Hugh FitzRoy, 11th Duke of Grafton
Hugh Denis Charles FitzRoy, 11th Duke of Grafton, KG, DL ( born April 3, 1919 in Cape Town, † April 7, 2011 in Euston Hall, Suffolk ) was a British peer and politician.
Life
Origin and family
FitzRoy was a descendant of Charles II by Henry FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Grafton, the illegitimate son of the king with Barbara Villiers. The Fitzroy are therefore a direct but illegitimate line of the House of Stuart.
FitzRoy was born on April 3, 1919 as the son of Charles FitzRoy, 10th Duke of Grafton, and his first wife Lady Doreen Maria Josepha Sydney Buxton, second daughter of Sydney Buxton, 1st Earl Buxton, Cape Town. The mother died in 1923; the father married twice and in 1936 the Duke of Grafton, after his cousin, John FitzRoy, 9th Duke of Grafton, died unmarried and childless.
Career
Hugh FitzRoy attended Oakham School, Eton College and Magdalene College, University of Cambridge. He then became a member of the Grenadier Guards and was from 1943 for three years aide- de-camp of the Viceroy of India, Wavell Archbald. He reached the rank of captain.
Hugh FitzRoy devoted much of his life to the preservation and protection of historic buildings. He was Chairman ( Chairman ) and later president of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings and Chairman ( Chairman of Trustees ) of the Historic Churches Preservation Trust from 1980 to 1997, Chairman of the Architectural Heritage Fund from 1976 to 1994, Chairman of the Advisory Commission of the Cathedral Church of England from 1981 to 1991 and Chairman of the Sir John Soane 's Museum in 1975 until 1997.
He was a member of the Historic Buildings Council from its foundation from 1953 to 1984 and, until 1970, he inherited his father's title, he was administrator of the National Trust for Sussex and Kent, and later for East Anglia. He was also from 1967 to 1992 Deputy Chairman ( Vice-Chairman ) of the National Portrait Gallery. From 1984 to 2001 he was a member of the Historic Buildings Advisory Committee and Churches and Cathedrals Committee English Heritage. FitzRoy was also president of the International Students House, London.
His father wrote to him ten years before his death the bulk of the family property Euston Hall, near Thetford in the county of Suffolk. Hugh FitzRoy managed even a part of the estate of the family on their own. He was, like his father, a successful horse breeder and won in 1977 with a Bulls from Hereford breeding cattle championship at the Suffolk Show.
More offices
From 1981 to 1994, FitzRoy member of the National Trust Properties Committee and 1971-1994 he was a member of the Royal Fine Art Commission to. He was a member of the Trusteeship Council ( Trustee ) the Tradescant Trust from 1976 to 1999 and the Buildings at Risk Trust at 1986 to 2000. From 1957 to 1996 he was president of the Suffolk Preservation Society. The British Society of Master Glass Painters, he was President. This office he held for the East Anglia Tourist Board in the period from 1973 to 1993. FitzRoy was patron ( patron ) of the Historic Houses Association and the Hereford Herd Book Society.
He was also a volunteer in many activities of the Georgian Group, the Victorian Society, involved by Heritage in Danger, the Ancient Monuments Society and the Civic Trust.
Membership in the House of Lords
By the death of his father he inherited the title and the time associated seat in the House of Lords. His inaugural address was delivered in 1973. During this he spoke about the importance of preserving historic towns and villages.
His seat he lost by the House of Lords Act 1999, which ended his membership on 11 November 1999. Previously, he had participated in a meeting on 26 October 1999.
Work in the public
FitzRoy presented in 1953 in his capacity as Vice Chairman of the Society of the Preservation of Ancient Buildings a list of historic country houses together, which had either been demolished or threatened with demolition. This led to public attention.
He spoke out in 1961 against a proposal from Euston Arch, the 22 -meter-high portico with Doric columns of the station Euston tear down, and remarked to the effect that would have been unthinkable, " such an act of vandalism ," would this still in the possession of his family are. In the same year he started a project to preserve the historic center of Salisbury. In 1962, he successfully lobbied for the restoration of the last remaining Regency Theatre, the Theatre Royal in Bury St Edmunds, a.
In 1963, he announced in his capacity as Chairman of the International Students ' Trust Council a construction project with a volume of £ 850,000 for a new student center in Park Crescent, Regent 's Park, at. Today there is the International Students House, London, catering for over 700 students.
He called in 1969 to preserve the Woburn Square, one of the last preserved Georgian squares in Bloomsbury.
FitzRoy began in 1972 as Chairman ( Chairman ) of the Historic Churches Preservation Trust launched an appeal for the preservation of 8,000 churches that were threatened with demolition. In 1988, he led the protest, which was directed against the decision of the Dean of the Cathedral Chapter and the Cathedral before Herford, whose Mappa mundi, which originated in the 13th century to sell.
Honors
In 1990 he was honored with an honorary doctorate (Doctor of Civil Law (DCL ) ) from the University of East Anglia. He was also a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries (FSA )
Family and death
On 12 October 1946 he married Ann Fortune Smith ( * 1920 ), daughter of Captain Evan Cadogan Eric Smith and Helen Williams, the current Mistress of the Robes to Elizabeth II. FitzRoy and his wife had five children together, including two sons and three daughters. The real heir was his son James Fitzroy, Earl of Euston, who died before his father in 2009. Hence the title inherited his only surviving son, Henry FitzRoy, 12th Duke of Grafton.
Hugh FitzRoy was living in Euston Hall, near Thetford, where he died on April 7, 2011 at the age of 92 years.