9, 2016, at the age of 64. According to Forbes, he was the 114th wealthiest person in the world at the time, with a fortune of roughly £9 billion.

Hugh Grosvenor inherited his father’s billions, as well as estates in the opulent London neighborhoods of Belgravia and Mayfair, as well as Eaton Hall, the family’s ancient seat in Cheshire. According to The Guardian, because much of his money was passed down through family trusts, he avoided paying billions in inheritance taxes.

The Grosvenor family’s website says, “As Grosvenor family members, who are the beneficiaries of the trusts, are all UK residents – as their predecessors have been for nearly 1,000 years – they pay UK taxes in the same way as the rest of the UK population, while being entitled to the same exemptions.”

 

Their title goes back to 1874. The 1st Duke of Westminster, Hugh Lupus Grosvenor, was friends with Queen Victoria.

The 1st Duke of Westminster, circa 1870. W. & D. Downey/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

The family can trace its roots back over 1,000 years. According to Bloomberg, much of the family’s money stems from a 17th-century dowry given to a Sir Thomas Grosvenor, which contained 500 acres of land just outside of London.

The 1st Duke of Westminster was born at Eaton Hall, the family seat, and served in parliament before joining the House of Lords. According to Westminster Abbey, his wife was a friend of Queen Victoria, and Prime Minister William Gladstone bestowed the title on him in 1874.

The duke’s eldest son died before him, and the title was passed down to his grandson, Hugh Richard Arthur Grosvenor. The title has been passed down through the generations to male heirs, including cousins, brothers, and, in the instance of Hugh Grosvenor, father to son.

 

Grosvenor was born on January 29, 1991, to Gerald Grosvenor and his wife, Natalia. He was known as Earl Grosvenor.

The Duke and Duchess of Westminster with their new baby boy, Hugh, leaving St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington, London, in 1991. API/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images

Natalia Grosvenor, Grosvenor’s mother, is a direct descendant of Russian poet Alexander Pushkin and King George II, according to the London Evening Standard.

 

Although he has two older sisters, Grosvenor inherited the title of duke and the family estates thanks to an 11th-century tradition that names the first-born son as heir.

The Duke of Westminster, circled right, and his sisters at Ed Van Cutsem and Lady Tamara Grosvenor’s wedding in 2004. Marc Stanes/Grosvenor Estates via Getty Images

Primogeniture was created in England in the 11th century and states that the first-born son receives authority and wealth. So, despite having two older sisters, Grosvenor acquired the Westminster title and estate when his father died – his sisters, on the other hand, received trust monies.

The four Grosvenor siblings are depicted in a photograph shot at his elder sister Lady Tamara Grosvenor’s wedding to Edward van Cutsem in 2004.

Lady Viola, his younger sister, is circled on the left. According to the Times of London, she runs an art therapy business. She is also married to Dragoon Guards commander Angus Roberts, according to Tatler.

Lady Edwina, second from left, is a prison-reform activist who is 41 years old. She is married to Dan Snow, a British TV broadcaster.

Lady Tamara, 42, is still married to van Cutsem, Prince William’s close friend.

Grosvenor is circled on the right. He was 13 at the time of his sister’s wedding in 2004.

Despite the family’s extraordinary wealth, Grosvenor’s parents reportedly wanted him to have an upbringing that was as normal as possible, and he attended local schools.

Hugh Grosvenor and Prince William at the wedding of Edward van Cutsem and Lady Tamara Grosvenor at Chester Cathedral on November 6, 2004. Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images

Grosvenor went to a local state primary school before attending Ellesmere College in Shropshire for high school.

“His mum, Tally, was keen on the children having a more normal upbringing, so she almost consciously didn’t want them to go to all those Eton, Harrow sort of places and risk turning into that arrogant, entitled type of person,” a friend told The Telegraph in April.

In an interview with the Independent in 1992, his father stated, “He’s a lucky boy to be given all the material things in life, but he’ll need to be mentally robust to survive.” When one receives such a large sum of money, there are numerous risks, especially throughout adolescence.

“He was born with the longest silver spoon anyone could ever have, but he can’t live his life sucking on it.” He must return what has been given to him.”

 

He attended Newcastle University and mostly kept a low profile until his 21st birthday, which reportedly cost $6.3 million and was attended by Prince Harry.

Hugh Grosvenor in 2013. John Stillwell – WPA Pool /Getty Images

According to the Times, Grosvenor studied countryside management at Newcastle University.

In 2012, he celebrated his 21st birthday at Eaton Hall in Cheshire with a “black tie and neon” celebration for 800 guests, including Prince Harry.There were fireworks, champagne, and performances by English comedian Michael McIntyre and hip-hop band Rizzle Kicks, according to attendees.

In a statement at the party, his father stated that Grosvenor was the first heir in 133 years to be both born and celebrated their 21st birthday at Eaton Hall, according to Cheshire Live. The previous duke, who was born in 1879, was the second duke.

 

Grosvenor is closely connected to the royal family. In fact, King Charles is his godfather, and he is a godfather to Prince George.

Hugh Grosvenor with Prince William during the handover of the Defence and National Rehabilitation Centre in 2018. Oli Scarff – WPA Pool/Getty Images

The Grosvenors have maintained a strong relationship with the royal family. When Prince William was young, then-Prince Charles, now King Charles, asked Grosvenor’s father, Gerald, to be a mentor to him.

Hugh Grosvenor, in turn, asked William to be a godfather to his own son, Prince George. Grosvenor was 22 years old when Prince George was baptised in 2013 at St. James’s Palace in London. He was one of seven godparents, including King Charles’ niece — and Prince William’s cousin — Zara Tindall, and Edward van Cutsem, Grosvenor’s brother-in-law William van Cutsem’s brother.

Princes William and Harry are also said to have visited Grosvenor’s hunting estate in Spain.

And in June 2018, the duke handed over the then-newly built Defence and National Rehabilitation Centre in Leeds to the nation in an event also attended by Prince William.

 

As the chair of the Grosvenor Group, he now oversees the family’s real-estate portfolio, which has properties in 43 cities across 10 countries, according to the Times.

Eaton Square in Belgravia, London. Chrispictures/Shutterstock

The estate covers the affluent London districts of Mayfair and Belgravia. Eaton area, an elongated area of magnificent townhouses overlooking private gardens and adjacent to Buckingham Palace, serves as the focal point.

The Grosvenor Group’s property empire also comprises buildings in cities throughout the world, including San Francisco and Washington, DC in the United States, as well as Stockholm, Tokyo, and Beijing in Japan. Luxury retail areas, shopping centers, offices, and apartments are among the structures.

He also controls the family investment firm, which employs 450 people and administers rural estates across the UK and internationally. Other industries in which the Grosvenor Group invests include food and agricultural technologies.

 

He is also the chair of the family’s charitable foundation, which focuses on vulnerable children, and he donated millions to help fight COVID-19.

Grosvenor with then-Prime Minister Theresa May and Prince William during the handover of the Defence and National Rehabilitation Centre in 2018. Danny Lawson/PA Images via Getty Images

He oversees the charity work of the Grosvenor Group and “is firmly committed to using his position and the resources in his care to make a positive contribution to society, just as previous generations of his family have done before him,” according to the Grosvenor website.

The duke is also the chair of the Westminster Group, his family’s philanthropic foundation that distributes funding to organizations that support and work with at-risk youngsters.

“We want young people to thrive, we want to give them the opportunities,” he said in a video for the foundation. “So many of us are lucky enough to have opportunities in life which we often take for granted, but so many aren’t.”

According to a press release, the Defence and National Rehabilitation Centre in Leeds, a rehabilitation hospital for injured troops that opened in 2018, was an idea led by Grosvenor’s father. According to the Grosvenor website, the family has individually donated £105 million to the project.

In 2020, the duke made news for contributing more than $15.6 million to organizations to assist the United Kingdom in its fight against the coronavirus. He promised $6.2 million to the NHS to assist healthcare professionals and their families, as well as $3.8 million for medical research, according to CNN.

 

He inherited the family’s home in Cheshire, Eaton Hall, which sits on approximately 11,000 acres owned by the Grosvenors.

Eaton Hall in Cheshire. David Goddard/Getty Images

The Grosvenor family has lived on the Eaton Estate in Cheshire since the 1400s. It contains hundreds of rental residential, business, and agricultural units.

But Eaton Hall, the family’s mansion on the banks of the River Dee just south of Chester, is at the heart of the estate. The property is surrounded by wide, well-kept grounds and has gone through several incarnations, including demolitions and rebuilds. The current main house, which was erected in 1967, has a French-châteaux-style façade.

The Grosvenor Museum in neighboring Chester exhibits some of the family’s art collection, which was largely amassed in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. They have works by Velázquez, Rembrandt, and Lucian Freud in their collection.

 

He represents Great Britain in skeet shooting.

Hugh Grosvenor in 2016. Peter Byrne/PA Images via Getty Images)

According to the Times, “a substantial amount of his time” is spent on skeet shooting, which involves shooting clay targets that move through the air. According to his website, he competes for the national team.

“Outside of his business and philanthropic work, the Duke represents Team GB at Olympic Skeet Shooting competitions both overseas and in the UK, and he continues to pursue his ambitions as an elite sportsman,” according to the Grosvenor website.

According to his ISSF Sports page, he competes as Hugh Westminster and has competed internationally in Doha and Cairo this year. He finished third at an event at the National Clay Shooting Centre in April, according to British Shooting, which posted a photo of him on the podium on Instagram.

 

He’s known to his friends as “Hughie.”

Grosvenor, Charlie van Straubenzee, and Arthur Landon attending Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding in 2018. Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images

A friend who spoke to the Telegraph called Grosvenor “a stable pair of hands.”

 

Grosvenor recently proposed to his girlfriend of two years, Olivia Henson.

Hugh Grosvenor, with his fiancée, Olivia Henson. Courtesy Grosvenor

He proposed to Henson, 30, at Eaton Hall, People reported in April.

“Members of both their families are absolutely delighted with the news,” according to a press release.

According to The Times of London, they met two years ago through mutual friends. She is a senior account manager for Belazu, a company that imports responsibly sourced olive oil and other Mediterranean and Middle Eastern goods.

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