Samuel George Armstrong Vestey, 3rd Baron Vestey (19 March 1941 â 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.
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. He was educated at Eton College before attending the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and serving as a lieutenant in the Scots Guards.
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 ã10 in tax on the ã2.3m profit made by the family's Dewhurst chain.
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, later expanding their demands to include the return of traditional lands.
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.
The strike and Vestey's role in it were referenced in Ted Egan's song "Gurindji Blues", written in 1969 with Vincent Lingiari, and later popularised in the 1991 song "From Little Things Big Things Grow" by Paul Kelly and Kev Carmody. It also appears in Irish folk musician Damien Dempsey's song "Wave Hill Walk Off", from his 2016 album No Force on Earth.
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.
He was Chancellor (1988âÂÂ1991) and then Lord Prior (1991âÂÂ2002) of the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem, having been appointed Bailiff Grand Cross (GCStJ) in 1987. 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, Queen Elizabeth II, who appointed him Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (KCVO) in the 2009 Birthday Honours.
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. He was appointed as a permanent Lord-in-waiting to The Queen in August 2019.
Vestey married Kathryn Eccles on 11 September 1970, and they were divorced in 1981. They have two daughters:
He married Celia Elizabeth Knight on 22 December 1981. Celia Vestey was a godmother of the Duke of Sussex. They have three children:
His elder son, William, served as a Page of Honour to Queen Elizabeth II from 1995 to 1998. 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 ã1.2 billion, according to the Sunday Times Rich List 2013.
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