Hugh Seymour, 8th Marquess Of Hertford
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Hugh Edward Conway Seymour, 8th Marquess of Hertford (29 March 1930 – 22 December 1997) was a British aristocrat. He was the son of Brig.-Gen. Lord Henry Charles Seymour and Lady Helen Grosvenor. He was the grandson of both
Hugh Seymour, 6th Marquess of Hertford Captain (land), Captain Hugh de Grey Seymour, 6th Marquess of Hertford (22 October 1843 – 23 March 1912), styled Earl of Yarmouth from 1870 to 1884, was a British soldier, courtier and Conservative Party (UK), Conservative politician. He ...
and
Hugh Grosvenor, 1st Duke of Westminster Hugh Lupus Grosvenor, 1st Duke of Westminster, (13 October 1825 – 22 December 1899), styled Viscount Belgrave between 1831 and 1845, Earl Grosvenor between 1845 and 1869, and known as The Marquess of Westminster between 1869 and 1874, was an ...
.


Early life

He was educated at
Ludgrove School Ludgrove School is an English independent school, independent boys' Preparatory school (UK), preparatory boarding school. Ludgrove was founded in 1892 at Ludgrove Hall in Middlesex by the Old Etonian sportsman Arthur Dunn. Dunn had been employed ...
and
Eton College Eton College ( ) is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school providing boarding school, boarding education for boys aged 13–18, in the small town of Eton, Berkshire, Eton, in Berkshire, in the United Kingdom. It has educated Prime Mini ...
. He inherited the title of Marquess of Hertford in 1940 at the age of 9,he was sick with a nasal problem lying in his bed reading the newspaper when all of a sudden there was a small headline saying a nine year old had inherited his uncles titles and estates and to dear Hughies surprise it was him who had inherited it, he didn’t even know he had an uncle who was a marquess, on the death of his flamboyant childless uncle, the 7th Marquess, described as a "gay young bachelor fond of fancy dancing".


Marriage and family

On 10 July 1956, Hugh Seymour married Pamela Thérèse Louise de Riquet, Comtesse de Caraman-Chimay (daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel Prince Alphonse de Chimay and Mary Hamilton, granddaughter of the
Duke of Abercorn The title Duke of Abercorn () is a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created in 1868 and bestowed upon James Hamilton, 2nd Marquess of Abercorn. Although the Dukedom is in the Peerage of Ireland, it refers to Abercorn, West Lothian, and t ...
by his son Lord Ernest Hamilton).
Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester (born Lady Alice Christabel Montagu Douglas Scott; 25 December 1901 – 29 October 2004) was a member of the British royal family. She was the wife of Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, the third son of King ...
,
Prince Edward, Duke of Kent Prince Edward, Duke of Kent (Edward George Nicholas Paul Patrick; born 9 October 1935) is a member of the British royal family. The elder son of Prince George, Duke of Kent, and Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark, he is a grandson of George ...
,
Princess Alexandra of Kent Princess Alexandra, The Honourable Lady Ogilvy (Alexandra Helen Elizabeth Olga Christabel; born 25 December 1936) is a member of the British royal family and the only daughter of Prince George, Duke of Kent, and Princess Marina of Greece and D ...
, and Mary, Duchess of Beaufort attended their wedding at
St James's Church, Piccadilly St James's Church, Piccadilly, also known as St James's Church, Westminster, and St James-in-the-Fields, is an Anglican church on Piccadilly in the centre of London, England. The church was designed and built by Sir Christopher Wren. The churc ...
. They had four children: * Henry Jocelyn Seymour, 9th Marquess of Hertford (born 1958) * Lady Carolyn Mary Seymour (born 1960) * Lady Diana Helen Seymour (born 1963); married firstly, Timothy Verdon. She married secondly, Henry Beaumont, grandson of Wentworth Beaumont, 2nd Viscount Allendale * Lady Anne Katherine Seymour (born 1966) His only sibling, Lady Margaret Hay, served as Lady-in-Waiting to HRH Princess Elizabeth from 1947–52, and then as a Woman of the Bedchamber to The Queen from 1953–75. He died at the age of 67 from a brain tumour.


Legacy

Lord Hertford notably saved his family home, Ragley Hall,
Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Staffordshire and Leicestershire to the north, Northamptonshire to the east, Ox ...
, from demolition after he inherited it in 1940. In 1958 he was one of the first peers to open his country house to the paying public. He also commissioned artist Graham Rust to paint an epic mural and ceiling painting over the grand staircase. Work started in 1969 and finished in 1983. The finished mural portrayed a view of the Mountain of Temptation on the ceiling and several of Lord Hertford's relatives and godparents to his children behind the
trompe-l'œil ; ; ) is an artistic term for the highly realistic optical illusion of three-dimensional space and objects on a Two-dimensional space, two-dimensional surface. , which is most often associated with painting, tricks the viewer into perceiving p ...
balustrade of the trompe-l'œil landing. He was interviewed on film by the author Margaret Powell, who wrote the popular book ''Below Stairs'' that would lead to television shows such as '' Upstairs, Downstairs'' and ''
Downton Abbey ''Downton Abbey'' is a British historical drama television series set in the early 20th century, created and co-written by Julian Fellowes. It first aired in the United Kingdom on ITV (TV network), ITV on 26 September 2010 and in the United St ...
''.


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hertford, Hugh Seymour, 8th Marquess Of 1930 births 1997 deaths People educated at Eton College 20th-century British landowners
Hugh Hugh is the English-language variant of the masculine given name , itself the Old French variant of '' Hugo (name)">Hugo'', a short form of Continental Germanic Germanic name">given names beginning in the element "mind, spirit" (Old English ). ...
8 People educated at Ludgrove School