Wealthy landowner the Duke of Beaufort dies aged 89
ONE of Britain’s wealthiest landowners – and a man who owned large parts of Wales – has died.
David Somerset, the 11th Duke of Beaufort, passed away peacefully at his Badminton House home on the Gloucestershire estate, aged 89.
The old Etonian, who was a fifth cousin once removed of the Queen, leaves behind an estimated £315m fortune including the 52,000-acre Badminton Estate, where the game of badminton was invented in 1863.
The Duke was president of the Badminton Horse Trials, which is held on the family estate each May and attracts tens of thousands of spectators.
In the 2008 Sunday Time Rich List, the 11th Duke was ranked as the 581st richest person in the United Kingdom, with an estimated wealth of £135m in land.
He inherited the title from his cousin the 10th duke in 1984.
In Wales the Duke in 2009 exercised his ancient fishing rights in respect of a new footbridge built across the River Tawe, next to the Liberty Stadium in Swansea.
He also owned land to the north of the city on the upland common of Mynyddy-Gwair.
The Duke was also said to be the owner of a stretch of moorland above Ebbw Vale where the proposed Circuit of Wales track would have been built.
Other interests in Wales saw the former lieutenant of the Coldstream Guards handed the office of Hereditary Keeper of Raglan Castle.
He was also a former president of the British Horse Society and also chairman of Marlborough Fine Art Gallery, which he joined in 1948.
The late Duke, who leaves wife Miranda, and four children, Harry, Anne, Edward and John, is succeeded by his eldest son Harry, the Marquess of Worcester.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, Harry said: “He was a wonderful father and died surrounded by his family. That is all I feel able to say at this stage.”