Samuel Vestey, 3rd Baron Vestey

Samuel George Armstrong Vestey, 3rd Baron Vestey, GCVO, DL (19 March 1941 – 4 February 2021) was a British peer, landowner, and businessman. Lord Vestey served as Master of the Horse to The Queen. His death was announced on 4 February 2021.[1]

The Right Honourable The Lord Vestey GCVO DL
Lord Vestey, Master of the Horse, riding to The Queen's Birthday Parade in 2009
Born	Samuel George Armstrong Vestey 19 March 1941
Died	4 February 2021 (aged 79)
Nationality	British
Education	Eton College Royal Military Academy Sandhurst
Occupation	Chairman, Vestey Group
Title	3rd Baron Vestey; Master of the Horse
Predecessor	Samuel, 2nd Baron Vestey
Successor	William, 4th Baron Vestey
Spouse(s)	Kathryn Eccles ​ ​ (m. 1970; div. 1981)​ Celia Knight ​ ​ (m. 1981; died 2020)​
Children	5

He was part of the family dynasty which founded and still runs the multinational corporation Vestey Holdings.

Early life

Samuel Vestey was born on 19 March 1941, the son of Captain Hon. William Howarth Vestey, Scots Guards, who was killed in action in 1944 during the Second World War and Pamela Vestey, nee Armstrong (1918–2011). He was a great-grandson of the celebrated opera singer Dame Nellie Melba on his mother's side.[2] He was educated at Eton College, before attending Sandhurst and serving as a Lieutenant in the Scots Guards.

Business career

Vestey was the chairman of the Meat Training Council from 1991 to 1995, before becoming chairman of the Vestey Group (now Vestey Holdings) in 1995. He was also a liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Butchers. In 1980, A Sunday Times investigation revealed that he and his cousin Edmund were found to have paid just £10 in tax on the family business's £2.3m profit made by the Dewhurst chain.[3][4]

The Wave Hill walk-off

Vestey, through his family company, owned the Wave Hill Station in Australia at the time of the Gurindji strike (also known as the Wave Hill walk-off) which ran for nine years from 1966, after 200 Aboriginal Australian workers staged a strike against poor working conditions and pay, and land dispossession.[5][6]

His role in the strike was mentioned by Ted Egan's song "Gurindji Blues", written in 1969 with Lingiari,[7][8] and later popularised in the 1991 song by Paul Kelly and Kev Carmody, "From Little Things Big Things Grow".[9] He also gets a mention in Irish folk musician Damien Dempsey's song "Wave Hill Walk Off", on his 2016 album No Force on Earth.[10][11]

Public service

KCVO insignia

In 1954 Vestey succeeded his grandfather in the peerage title at the age of thirteen. His family seat is Stowell Park Estate in Gloucestershire, where his father is buried.[4]

He was Chancellor (1988–91) and Lord Prior of the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem (1991–2002) having been appointed Bailiff Grand Cross (GCStJ) in 1987.[12] He became a Deputy Lieutenant of Gloucestershire in 1982.

From 1999 to 2018 Vestey served as Master of the Horse to the Sovereign of the United Kingdom ,[13][14] Queen Elizabeth II, who appointed him Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (KCVO) in the 2009 Birthday Honours.[15]

The Queen promoted Lord Vestey to Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order (GCVO) in December 2018, on the occasion of him relinquishing his appointment as Master of the Horse.[16] Vestey was appointed as a permanent Lord-in-waiting to The Queen in August 2019.[17]

Personal life

Vestey married Kathryn Eccles (died 13 December 2017) on 11 September 1970 and they were divorced in 1981. They have two daughters and four grandchildren:

• The Honourable Saffron Alexandra Vestey (27 August 1971). She married Matthew Idiens and they were divorced in 2001. They have two children. She married Charles Foster in 2008.
  • Megan Rose Idiens (27 July 1998)
  • Alfred Idiens
  • Evelyn Grace Foster (6 March 2009)
  • William George Foster (7 November 2011)
• The Honourable Flora Grace Vestey (22 September 1978). She married Laurence J. Kilby and they were divorced in 2010. She married James Hall in 2011.

He married Celia Elizabeth Knight (1949 – 28 November 2020) on 22 December 1981.[18] They have three children:

• William Vestey, 4th Baron Vestey (27 August 1983). He married Violet Gweneth Henderson on 6 February 2013. They have two children:
  • Ella Victoria Vestey (13 July 2015)
  • Samuel Oscar Vestey (7 November 2018)
• The Honourable Arthur George Vestey (1985). He married Hon. Martha Beaumont in June 2015. They have two children:
  • Frank William Vestey (25 July 2016)
  • Cosima Vestey (2018)
• The Honourable Mary Henrietta Vestey (1992)

His elder son, the Hon. William Guy Vestey,[19] served as a Page of Honour to Queen Elizabeth II from 1995 to 1998.[20][21]

The Vestey family's combined wealth (Lord Vestey, with his cousin, Edmund Hoyle Vestey) amounts to approximately £1.2 billion according to the Sunday Times Rich List 2013.[22]

Honours

• Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order
• Baronet, 3rd Baronet Vestey of Bessémer House
• Grand Bailiff of the Order of St John
• Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal
• Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal
• Service Medal of the Order of St John

Arms

Coat of arms of Samuel Vestey, 3rd Baron Vestey

Coronet Crest In front of a Springbok's Head couped at the neck Proper three Mullets fesswise Azure Escutcheon Azure in base barry wavy of four Argent and of the First an Iceberg issuant Proper on a Chief of the Second three Eggs also Proper Supporters Dexter: a Sheep Proper; Sinister: a Bull Argent Motto "E Labore Stabilitas" (Out of hard work comes stability) Orders The Royal Victorian Order circlet: VICTORIA The Badge of the Order of St John: Maltese Cross.

References

1. Burn, James (4 February 2021). "Leading owner and former Cheltenham chairman Lord Vestey dies aged 79". Racing Post. Retrieved 4 February 2021.
2. Profile, burkespeerage.com; accessed 29 August 2015.
3. Bryant, Chris (7 September 2017). "How the aristocracy preserved their power". Retrieved 10 May 2018 – via www.theguardian.com.
4. "Heirs and disgraces". The Guardian. 11 August 1999. Retrieved 10 May 2018.
5. Ward, Charlie (20 August 2016). "An historic handful of dirt: Whitlam and the legacy of the Wave Hill Walk-Off". The Conversation. Retrieved 11 August 2020.
6. Lawford, Elliana; Zillman, Stephanie (18 August 2016). "Timeline: From Wave Hill protest to land handbacks". ABC News. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
7. Singley, Blake (10 August 2016). "Song for the Gurindji". Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies. Retrieved 11 August 2020.
8. "Gurindji Blues". National Museum of Australia. 26 March 2020. Retrieved 11 August 2020.
9. "On the wrong side of history". The Sydney Morning Herald. 8 December 2007. Retrieved 11 August 2020.
10. Gregory, Helen (7 March 2014). "Damien Dempsey: Dublin's working class act". Newcastle Herald. Retrieved 11 August 2020.
11. Dempsey, Damien (17 April 2016). "Damien Dempsey - Wave Hill Walk Off". YouTube. Retrieved 11 August 2020.
12. Profile, debretts.com; accessed 29 August 2015.
13. "No. 55368". The London Gazette. 7 January 1999. p. 159.
14. Master of the Horse, royal.gov.uk; accessed 29 August 2015. Archived 25 June 2015 at the Wayback Machine
15. "No. 59090". The London Gazette (Supplement). 13 June 2009. p. 3.
16. "Court Circular". The Royal Family. Retrieved 17 December 2018.
17. "Court Circular". The Royal Family. Retrieved 1 August 2019.
18. "Vestey, Baron (UK, 1922)" Cracroft's Peerage, 17 July 2017.
19. Mosley, Charles (ed.) (2003). Burke's Peerage & Baronetage, 107th edn. London: Burke's Peerage & Gentry Ltd. p. 4004 (VESTEY, B). ISBN 0-9711966-2-1.
20. "No. 54036". The London Gazette. 16 May 1995. p. 6949.
21. Profile, guardian.co.uk; accessed 29 August 2015.
22. Profile, bbc.co.uk; accessed 29 August 2015.

Further reading

• "Lord Vestey – Chair of the RASC". The Royal Agricultural Society of the Commonwealth. 13 May 2017.

External links

• Debrett's People of Today
• Order of St John website