Guy David Innes-ker
10th Duke of Roxburghe, businessman, racehorse breeder and conservationist
Guy Innes-ker, 10th Duke of Roxburghe, businessman, racehorse breeder and conservationist. Born: 18 November 1954. Died: 29 August 2019, aged 64
Guy Innes-ker, 10th Duke of Roxburghe, inherited the title in 1974 at the age of just 19 while serving in the British Army with the Blues and Royals in Cyprus.
He had won the Sword of Honour months earlier as the top officer cadet of his intake at Sandhurst and was regarded by his peers as a high achiever and a brilliant sportsman.
However, with theun expected death of his father the responsibility for managing the 60,000 acre estate, and at its heart the beautiful 18th century Floors Castle, came decades earlier than he had imagined.
Like many other ancient feudal estates, by the early 1970s the R ox burg he Estate was urgently in need of modernisation. The safeguarding of this inheritance was to form a good part of the 10th Duke of Roxburghe’s life’s work. Guy R ox burg he brought determined practicality and considerable personal charm to managing these issues.
He was among the first to open his family home to the public–though it always remained at heart a family home.
Guy Roxburghe’s energies were considerable and found many outlets. These included his greatest love: flat racing and breeding – he was the most successful Scottish thoroughbred breeder of modern times; the preservation of The Tweed River and its fisher - ies; efforts to sustain the local economy and communities in the borders; and, following a near fatal bout of cancer in 2009, the raising of large sums for charity.
Guy David Inn es K er, the 10th Duke of Roxburghe was born on 18 November 1954. His mother Elizabeth Mcconnel (formerly Mrs Church) was the 9th Duke’s second wife.
He was educated at Et on where he proved a seemingly effortless sportsman. He captained Eton’s First XI cricket but also excelled throughout his life at tennis, squash, golf, riding, shooting and fishing. Two of his children would later become respectively a professional golfer and a professional event rider.
Guy Innes Ker won a place at Magdalene College Cambridge which he deferred under pressure from his father to take up a three-year short-service commission in the Blues and Royals. At Sandhurst, he graduated top of his intake before emergency deployment to Cyprus following the July 1974 Turkish invasion. He became the 10th Duke of Roxburghe as well as the 29th Baron Innes months later following his father’s untimely death on 26 September 1974.
The Duke dom was a byproduct of the Act of Union which had been best owed by James VI and I in 1707 for support in the negotiations between Scotland and England. The older barony was granted to the Innes family in 1160 by King Malcolm IV of Scotland.
Guy Roxburghe completed his army career in 1977 following active service in Northern Ireland where he met his first wife Lady Jane Grosvenor, the daughter of the Duke of Westminster. They married in 1977 and had three children, Lady Rosanagh (born 1979), Charles, Marquis of Bowmont (born 1981) who now in herits the Duke dom and Lord Edward (born 1984). The marriage was dissolved in 1990.
Guy Roxburghe set about putting the estate on a stable financial footing and opened the Floors Castle to the pub - lic in 1977. The gardens were expanded and visitor numbers soared after the Hollywood movie Grey stoke: The Legend of Tarzan was filmed at Floors Castle in 1984.
Over the next 20 years he converted a property bought by his father into a 22-room hotel and built the adjoining R ox burg he Golf Course, a championship course, which is regularly ranked among the 10 ten inland courses in Scotland. The course and hotel were sold to a German investment group in 2018.
Guy R ox burg he married his second wife, the interior designer Virginia Wynn-williams, in 1992. There were two further children: Lady Isabella (born 1994) and Lord George (born 1996).
Guy Roxburghe’s greatest passion was horse racing and the Floors Stud, which had been founded by his father in 1947. The stud gained international prominence helped by a stellar filly – Attraction – born in 2001. She was the first horse to win both the 1,000 Guineas and Irish 1,000 Guineas. In retirement the filly became a highly-prized broodmare. R ox burg he was regarded as a breeder both canny and thrifty and the most successful north of the Border of modern times. The Floors Stud also produced Viva Pataca, one of Hong Kong’s most successful horses and a five times champion there.
Guy Roxburghe was a long serving horse racing administrator with the Jockey Club, chaired British Horse Racing Authority disciplinary board and became Chairman of the National Stud in 2017. He also held directorships in the City of London and was a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Fishmongers and a Freeman of the City of London.
The R ox burg he Estates encompassed significant and valuable fishing rights on The Tweed and he was for more than 30 years a member of the Tweed Commission, charged with the preservation of its habitat and fish stocks. He was himself an accomplished fly fisherman. In his later years he confessed to a growing unwillingness to kill those he caught, admitting to a friend recently that after looking one beautiful 15 pound cock salmon “in the eyes” he felt compelled to slip it quietly back into the water.
The Duke had a long term interest in renewable energy and was one of the first historic house owners to install a biomass heating system using woodchips from the estate. In 2001 he began exploring wind farming on his land. The Fallago Rig Wind Farm, built in 2013 in partnership with North British Wind Power, feeds 90,000 homes. It proved controversial with some parts of the community but ultimately received government approval after a public enquiry.
R ox burg he was heavily involved in the community and economy of the Borders, where his estate employed around 100 people in the Kelso area. He was the President of the Border Union Agricultural Society and Director of Kelso Races. Through a fund established jointly with the developer of the Fallago Rig Wind Farm, more than £1million to date has been invested in community projects in the surrounding area.
The Duke was a lifelong supporter of equestrian sports locally as well as nationally. He hosted the local point-topoint, common riding and Buccleuch hunt on his land and, with his wife, he hosted the Floors Castle International Horse Trials.
In 2009 the Duke was diagnosed with cancer of the oesophagus. He fought and b eat the disease with steely resolve. He subsequently raised more than £1.3 million with the former S othe - by’s chairman HenryWyn dham in support of the Orbis Flying Eye Hospital and a cancer research project at Brunel University. Friends said that the experience of the illness made him more reflective. He was already known as a generous host to a wide circle of friends and this aspect of his character became even more pronounced in his final decade. The cancer returned in 2019 and he died on 29 August.