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Hugh Edward Conway Seymour, 8th Marquess of Hertford (29 March 1930 – 22 December 1997) was the son of Brig.-Gen. Lord Henry Charles Seymour and Lady Helen Grosvenor. He was the grandson of both Hugh Seymour, 6th Marquess of Hertford and Hugh Grosvenor, 1st Duke of Westminster.
He was educated at Ludgrove School and Eton College. He inherited the title of Marquess of Hertford in 1940 at the age of 10, after his uncle, the 7th Marquess, died without a direct heir.
Hugh Seymour married Pamela Therese Louise de Riquet, Comtesse de Caraman-Chimay (daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel Prince Alphonse de Chimay and Mary Brenda Hamilton), on 10 July 1956.[1] They had four children:
His sister Lady Margaret Hay served as Lady-in-Waiting to HRH Princess Elizabeth from 1947–52, and then as a Woman of the Bedchamber to The Queen from 1953-75.[2]
He died at the age of 67 from a brain tumour.[3]
Lord Hertford notably saved his family home, Ragley Hall, Warwickshire, from demolition after he inherited it in 1940.[4] In 1958 he was one of the first peers to open his country house to the paying public.[4] He also commissioned artist Graham Rust to paint an epic mural and ceiling painting over the grand staircase. Work started in 1969 and finished in 1983. The finished mural portrayed a view of the Mountain of Temptation on the ceiling and several of Lord Hertford's relatives and godparents to his children behind the trompe-l'œil balustrade of the trompe-l'œil landing.[5]
He was interviewed on film by the author Margaret Powell, who wrote the popular book Below Stairs that would lead to television shows such as Upstairs, Downstairs and Downton Abbey.
