Francis Egerton Grosvenor, 8th Earl of Wilton (born 8 February 1934), is an Anglo-Australian aristocrat, and academic.

Early life

Lord Wilton is the eldest son of Robert Egerton Grosvenor, 5th Baron Ebury, DSO, and his first wife, Anne Acland-Troyte. He succeeded his father as 6th Baron Ebury in 1957 and his fourth cousin, Seymour Egerton, as 8th Earl of Wilton in 1999.^[1]

Lord Wilton is also heir presumptive to the title Marquess of Westminster currently held by his distant cousin Hugh Grosvenor, 7th Duke of Westminster.

Career

Educated at Eton College, he pursued a career in the financial services industry in London, Melbourne and Hong Kong, before taking a doctorate in Philosophy-Arts at Melbourne University (2001), where he taught as Dr Francis Ebury.^[2]

Lord Wilton served on the Board of Directors of Victorian Opera (Melbourne) 2012–17.^[3]

Marriages and children

Lord Wilton has married three times.^[4] He was married firstly on 10 December 1957 to Gillian Elfrida Astley Soames (marriage dissolved 1962). They had one son:

• Julian Francis Martin Grosvenor, Viscount Grey de Wilton (born 8 June 1959), heir apparent to the earldom and subsidiary titles, married in 1987 to Danielle Rossi (divorced 1989).

Secondly, he married Kyra Aslin on 8 March 1963 (marriage dissolved 1973) without issue.

Thirdly, he married Suzanne Jean Suckling (4 August 1943 – 12 April 2018) in 1974. They remained married until her death 44 years later and had one daughter:

• Lady Georgina Lucy Grosvenor (29 March 1973 – 16 August 2003), a noted violist, married in 2000 to Dr Peter Mitev.^[5]

His third wife was a biographer who wrote under the name "Sue Ebury": The Many Lives of Kenneth Myer; Weary the Life of Sir Edward Dunlop, Weary: King Of The River. An editor and publisher, Lady Wilton was also a member of the Development Council of the National Library of Australia and patron of the Australian Garden History Society.

Styles

• The Honourable Francis Grosvenor (1934–1957)
• The Right Honourable the Lord Ebury (1957–1999)
• The Right Honourable the Earl of Wilton (1999–present)