Duke of Westminster donates £12.5 million to coronavirus causes

The duke is Britain's second richest person, inheriting his family's wealth in 2016

Hugh Grosvenor, the Duke of Westminster. Getty

As Britain cheered war veteran Tom Moore, who turned his fundraising into a multi-million pound windfall, one of Britain's richest men was also donating millions of pounds to the NHS.

Hugh Grosvenor, the 7th Duke of Westminster, whose family has long been associated with British riches and royalty, is paying £12.5 million from his charitable foundation.

The property empire – inherited on his father’s death in 2016 – is estimated to be worth about £10 billion.

The 29-year-old duke is the world’s richest person under 30 and the UK’s second richest person behind Ineos chief Sir Jim Ratcliffe.

The duke said he had been humbled by NHS workers.

Announcing the £10million donation, he said: “We are all humbled and incredibly grateful that you are working tirelessly to keep us safe and keep the country functioning.

“NHS staff and key workers don’t work well in isolation. They have children and families whose health and wellbeing will also be highly impacted by this crisis.”

Inequality campaigners

When his father died, he inherited his title and became the seventh duke of Westminster.

The duke has made two donations to the NHS since the coronavirus pandemic hit the UK. The first was £2.5 million to charities helping struggling families. The second was £10 million to NHS charities and coronavirus research.

His largesse has not been met with the same universal goodwill as Captain Moore’s efforts in his back garden in Bedfordshire.

Captain Moore’s charitable challenge started with him wanting to raise £1,000 for the NHS but it caught the public’s imagination, and he has so far raised more than £18 million.

Inequality campaigners pointed out that the duke’s donation is 0.1 percent of his inherited wealth.

Despite the London title and estates in the capital, he was raised in Cheshire, northwest England, where the family has a 10,000-acre estate called Eaton Hall.

He went to a state primary school and a private day school before attending £31,000-a-year Ellesmere College, a Shropshire boarding school and Newcastle University where he obtained a degree in countryside management. He worked in estate management at Wheatsheaf Investment, and then with the Grosvenor Group.

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