Hugh van Cutsem


Hugh van Cutsem was an English banker, businessman, landowner and horse-breeder.

Early life

Hugh Bernard Edward van Cutsem was born on 21 July 1941. His father Bernard van Cutsem was a millionaire horse-trainer and -breeder. His mother was Mary Compton, a descendant of the chiefly line of Clan Farquharson. The van Cutsems were Roman Catholics of Flemish origin who had moved to England in the nineteenth century. He was educated at Sunningdale School and Ampleforth College, a Roman Catholic boarding school in Ampleforth, North Yorkshire, and graduated from the University of Cambridge. He then served as an officer in the Life Guards.

Business career

Van Cutsem worked as an investment banker at Hambros Bank. Later he began his own company and purchased further companies, including a data storage company.

Conservation

Van Cutsem inherited his father's stud Northmore Farm in Exning near Newmarket, Suffolk, in 1976. He also owned a 4,000-acre estate in Norfolk, best known for its private wild game shoots. In 2001, the estate had thirty-five pairs of stone-curlews, a very rare bird. In addition he owned a hunting lodge and grouse moor on the North Yorkshire-Cumbria border. In the 1990s, he sold his father's farm in Exning and purchased the Hilborough estate in Norfolk, whence he transferred his horse-breeding operations. In 1994, he won a Country Landowners' Association award for his restoration of an old barn on the Hilborough estate; Charles, Prince of Wales presented the award.
He was a founding member of the Countryside Movement, a conservationist non-profit organization. He was also a significant fundraiser for the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust, a British charity highlighting game and wildlife management for the benefit of conservation. Moreover, he served as Chairman of the Countryside Business Trust. He was also elected to the Council of the National Trust.

Marriage and issue

On 10 June 1971, he married Emilie Quarles van Ufford, who was born in the Netherlands and a daughter of Jonkheer Pieter Quarles van Ufford, at Guards Chapel, Wellington Barracks. They had four sons:
For ten years the family rented Anmer Hall in Anmer, Norfolk, on the Queen's Sandringham estate. They later moved into a neo-Palladian mansion designed by architect Francis Johnson in Hilborough, on their estate.
A devout Roman Catholic, he built a chapel near his Hilborough residence for family occasions, and arranged for priests to visit. However, he also regularly attended Mass at Our Lady of Pity in Swaffham with his family. In 1993, he was appointed a Knight of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta.
From the Prince's university days Hugh van Cutsem was a friend of Charles, Prince of Wales. Prince Charles was godfather to his son Edward, who was a pageboy at the Prince's wedding to Lady Diana Spencer in 1981. Hugh's granddaughters, Grace van Cutsem and Florence van Cutsem, were flower-girls at the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton in 2011 and at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in 2018, respectively.

Funeral

Van Cutsem died on 2 September 2013, aged 72. His funeral took place in Brentwood Cathedral in Essex and was conducted by Thomas McMahon, Bishop of Brentwood. Each of his four sons also gave a reading; Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor read the prayer of commendation; the choir sang "Pie Jesu". It was attended by the Prince of Wales; his sons, the Duke of Cambridge and Prince Harry; and his wife, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall; together with Andrew Parker Bowles; Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester; Birgitte, Duchess of Gloucester; the Prince and Princess of Liechtenstein; Ralph Percy, 12th Duke of Northumberland; Gerald Grosvenor, 6th Duke of Westminster; Natalia Grosvenor, Duchess of Westminster; and Lady Tamara Grosvenor.