The 11th Duke of Grafton , who died on April 7 aged 92, devoted most of his working life to the fight to preserve the nation’s heritage of old buildings.
An eloquent champion of conservation, he lectured all over the world and sat on a breathtaking array of architectural and amenity bodies. He was chairman and later president of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, and also chaired at various times the Historic Churches Preservation Trust, the Architectural Heritage Fund, the Church of England’s Cathedral Advisory Commission and Sir John Soane’s Museum.
He was a member of the Historic Buildings Council from its foundation in 1953, and until he succeeded his father in 1970 he was the National Trust’s administrator for Sussex and Kent, and later East Anglia. He was also vice-chairman of the National Portrait Gallery.
Hugh Grafton’s commitment to conservation was as wholehearted as it was selfless, as his position on various public funding bodies meant that he never felt it right to apply for public money to help in the maintenance and restoration of his own family seat, Euston Hall, near Thetford in Norfolk. When, in 1975, he opened Euston, with its magnificent art collection, to the public for the first time on a regular basis, he gave all proceeds from its 4,000 or so annual visitors to charity. “It really doesn’t pay for some of the smaller houses to open to the public,” he observed, “but I felt I had to set an example.”
Hugh Denis Charles FitzRoy was born on April 3 1919, the eldest son of Charles Fitzroy, the eldest son of the Reverend Lord Charles FitzRoy, third and youngest son of the 7th Duke of Grafton. Hugh’s mother, Lady Doreen, was the daughter of the Earl of Buxton; she died in 1923 when her son was just four years old and his father went on to marry twice more. Charles Fitzroy became the tenth Duke of Grafton in 1936 after his cousin, John Fitzroy, the 9th duke, died, unmarried and childless, in a motor accident.
Euston Hall sits in an 11,000-acre estate straddling the Norfolk-Suffolk border and has been the country seat of the Dukes of Grafton since the year of the Great Fire of London, 1666.
The first house on the site was built by Lord Arlington, whose only daughter Isabella married Henry FitzRoy, the second of Charles II’s illegitimate children by his mistress Barbara Villiers, Duchess of Cleveland. Born in 1663, Henry was created Baron Sudbury, Viscount Ipswich and Earl of Euston in 1672, when he was eight and a half. He was created Duke of Grafton in 1675, just before his 12th birthday.
The coat of arms of the Dukes of Grafton include the Royal Arms of Charles II debruised by a baton sinister showing that the 1st Duke was related by blood to the Sovereign but unable to succeed to the throne because of being born out of wedlock.
The present house was built by his grandson, the 3rd Duke, and other FitzRoys filled it with pictures by Van Dyck (including a portrait of Charles I), Lely, Kneller, Reynolds and Stubbs as well as a complete series of family portraits going back to 1675. The pleasure grounds surrounding the house were laid out by John Evelyn, the naturalist, and the architect William Kent.
Euston Hall gave its name to the London road and railway station of the same name, Euston Road having been developed by the 2nd Duke of Grafton on land belonging to the FitzRoy estate so that cattle (sometimes 1,500 per day) from west of London could reach Smithfield Market without blocking Oxford Street and Holborn.
By the time Hugh FitzRoy inherited the estate in 1970, the house had been greatly reduced from its original size. It was damaged by fire in 1902, and during the 1950s the 10th Duke demolished two-thirds of what remained owing to the high cost of maintenance. Although his son could not condone this as a conservationist, he admitted that it had been a blessing in disguise — “otherwise we would never have been able to keep the place up”. It also made a compact gallery for his superb art collection.
Hugh FitzRoy was educated at Eton and at Magdalene College, Cambridge. He was commissioned in the Grenadier Guards, and for three years from 1943 was ADC to the Viceroy of India, Field Marshal Viscount Wavell.
From the end of the war Lord Euston, as he had become, devoted his life to conservation. In addition to the organisations he chaired, he sat on the executive bodies of — among others — the Historic Buildings Advisory Committee, English Heritage’s Churches and Cathedrals Advisory Committee, the Council of the National Trust and the Royal Fine Art Commission.
He was patron of the Historic Houses Association and a trustee of the Tradescant Trust, the London Museum and the Buildings at Risk Trust. He was also closely involved in the activities of the Georgian Group, the Victorian Society, Heritage in Danger, the Ancient Monuments Society and the Civic Trust.
In his capacity as deputy chairman of the Society of the Preservation of Ancient Buildings, in 1953 Lord Euston drew public attention to the plight of the nation’s heritage when he compiled a list of historic country houses which had either been demolished or were threatened with demolition.
In 1961 he spoke out against a proposal to demolish Euston Arch: “I should like to think that, had the estate still been in the possession of my family, such an act of vandalism would not have been allowed.”
The same year he launched a scheme to help preserve the historic centre of Salisbury. In 1962 he led a successful appeal to help restore the only surviving Regency theatre in the country, the Theatre Royal at Bury St Edmunds, which had been used for 30 years as a barrel store.
As chairman of the International Students’ Trust Council, in 1963 he announced a £850,000 scheme for a new students’ centre in Park Crescent, Regents Park.
In 1969 he called for the preservation of Woburn Square, one of the last unspoilt Georgian squares left in Bloomsbury. A year later he demanded government action to ban the heavy lorries of continental Europe from British roads.
He succeeded as Duke of Grafton on his father’s death in 1970. His father had avoided death duties by transferring the bulk of the Grafton estate to him 10 years earlier. The 11th Duke farmed “in hand” 3,000 of the family’s 11,000 acres, and had some of the most valuable shooting land in the country. He followed the breeding successes of his father with a herd of 50 breeding cows and in 1977 won the beef championship at the Suffolk Show with a Hereford bull.
After taking his seat in the House of Lords, in his maiden speech in 1973 the Duke spoke of the importance of preserving historic towns and villages. The same year he became Deputy Lieutenant for Suffolk.
As chairman of the Historic Churches Preservation Trust, in 1972 he launched an appeal for 8,000 churches deemed to be at risk of demolition. In 1988 he led the chorus of protest provoked by the decision by the Dean and Chapter of Hereford Cathedral to sell its 13th-century Mappa Mundi, describing as “deplorable” their failure to consult the Church’s Cathedral Advisory Commission before doing so.
The Duke was a talented amateur watercolourist, having learned the art during his time in India from Lady Wavell, who held classes in the basement of Viceroy’s House.
He was a close friend of the Royal family, and in 1976 the Queen appointed him a Knight of the Garter .
The Duke married, in 1946, Fortune Smith, the daughter of Captain Eric Smith, a member of the Smith banking dynasty and the chairman of Rolls-Royce. They had first met at a ball held at Euston Hall when Fortune was 18. She was for many years Mistress of the Robes to the Queen, and was appointed GCVO in 1980.
The Duke and Duchess of Grafton had two sons and three daughters. His eldest son, James FitzRoy, Earl of Euston, died in 2009. The Duke’s grandson, Henry, born in 1978, succeeds to the dukedom and other peerages.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/royalty-obituaries/8444090/The-Duke-of-Grafton.html
The coat of arms of the Dukes of Grafton include the Royal Arms of Charles II debruised by a baton sinister showing that the 1st Duke was related by blood to the Sovereign but unable to succeed to the throne because of being born out of wedlock.
The present house was built by his grandson, the 3rd Duke, and other FitzRoys filled it with pictures by Van Dyck (including a portrait of Charles I), Lely, Kneller, Reynolds and Stubbs as well as a complete series of family portraits going back to 1675. The pleasure grounds surrounding the house were laid out by John Evelyn, the naturalist, and the architect William Kent.
Euston Hall gave its name to the London road and railway station of the same name, Euston Road having been developed by the 2nd Duke of Grafton on land belonging to the FitzRoy estate so that cattle (sometimes 1,500 per day) from west of London could reach Smithfield Market without blocking Oxford Street and Holborn.
By the time Hugh FitzRoy inherited the estate in 1970, the house had been greatly reduced from its original size. It was damaged by fire in 1902, and during the 1950s the 10th Duke demolished two-thirds of what remained owing to the high cost of maintenance. Although his son could not condone this as a conservationist, he admitted that it had been a blessing in disguise — “otherwise we would never have been able to keep the place up”. It also made a compact gallery for his superb art collection.
Hugh FitzRoy was educated at Eton and at Magdalene College, Cambridge. He was commissioned in the Grenadier Guards, and for three years from 1943 was ADC to the Viceroy of India, Field Marshal Viscount Wavell.
From the end of the war Lord Euston, as he had become, devoted his life to conservation. In addition to the organisations he chaired, he sat on the executive bodies of — among others — the Historic Buildings Advisory Committee, English Heritage’s Churches and Cathedrals Advisory Committee, the Council of the National Trust and the Royal Fine Art Commission.
He was patron of the Historic Houses Association and a trustee of the Tradescant Trust, the London Museum and the Buildings at Risk Trust. He was also closely involved in the activities of the Georgian Group, the Victorian Society, Heritage in Danger, the Ancient Monuments Society and the Civic Trust.
In his capacity as deputy chairman of the Society of the Preservation of Ancient Buildings, in 1953 Lord Euston drew public attention to the plight of the nation’s heritage when he compiled a list of historic country houses which had either been demolished or were threatened with demolition.
In 1961 he spoke out against a proposal to demolish Euston Arch: “I should like to think that, had the estate still been in the possession of my family, such an act of vandalism would not have been allowed.”
The same year he launched a scheme to help preserve the historic centre of Salisbury. In 1962 he led a successful appeal to help restore the only surviving Regency theatre in the country, the Theatre Royal at Bury St Edmunds, which had been used for 30 years as a barrel store.
As chairman of the International Students’ Trust Council, in 1963 he announced a £850,000 scheme for a new students’ centre in Park Crescent, Regents Park.
In 1969 he called for the preservation of Woburn Square, one of the last unspoilt Georgian squares left in Bloomsbury. A year later he demanded government action to ban the heavy lorries of continental Europe from British roads.
He succeeded as Duke of Grafton on his father’s death in 1970. His father had avoided death duties by transferring the bulk of the Grafton estate to him 10 years earlier. The 11th Duke farmed “in hand” 3,000 of the family’s 11,000 acres, and had some of the most valuable shooting land in the country. He followed the breeding successes of his father with a herd of 50 breeding cows and in 1977 won the beef championship at the Suffolk Show with a Hereford bull.
After taking his seat in the House of Lords, in his maiden speech in 1973 the Duke spoke of the importance of preserving historic towns and villages. The same year he became Deputy Lieutenant for Suffolk.
As chairman of the Historic Churches Preservation Trust, in 1972 he launched an appeal for 8,000 churches deemed to be at risk of demolition. In 1988 he led the chorus of protest provoked by the decision by the Dean and Chapter of Hereford Cathedral to sell its 13th-century Mappa Mundi, describing as “deplorable” their failure to consult the Church’s Cathedral Advisory Commission before doing so.
The Duke was a talented amateur watercolourist, having learned the art during his time in India from Lady Wavell, who held classes in the basement of Viceroy’s House.
He was a close friend of the Royal family, and in 1976 the Queen appointed him a Knight of the Garter .
The Duke married, in 1946, Fortune Smith, the daughter of Captain Eric Smith, a member of the Smith banking dynasty and the chairman of Rolls-Royce. They had first met at a ball held at Euston Hall when Fortune was 18. She was for many years Mistress of the Robes to the Queen, and was appointed GCVO in 1980.
The Duke and Duchess of Grafton had two sons and three daughters. His eldest son, James FitzRoy, Earl of Euston, died in 2009. The Duke’s grandson, Henry, born in 1978, succeeds to the dukedom and other peerages.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/royalty-obituaries/8444090/The-Duke-of-Grafton.html
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