Ferdinand William Cavendish-Bentinck, 8th Duke of Portland (4 July 1889 – 13 December 1980) was a British peer and grandson of

George Cavendish-Bentinck George Augustus Frederick Cavendish-Bentinck (9 July 1821 – 9 April 1891), known as George Bentinck and scored in cricket as GAFC Bentinck, was a British barrister, Conservative politician, and cricketer. A member of parliament from 1859 to ...

. The son of Frederick W. Cavendish-Bentinck and

Ruth Cavendish-Bentinck Ruth Mary Cavendish-Bentinck ( St Maur; 21 October 1867 – 28 January 1953) was a Morocco-born British aristocrat, suffragist and socialist. Her library was the basis for what is now the Women's Library. Early life Bentinck was born in Tangier ...

, grandson of

, and great-grandson of Major General Lord Frederick Cavendish-Bentinck, fourth son of the 3rd Duke of Portland, the young Cavendish-Bentinck was educated at

Eton Eton most commonly refers to Eton College, a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. Eton may also refer to: Places *Eton, Berkshire, a town in Berkshire, England * Eton, Georgia, a town in the United States * Éton, a commune in the Meuse dep ...

and the

Royal Military College, Sandhurst The Royal Military College (RMC), founded in 1801 and established in 1802 at Great Marlow and High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, England, but moved in October 1812 to Sandhurst, Berkshire, was a British Army military academy for training infantry a ...

, passing out in 1910. He was commissioned into the

60th Rifles The King's Royal Rifle Corps was an infantry rifle regiment of the British Army that was originally raised in British North America as the Royal American Regiment during the phase of the Seven Years' War in North America known in the United S ...

and was posted to

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

and

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

before seeing active service in the European theatre of the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, which left him severely wounded. He then took up a posting as assistant adjutant at the Royal Military College. After the war, his main sphere of activity was in East Africa, where he served as Private Secretary to the Governor of Uganda (1925–1927), Chairman of the Agricultural Production and Settlement Board for Kenya (1939–1945), Timber Controller for East Africa (1940–1945), Member of the Government of Kenya for Agriculture and Natural Resources (1945–1955), and Speaker of the Kenya Legislative Council (1955–1960)."Portland, 8th Duke of" in ''

Who Was Who ''Who's Who'' is a reference work. It is a book, and also a CD-ROM and a website, giving information on influential people from around the world. Published annually as a book since 1849, it lists people who influence British life, according to i ...

'' (A. & C. Black) He was a Delegate to the Delhi Conference of 1940. He became the heir presumptive of his third cousin,

William Cavendish-Bentinck, 7th Duke of Portland William Arthur Henry Cavendish-Bentinck, 7th Duke of Portland, (16 March 1893 – 21 March 1977), styled Marquess of Titchfield until 1943, was a British peer and Conservative Party (UK), Conservative Party politician. Biography Portland was the ...

, after the deaths of the latter's brother Lord (Francis) Morven Dallas Cavendish-Bentinck (1900-1950) and half-uncle Charles Cavendish-Bentinck (1868-1956). The previous duke's lands came to stay with the descendants of the 7th Duke and never passed to the distantly related 8th Duke in 1977. In the early 20th century the usual ''tail male'' arrangement of the ''

entail In English common law, fee tail or entail is a form of trust established by deed or settlement which restricts the sale or inheritance of an estate in real property and prevents the property from being sold, devised by will, or otherwise alien ...

ed'' largest landholdings became deprecated by powerful statutes as it tended to leave noble daughters with little. The 6th Duke, before dying in 1943 broke the

s and set up a trust which saw as his son the future 7th Duke left no son

Welbeck Abbey Welbeck Abbey in the Dukeries in North Nottinghamshire was the site of a monastery belonging to the Premonstratensian order in England and after the Dissolution of the Monasteries, a country house residence of the Dukes of Portland. It is one ...

and other large holdings would go to his granddaughters in turn including

Lady Anne Cavendish-Bentinck Lady Alexandra Margaret Anne Cavendish-Bentinck (6 September 1916 – 29 December 2008) was a member of the British nobility and one of the richest landowners in the country. She was a notable charity worker, art collector, and horsewoman. Fam ...

. No viable family court case could ensue as the fee tail was abolished as a recognised entity in the abstract (''in law'') under the

Law of Property Act 1925 The Law of Property Act 1925c 20 is a statute of the United Kingdom Parliament. It forms part of an interrelated programme of legislation introduced by Lord Chancellor Lord Birkenhead between 1922 and 1925. The programme was intended to moderni ...

and any remote, entailed beneficiaries could be disinherited under the

Settled Land Acts The Settled Land Acts were a series of English land law enactments concerning the limits of creating a settlement, a conveyancing device used by a property owner who wants to ensure that provision of future generations of his family. Two main t ...

. The new Duke of Portland continued to live in

Nairobi Nairobi ( ) is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The name is derived from the Maasai phrase ''Enkare Nairobi'', which translates to "place of cool waters", a reference to the Nairobi River which flows through the city. The city proper ha ...

Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during ...

shares an ancestor, in the 3rd Duke of Portland, through her maternal grandmother,

Cecilia Cavendish-Bentinck Cecilia Nina Bowes-Lyon, Countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne (' Cavendish-Bentinck; 11 September 1862 – 23 June 1938) was the mother of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, maternal grandmother and godmother of Queen Elizabeth II, and great- ...

, and is thus a

third cousin, once removed Most generally, in the lineal kinship system used in the English-speaking world, a cousin is a type of familial relationship in which two relatives are two or more familial generations away from their most recent common ancestor. Commonly, ...

, of the 8th Duke of Portland.

Family

In 1912, he married Wentworth Frances (d 1964), daughter of William James Hope-Johnston. They divorced in 1950 without issue. In 1950, he married Gwyneth Ethel (d 1986), daughter of John Lesley Edwards and widow of Colonel David A.J. Bowie. Again, this marriage produced no issue. He was succeeded by his younger brother,

Victor Cavendish-Bentinck Victor Frederick William Cavendish-Bentinck, 9th Duke of Portland, (18 June 1897 – 30 July 1990), known as Victor Cavendish-Bentinck until 1977 and Lord Victor Cavendish-Bentinck from 1977 to 1980, and informally as Bill Bentinck, was a Britis ...

, as the 9th Duke upon his death.

Arms

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Portland, Ferdinand Cavendish-Bentinck, 8th Duke Of Portland, Ferdinand William Cavendish-Bentinck, 8th Duke of Portland, Ferdinand William Cavendish-Bentinck, 8th Duke of Portland, Ferdinand William Cavendish-Bentinck, 8th Duke of Portland, Ferdinand William Cavendish-Bentinck, 8th Duke of

108 108 may refer to: * 108 (number) * AD 108, a year * 108 BC, a year * 108 (artist) (born 1978), Italian street artist * 108 (band), an American hardcore band * 108 (emergency telephone number), an emergency telephone number in several states in Ind ...

F English people of Dutch descent Graduates of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George British emigrants to Kenya Members of the Legislative Council of Kenya