Hugh Richard Louis Grosvenor

Following the sudden death of the Duke of Westminster at the age of 64 on Tuesday August 9 2016, the young account manager, who has spent his time working for a bio-fuels company, has inherited his father’s title and estate, making him one of the richest men in the world. Until now the new Duke had lived a life of relative obscurity for someone so gilded – save for a memorable 21st birthday party rumoured to have cost several million. As well as property and land holdings in the capital, the new Duke has inherited huge tracts of land across the British Isles, including in Oxford, Cheshire and Scotland, as well as in Spain. Along with his three sisters he was - unusually for the child of hereditary peers - educated at a state primary school on The Wirral, close to their home, before attending a private day school, Mostyn House. The children later attended the co-educational £10,296-a-term Ellesmere College in Shropshire, whose former pupils include the rugby player Bill Beaumont and Michael Chapman, the former Archdeacon of Northampton. Hugh, whose previous title was Earl Grosvenor, went on to study countryside management at Newcastle University, and later studied at Oxford. After graduating, he worked in estate management for his father’s Grosvenor Group, before becoming an accounts manager at bio-bean, a recycling firm which collects waste coffee grounds and converts them into biofuel pellets. In a sign of how highly he is regarded by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Hugh became godfather to their first child, Prince George. He is not, after all, his parents’ first born child, being preceded by his older sisters Lady Tamara, 36, who is married to one of Prince William's closest friends, Edward van Cutsem, and Lady Edwina, 34, the wife of television presenter Dan Snow. By virtue of being a boy, however, Hugh now inherits both the title and the estate, although his sisters – including the youngest, Lady Viola, 23 – will benefit from substantial trust funds.