The Duke of Wellington faces battle on home front

DeSPITe having the most exclusive address in the world, Number 1 London, the current Duke of Wellington is struggling to attract visitors to his ancestral home.

Apsley house has been lived in by the nation’s most aristocratic family for the past 200 years — it was bought by the first Duke of Wellington in 1817 after he defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo.

It is now owned by english heritage and open to the public, but the 9th Duke, Charles Wellesley, who occupies private apartments there, is dismayed that more people don’t come to inspect his heroic forebear’s great art collection and military memorabilia.

‘ Numbers are down,’ laments Wellesley, 73, who divides his time between Apsley and Stratfield Saye house, the rural hampshire estate where his heir, Arthur, the earl of Mornington, lives with his wife, former model and socialite Jemma Kidd, and their three children.

Charles did not pursue a military career like his father and the first duke. he entered politics and became a Conservative MeP.

But even the celebrations he helped organise to mark Waterloo’s bicentenary four years ago were not enough to boost Apsley house’s visitor numbers.

At the time, the house attracted nearly 57,000 visitors, but the following year, in 2016/2017, figures slumped to just 28,176. They rose again in 2017/2018, but only slightly, to 38,226.

‘It is a large family house, but compared with other places it is very small,’ says the Duke, who shares his apartments at the Robert Adamdesigned house with his wife, Prussian Princess Antonia, with whom he has five children.

‘ We don’t have room for a restaurant, for example. It’s not like the National Gallery or the V&A. You don’t pass it casually — you have to make a special visit.’

A new exhibition to mark the 1st Duke’s 250th birthday has just opened, focusing on his early years spent in India.

It is uncertain whether Wellesley’s heir and his family will want to live at Apsley house.

his youngest daughter, Lady Charlotte, 28, married 42-year- old billionaire businessman Alejandro Santo Domingo in 2016 — so can afford to live wherever she likes.