Honorific-Prefix: | His Grace |
The Duke of Richmond | |
Honorific-Suffix: | CBE DL |
Birth Name: | Charles Henry Gordon-Lennox |
Birth Date: | 1955 1, df=yes |
11th Duke of Richmond 11th Duke of Lennox 11th Duke of Aubigny 6th Duke of Gordon etc | |
Children: | 5 |
Mother: | Susan Grenville-Grey |
Father: | Charles Gordon-Lennox, 10th Duke of Richmond |
Charles Henry Gordon-Lennox, 11th Duke of Richmond, 11th Duke of Lennox, 11th Duke of Aubigny, 6th Duke of Gordon, (born 8 January 1955), styled Lord Settrington until 1989 and then Earl of March and Kinrara until 2017, is a British aristocrat and owner of Goodwood Estate in Sussex.[1] He is the founder of the Goodwood Festival of Speed and the Goodwood Revival.
The Duke of Richmond serves as President of the British Automobile Racing Club, Patron of the TT Riders Association, and is an honorary member of the British Racing Drivers Club, the Guild of Motoring Writers and the 500 Owners Club.
Having a passion for film and photography since the age of 10, Lord Settrington left Eton College at the first possible opportunity and at 17 worked for the film director Stanley Kubrick on the film Barry Lyndon.[2]
See main article: Goodwood House. In 1995, the Earl of March, as he was then styled, moved from London to the family seat Goodwood to take over management of the estate, following family tradition of the estate management devolving upon the heir apparent when the latter turns forty.[2]
Motorsport at Goodwood was started by his grandfather, Freddie March, who opened the Goodwood Motor Circuit in 1948. March established the Festival of Speed at Goodwood House in 1993. He then brought motor racing back to the circuit, which had closed in 1966, with the creation of the Goodwood Revival in 1998.[3] Both events have since become recognised[4] as some of the most unusual, exciting and creative events in the world.[5]
The Goodwood Estate covers 12,000 acres to the north of Chichester. The Goodwood Estate Company is a diverse portfolio of businesses which includes: Goodwood Racecourse, a 4,000-acre organic farm, two eighteen-hole golf courses, Goodwood Aerodrome and Flying School, and a 91-bedroom hotel. The Group employs over 550 people and attracts 800,000 visitors to the estate each year. Also on the estate are Goodwood Cricket Club and the headquarters of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars.[6]
A Deputy Lieutenant (DL) for West Sussex since 2006, Richmond was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2024 New Year Honours for services to heritage, sport and charity.
The duke has been married twice and has three sons and two daughters. Marrying firstly in 1976 to Sally Clayton, daughter of Maurice Clayton, he and Lady Settrington had one daughter:
Divorced from his first wife in 1989, on 30 November 1991 Lord March married secondly the Hon. Janet Elizabeth Astor (born 1 December 1961), daughter of William, 3rd Viscount Astor, by whom he has one daughter and three sons:
In January 2016, he and the Duchess (then Earl and Countess of March) were attacked and tied up in a major jewel robbery at Goodwood House.[8]
March's name appears in the video game Gran Turismo 6, when he sends players an invitation related to the Goodwood Festival of Speed.[9]
Crest: | 1st, a Bull's Head erased Sable horned Or; 2nd, on a Chapeau Gules turned up Ermine a Lion statant guardant Or crowned with a Ducal Coronet Gules and gorged with a Collar compony of four pieces Argent charged with eight Roses Gules and the Last; 3rd, out of a Ducal Coronet a Stag's Head affrontée Proper attired with ten Tynes Or |
Coronet: | That of a British Duke |
Escutcheon: | Quarterly 1st and 4th grand quarters, the Royal Arms of Charles II (viz. quarterly: 1st and 4th, France and England quarterly; 2nd, Scotland; 3rd, Ireland); the whole within a Bordure compony Argent charged with Roses Gules barbed and seeded Proper and the Last; overall an Inescutcheon Gules charged with three Buckles Or (Aubigny); 2nd grand quarter, Argent a Saltire engrailed Gules between four Roses of the Second barbed and seeded Proper (Lennox); 3rd grand quarter, quarterly, 1st, Azure three Boars' Heads couped Or (Gordon); 2nd, Or three Lions' Heads erased Gules (Badenoch); 3rd, Or three Crescents within a Double Tressure flory counter-flory Gules (Seton); 4th, Azure three Cinquefoils Argent (Fraser) |
Supporters: | Dexter: a Unicorn Argent armed, crined and unguled Or; Sinister: an Antelope Argent, also armed, crined and unguled Or, each Supporter gorged with a Collar compony as the Crest |
Orders: | The Circlet of the Order of the British Empire |
Motto: | Over the 1st Crest, Avant Darnlie; over the 2nd Crest, En La Rose Je Fleuris; and over the 3rd Crest, Bydand |