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Name: CAVENDISH-BENTINCK, Ferdinand William KBE, CMG, MC, 8th Duke of Portland, Lord (Major)
Nee: later 9th Earl of Portland and 8th Duke of Portland, son of W.G.F. Cavendish Bentinck and Ruth Mary St. Maur
Birth Date: 4 July 1889 Brownsea Island, Poole
Death Date: 13 Dec 1980 Kingston, Dorset
First Date: 1925
Profession: Politician
Area: Entebbe, Nairobi, 1930 Maji Mzuri
Married: 1. In Westminster 9 May 1912 Wentworth Frances Hope-Johnstone b. 18 Feb 1882 Epsom, d. 25 June 1964 Bath, div.1950); 2. In Nairobi 21 Sep 1950 Mrs Gwyneth Ethel Bowie née Edwards b. 9 July 1907 Mont Pelier, St James, Jamaica, d. 1996 (widow of Col. D. A. J. Bowie)
Children: None
Book Reference: Best, Last Chance, Debrett, Who's Who (UK), Markham, Who's Who, Mischief, Hut, Red 31, Colonial, EA & Rhodesia, Racing, Nicholls, Burke, Eton, Mills, SS, Rift Valley
War Service: Major KRRC WW1 in France Rifle Brigade and Skinner's Horse in India
School: Eton 1902-04; RMC Sandhurst & Heidelberg
General Information:
Last Chance - (1948) - Here is a public figure who will puzzle anybody. I have never met a more self-deprecating personality. But after a while, if your luck is with you, you will note something like summer lightning playing behind those half-amused eyes, and you will never know from then on whether he is laughing with you or at you. He takes a lot of knowing. ............ As temperamentally indigenous as any native, I have never seen that bewildering tenderness which most Kenyans feel for their beautiful country better, if more silently, expressed than in the unobtrusive, unyielding resistance of this reticent man. .......... Founded the Tanganyika League ........ (more) - Minister for Agriculture and Natural Resources Debrett - formerly Major King's Royal Rifle Corps; Founder of Kenya Asso. (Chmn. 1932) and a Member of EA Production and Supply Council, of EA Advisory Council on Agriculture, Animal Industry, and Forestry, and of EA Agricultural Forestry and Vet. Research Organisations Committee; Chmn. of Tanganyika League, and African Defence Federation 1938, and of Agricultural Production and Settlement Board, Kenya 1939-45; Timber Controller for EA 1940-45; A Member of EA Civil Defence and Supply Council 1940-45; European War 1914-18 (severely wounded, despatches); Private Sec. to Gov. of Uganda 1925-27; became a MLC and MEC Kenya Colony 1938; has been Member for Agriculture and Natural Resources Kenya since 1945; is an Officer of Order of Crown of Belgium; unsuccessfully contested S. Div. of Kensington (L) 1922; CMG 1941
Who's Who - Speaker of Kenya Legislative Council 1955 ...... late 60th Rifles (KRRC); served Malta, India and European War 1914-18 ... GSO War Office; Company Comdr. and later Asst. Adjutant RMC Sandhurst; worked for Vickers Ltd. on Continent with HQ Brussels 1923-24
Markham - 1925/6 - Bought a racehorse - 'Melton Pie' - from the Cardale Lucks and kept it with Beryl for training
East Africa & Rhodesia - 5/1/56 - KBE 1934 - Director of Kenya Consolidated Goldfields Ltd holding large claims at Kakamega, Gori River and Lolgorien
Racing - Owner of 'Lollipop' - 1930 - Major Cavendish-Bentinck
Racing - Owner of 'White Cargo' by 'Miwani' - 'Bibi' - 1930
Nicholls - Cavendish-Bentinck had originally landed in East Africa in 1912. He was allocated a soldier-settler farm in 1919 but did not take it up. He returned to East Africa in 1925 as private secretary to Sir Ernest Gowers, Governor of Uganda, and then went to Kenya in 1927 to work in the Equator Sawmills. A founder of the Kenya Association in 1932, he became the member of the Legislative Council for Nairobi North in 1934. In 1977 he inherited the dukedom of Portland from a cousin.
Mills - Muthaiga Country Club - At the Club's 1961 Annual General Meeting, Sir Ferdinand Cavendish-Bentinck was confirmed as President
Mills - In 1925, he became Private Secretary to Sir Ernest Gowers, the Governor of Uganda in the belief that the climate would be good for his lungs. In 1927, following his Uganda service, he joined Ewart Grogan as the manager of Equator Saw Mills, a company that had over 1,500 employees, a position for which Cavendish-Bentinck had no qualifications for except that Grogan liked him and liked hiring aristocrats. The company at that time kept offices on Sadler Street (now called Koinange Street). Ironically, Ferdinand turned around the failing timber company which remained profitable until the market collapsed due to the Great Depression in the early thirties. ……….. [more]
Soldier Settlement Scheme after WW1 - Class B - Capt. F.W. Cavendish-Bentinck, Brown Cottage, Heatherside, Camberley, Surrey - Farm 592
Rift Valley - Member of the Rift Valley Sports Club - Jan 1929 - Elected - 24 Jul 1927 - Maj. F. Cavendish Bentinck
Best - badly wounded during WW1, had settled in Kenya because the climate was good for his lungs. Minister for Agric. & Water Resources, Kenya. Private Sec. Governor of Uganda 1925-27
Gazette 16 Nov 1936 Voters List 1936 - Ferdinand William Cavendish-Bentinck, Director of Companies, Box 291, Nbi