Samuel Vestey, 3rd Baron Vestey

The Right Honourable
The Lord Vestey
GCVO GCStJ DL
Lord Vestey in 2012, riding to the Queen's Birthday Parade as Master of the Horse
Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
In office
4 May 1954 – 11 November 1999
as a hereditary peer
Preceded byThe 2nd Baron Vestey
Succeeded bySeat abolished [a] 
Master of the Horse
In office
1 January 1999 – 31 December 2018
MonarchElizabeth II
Preceded byThe Lord Somerleyton
Succeeded byThe Lord de Mauley
Personal details
BornSamuel George Armstrong Vestey
(1941-03-19)19 March 1941
Died4 February 2021(2021-02-04) (aged 79)
Spouses
Kathryn Eccles
​
​
(m. 1970; div. 1981)​
Celia Knight
​
​
(m. 1981; died 2020)​
Children5
EducationSandhurst
OccupationChairman, Vestey Group

Samuel George Armstrong Vestey, 3rd Baron Vestey (19 March 1941 – 4 February 2021), was a British hereditary peer, landowner, and businessman. He served as Master of the Horse to Queen Elizabeth II from 1999 to 2018.[1]

Early life and education

Vestey was born on 19 March 1941, the son of Captain The Hon. William Howarth Vestey, a Scots Guards officer who was killed in action during World War II in 1944, and Pamela Vestey (née Armstrong). On his mother's side, he was a great-grandson of Australian opera singer Dame Nellie Melba.[2] He was educated at Eton College before attending the Royal Military Academy 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 Hoyle Vestey, were found to have paid just £10 in tax on the £2.3m profit made by the family's Dewhurst chain.[3][4]

Wave Hill walk-off

Through his family company, Vestey was associated with Wave Hill Station during the Wave Hill walk-off, which began in 1966. Around 200 Gurindji workers and their families walked off the station after negotiations with its owners broke down over the non-payment of wages and reliance on rations,[5] later expanding their demands to include the return of traditional lands.[6][7]

The dispute later became a landmark event in the Indigenous Australian land rights movement, contributing to the passage of the Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1976 and shaping subsequent debates over Indigenous land ownership and native title.[8]

The strike and Vestey's role in it were referenced in Ted Egan's song "Gurindji Blues", written in 1969 with Vincent Lingiari,[9][10] and later popularised in the 1991 song "From Little Things Big Things Grow" by Paul Kelly and Kev Carmody.[11] It also appears in Irish folk musician Damien Dempsey's song "Wave Hill Walk Off", from his 2016 album No Force on Earth.[12][13]

Public service

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

He was Chancellor (1988–1991) and then Lord Prior (1991–2002) of the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem, having been appointed Bailiff Grand Cross (GCStJ) in 1987.[14] 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,[15][16] Queen Elizabeth II, who appointed him Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (KCVO) in the 2009 Birthday Honours.[17]

The Queen promoted 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.[18] He was appointed as a permanent Lord-in-waiting to The Queen in August 2019.[19]

Personal life

Vestey married Kathryn Eccles on 11 September 1970, and they were divorced in 1981. They have two daughters:

  • The Honourable Saffron Alexandra Vestey (27 August 1971). She married Matthew Charles Idiens and they were divorced in 2001. They have two children. She married Charles Foster in 2008.
  • 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 on 22 December 1981.[20] Celia Vestey was a godmother of the Duke of Sussex. They have three children:

  • William Vestey, 4th Baron Vestey (27 August 1983). He married Violet Gweneth Henderson on 29 September 2012. They have two children.
  • The Honourable Arthur George Vestey (1985). He married Hon. Martha Beaumont in June 2015. They have three children.
  • The Honourable Mary Henrietta Vestey (1992). She married Edward Cookson in May 2019.

His elder son, William,[21] served as a Page of Honour to Queen Elizabeth II from 1995 to 1998.[22][23] He was a second cousin once removed of the socialite Caroline Stanbury.

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.[24]

Honours

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.

Notes

  1. ^ Pursuant to the House of Lords Act 1999.

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 Archived 27 July 2018 at the Wayback Machine, burkespeerage.com; accessed 29 August 2015.
  3. ^ Bryant, Chris (7 September 2017). "How the aristocracy preserved their power". The Guardian. Retrieved 10 May 2018.
  4. ^ a b "Heirs and disgraces". The Guardian. 11 August 1999. Retrieved 10 May 2018.
  5. ^ "Wave Hill Walk-Off". National Museum of Australia. Retrieved 5 February 2026.
  6. ^ 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.
  7. ^ Lawford, Elliana; Zillman, Stephanie (18 August 2016). "Timeline: From Wave Hill protest to land handbacks". ABC News. Archived from the original on 1 November 2023. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
  8. ^ Ward, Charlie (20 August 2016). "An historic handful of dirt: Whitlam and the legacy of the Wave Hill Walk-Off". The Conversation.
  9. ^ Singley, Blake (10 August 2016). "Song for the Gurindji". Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies. Archived from the original on 30 April 2020. Retrieved 11 August 2020.
  10. ^ "Gurindji Blues". National Museum of Australia. 26 March 2020. Archived from the original on 29 May 2022. Retrieved 11 August 2020.
  11. ^ "On the wrong side of history". The Sydney Morning Herald. 8 December 2007. Archived from the original on 6 December 2020. Retrieved 11 August 2020.
  12. ^ Gregory, Helen (7 March 2014). "Damien Dempsey: Dublin's working class act". Newcastle Herald. Retrieved 11 August 2020.
  13. ^ Dempsey, Damien (17 April 2016). "Damien Dempsey - Wave Hill Walk Off". YouTube. Archived from the original on 21 December 2021. Retrieved 11 August 2020.
  14. ^ Profile, debretts.com; accessed 29 August 2015.
  15. ^ "No. 55368". The London Gazette. 7 January 1999. p. 159.
  16. ^ Master of the Horse, royal.gov.uk; accessed 29 August 2015. Archived 25 June 2015 at the Wayback Machine
  17. ^ "No. 59090". The London Gazette (Supplement). 13 June 2009. p. 3.
  18. ^ "Court Circular". The Royal Family. Archived from the original on 29 June 2016. Retrieved 17 December 2018.
  19. ^ "Court Circular". The Royal Family. Archived from the original on 29 June 2016. Retrieved 1 August 2019.
  20. ^ "Vestey, Baron (UK, 1922)" Archived 14 July 2022 at the Wayback Machine Cracroft's Peerage, 17 July 2017.
  21. ^ Mosley, Charles, ed. (2003). Burke's Peerage & Baronetage (107th ed.). London: Burke's Peerage & Gentry Ltd. p. 4004 (VESTEY, B). ISBN 0-9711966-2-1.
  22. ^ "No. 54036". The London Gazette. 16 May 1995. p. 6949.
  23. ^ Profile, guardian.co.uk; accessed 29 August 2015.
  24. ^ Profile Archived 26 June 2018 at the Wayback Machine, bbc.co.uk; accessed 29 August 2015.

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