William Cavendish-Bentinck, 7th Duke of Portland


William Arthur Henry Cavendish-Bentinck, 7th Duke of Portland, , styled Marquess of Titchfield until 1943, was a British peer and Conservative Party politician.

Biography

Portland was the elder son of William Cavendish-Bentinck, 6th Duke of Portland, and his wife, Winifred Anna. He was elected to the House of Commons as Member of Parliament for Newark in 1922, a seat he held until he succeeded his father in the dukedom in 1943, and served as a Junior Lord of the Treasury under Stanley Baldwin from 1927 to 1929 and under Ramsay MacDonald in 1932. Chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee during the 39-45 war. He also held the honorary posts of Lord Lieutenant of Nottinghamshire between 1939 and 1962 and was the second Chancellor of the University of Nottingham between 1954 and 1971. In 1948 he was made a Knight of the Garter. He also held the appointment of the honorary air commodore of No. 616 Squadron RAF.

Marriage and children

Portland married Ivy Gordon-Lennox, daughter of Colonel Lord Algernon Charles Gordon-Lennox and granddaughter of Charles Gordon-Lennox, 6th Duke of Richmond, on 12 August 1915. They had two daughters:
He died in March 1977, aged 84, and was interred at the traditional burial place of the Dukes of Portland, in the churchyard of St Winifred's Church at Holbeck.
He was succeeded in the dukedom by his third cousin Ferdinand Cavendish-Bentinck. Subsidiary title Baron Bolsover became extinct on the death. The family seat of Welbeck Abbey passed to his elder daughter, Lady Anne, who never married; it then passed to the son of her deceased younger sister Lady Margaret who died 1955 aged 36. Her husband was Don Gaetano Parente, Principe di Castel Viscardo, Italy. The nephew's name was William Henry Marcello Parente, who served as High Sheriff of Nottinghamshire in 2003–04.
Portland was a second cousin of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother.
;Footnote

Wealth

Little is published of his wealth. His probate was sworn in 1977 at, three times that of his father's assets passing at point of death.

Ancestry

Arms