Gerald Hugh Grosvenor was born on 13 Feb 1907. His father was Lord Hugh William Grosvenor who was a son of the 1st Duke of Westminster, He was killed serving as a captain in the 1st Life Guards in 1914. Gerald’s mother was Lady Mabel Crichton, daughter of the 4th Earl Erne. Gerald inherited the title 4th Duke of Westminster in 1963, at the age of 56, on the death of his cousin William Grosvenor, the 3rd Duke. But he only held the title for four years, dying at the age of 60.
He was educated at Eton, and after Sandhurst was commissioned into the 9th Lancers in 1926. In 1936 he was appointed Adjutant with the rank of captain. He was seconded to the Nottinghamshire Yeomanry as Adjutant in 1938, but returned to the 9th Lancers to command them in July 1940 for the battles in North Africa. In 1944 he was wounded in the leg by a shell splinter which caused him problems for the rest of his life with attacks of septicaemia. He was invalided out of the army in 1947 and served as an officer in the Wiltshire Cadet Force, and as a junior rank in the Yeomen of the Guard in 1964. He was Colonel of the Cheshire Yeomanry and on 19 May 1961 he was appointed Colonel of the 9th/12th Royal Lancers which had been formed 8 months earlier. He also served as High Sheriff of Cheshire in 1959 and as a Privy Counsellor in 1964.
He was married, on 11 April 1945, to Sally Perry who had a sad, complicated, parentless childhood with her twin sister. She and Gerald had no children. The family seat of the Dukes of Westminster is Eaton Hall near Eccleston, Cheshire. It had been rebuilt in 1870 by Alfred Waterhouse over a 12 year period but the fabric of the building had deteriorated so most of it was demolished under the 4th Duke’s stewardship, and replaced by a smaller modern house, but retaining the large chapel and its high tower. Gerald Hugh Grosvenor, 4th Duke of Westminster died on 25 February 1967, aged 60. The title of 5th Duke passed to his brother, Robert.
