Vestey loses Midas touch as estate hit by huge bills

THE extent of his possessions — the 6,000-acre Stowell Park estate in Gloucestershire and the 10,000-acre Forest Estate on the Isle of Jura among them — testified to dexterous financial planning by his forebears, sparing the family from an estimated £88 million in taxes over the decades.

But I can reveal Sam Vestey — 3rd Lord Vestey, confidant of the Queen and Master of The Horse, who died last year aged 79 — did not emulate those ancestors.

His will, which has just been published, shows nearly threequarters of his £15 million personal fortune was swallowed up by liabilities, reducing the net amount bequeathed to his five children to just over £4 million.

The startlingly diminished figure causes friends to wonder where exactly the rest went. ‘The Jura estate was given to the boys two years ago,’ I’m told, ‘but it could be that the transfer occurred too soon before Sam’s death to ensure that it was exempt from inheritance tax.’

The family fortune was made by Edmund and William ( Sam’s greatgrandfather), sons of a Liverpool butcher.

After buying ranches in Argentina and Australia, they established the Blue Star shipping line and more than 2,000 Dewhurst butcher’s shops in Britain.

They and their advisers also created a complex system of ownership, involving a series of trusts, which famously caused one taxman to rage that ‘trying to come to grips with the Vesteys over tax is like trying to squeeze a rice pudding’.

The result, according to one historian of the family, was that the Vesteys ‘did not live on the income’ nor ‘on the interest from their investments’ but on ‘the interest on the interest’.

Friends are confident that, regardless of the fate of Lord Vestey’s personal fortune, the family doesn’t face starvation. ‘They’ve still got tons of stuff in South America,’ muses one, ‘and in Australia.’