Duke of St Albans
(1840-1898)
Volume 1, page 25, sitting number 305.
William Ameleus Aubrey de Vere Beauclerk, 10th Duke of St Albans was the son of William Aubrey de Vere Beauclerk (1801-1849), 9th Duke of St Albans and Elizabeth Catherine Gubbins. He was born in London on 15 April 1840. He married, firstly, Lady Sybil Mary Grey, daughter of Lieutenant-General the Honourable Charles Grey and Caroline Eliza née Farquhar, on 20 June 1867 at London. He married, secondly, Grace Bernal-Osborne, daughter of Ralph Bernal-Osborne, on 3 January 1874 at Newtown Anner, County Tipperary, Ireland.
He died, aged 58, on 10 May 1898 at Brooke House near Newport on the Isle of Wight, leaving an estate valued at £9753. The abstract of his will describes him as 'of Bestwood-lodge Arnold Nottinghamshire and of 13 Grosvernor-crescent Middlesex.'
An obituary appeared in the Morning Post (11 May 1898). 'We regret to state that the Duke of St Albans died at eleven o'clock yesterday morning at Brooke House, Isle of Wight. The Right Hon. William Amelius Aubrey-De-Vere Beauclerk, tenth Duke of St Albans, Earl of Burford, Baron of Heddington, and Baron Vere of Hanworth, in the Peerage of England, was the son of the ninth Duke and was born in London on April 15, 1840. He succeeded his father in 1849, and was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge. The late Duke was Captain of her Majesty's Yeoman of the Guard from 1869 to 1874, and was Lord Lieutenant and a county Alderman of Nottinghamshire, a D.L. of Lincolnshire, hon. colonel of the 1st Notts Rifle Volunteers (Robin Hoods), Hereditary Grand Falconer and Master Surveyor and Hereditary Registrar to the Court of Chancery. He was twice married, in 1867 to Sybil, who died in 1871, daughter of the late General the Hon. Charles Grey, and in 1874 to Grace, daughter of the late Mr Ralph Bernal-Osborne. The late Duke leaves one son and two daughters by his first marriage and two sons and three daughters by his second. His eldest son, who succeeds him, is Charles Victor Albert Aubrey-De-Vere, Earl of Burford, born in 1870. The Duke's eldest daughter is the wife of Mr Gerald Loder, M.P., and another daughter is married to Mr R. F. Cavendish, M.P.
'The Duke of St Albans was well known on the Turf, his racing colours having been registered in 1862, and his election to the Jockey Club taking place in the next year. Probably the best horse he ever owned was Calore, with whom as a two-year-old he won the Harrington Stakes at Derby and the Michaelmas Stakes at Sandown Park in 1887.'