Ferdinand William Cavendish-Bentinck, 8th Duke of Portland (4 July 1889 – 13 December 1980) was a British peer and grandson of George Cavendish-Bentinck. The son of Frederick W. Cavendish-Bentinck and Ruth Cavendish-Bentinck, grandson of George Cavendish-Bentinck, 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 and the

Royal Military College, Sandhurst The Royal Military College (RMC) was a United Kingdom, British military academy for training infantry and cavalry Officer (armed forces), officers of the British Army, British and British Indian Army, Indian Armies. It was founded in 1801 at Gre ...

, 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 Sta ...

and was posted to

Malta Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and North Africa. It consists of an archipelago south of Italy, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The two ...

and

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...

before seeing active service in the European theatre of the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, 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 has been published annually in the form of a hardback book since 1849, and has been published online since 1999. It has also been published on CD-ROM. It lists, and gives information on, people from around ...

'' (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 politician. Biography Portland was the elder son of William Cavendish ...

, 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, that restricts the sale or inheritance of an estate in real property and prevents that property from being sold, devised by will, or otherwise ali ...

ed'' largest landholdings became deprecated by powerful estates 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 is an English country house near the village of Welbeck in the Bassetlaw District of Nottinghamshire. It was the site of a monastery belonging to the Premonstratensian order, and after the Dissolution of the Monasteries a residen ...

and other large holdings would go to his granddaughters in turn including Lady Anne Cavendish-Bentinck. 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 1925 ( 15 & 16 Geo. 5. c. 20) is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It forms part of an interrelated programme of legislation introduced by Lord Chancellor Lord Birkenhead between 1922 and 1925. The progr ...

and any remote, entailed beneficiaries could be disinherited under the Settled Land Acts. The new Duke of Portland continued to live in

Nairobi Nairobi is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Kenya. The city lies in the south-central part of Kenya, at an elevation of . The name is derived from the Maasai language, Maasai phrase , which translates to 'place of cool waters', a ...

. Queen

Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 19268 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. ...

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

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

, and was thus a

third cousin, once removed Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * 1⁄60 of a ''second'', i.e., the third in a series of fractional parts in a sexagesimal number system Places * 3rd Street (dis ...

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, 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 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 British Kenya Members of the Legislative Council of Kenya