Henry Somerset, 10th Duke of Beaufort

British peer (1900–1984)

Henry Hugh Arthur FitzRoy Somerset, 10th Duke of Beaufort (4 April 1900 – 5 February 1984), styled Marquess of Worcester until 1924, was a peer, landowner, society figure and a great authority in the fields of horse racing and fox hunting. He held the office of Master of the Horse for over forty years (1936–1978), the longest to hold the position. He founded the Badminton Horse Trials and was deemed "the greatest fox hunter of the twentieth century"; his long tenure as Master of the Beaufort Hunt led to his being universally nicknamed Master and his car bore the private numberplate MFH1. In 1980 he published the authoritative book Fox Hunting.

He was the youngest child and only son and heir of Henry Somerset, 9th Duke of Beaufort (1847–1924) by his wife Louise Emily Harford (1864–1945), a daughter of William Henry Harford, JP, DL, of Oldtown, Tockington, Gloucestershire, and widow of Charles Frederic van Tuyll van Serooskerken (1859–1893), a Dutch baron, by whom she had two sons.

He was descended in the male line from Charles Somerset, 1st Earl of Worcester, 1st Baron Herbert (c.1460–1526), KG, an illegitimate son of Henry Beaufort, 3rd Duke of Somerset (1436–1464), 3rd in descent from John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster (3rd surviving son of King Edward III) by his mistress (and later wife) Katherine Swynford. Charles was given the surname "Somerset" and was created Baron Herbert in 1506 and Earl of Worcester in 1513. The present Dukes of Beaufort are thus the last known surviving male line descendants of King Henry II (1154–1189) of England, Count of Anjou, founder of the Plantagenet dynasty, of which King Richard III (1483–1485) was the last ruling member in the male line. The present king is descended from Henry II only through various female lines, all of them, however, legitimate. The surname Beaufort (properly de Beaufort, "from Beaufort") reflects the fact that Katherine Swynford gave birth to her illegitimate children by John of Gaunt at his French castle and manor of Beaufort ("beautiful stronghold") (from 1688 Montmorency Beaufort) in Champagne, situated 100 miles east of Paris.

He was educated at Eton College and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, from which he was commissioned into the Royal Horse Guards.

Beaufort left the Army after a few years with the rank of lieutenant. He was Honorary Colonel of the 21st (Royal Gloucestershire Hussars) Armoured Car Company, Territorial Army between 1969 and 1971 and Honorary Colonel of the Royal Wessex Yeomanry between 1971 and 1984, and the Warwickshire Yeomanry between 1971 and 1972.

After the International Horse Show of 1933 was abandoned, a new committee headed by the young Beaufort succeeded in re establishing the event at Olympia in 1934. Beaufort was Master of the Horse (1936–1978) to three British sovereigns, Edward VIII, George VI and Elizabeth II. As such, he took part in royal functions, such as the 1947 wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. He was appointed a Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order (GCVO) in 1930, a Privy Counsellor in 1936, a Knight Companion of the Order of the Garter in 1937 and was awarded the decoration of the Royal Victorian Chain in 1953. In 1955, Francisco Craveiro Lopes, President of the Portuguese Republic, awarded him the Grand Cross of the Order of Christ. He was Steward of Tewkesbury between 1948 and 1984, Hereditary Keeper of Raglan Castle (an office created by his ancestor William ap Thomas, the Blue Knight of Gwent), Lord Lieutenant of Bristol from 1931 to 1974 and High Steward of Bristol, Tewkesbury and Gloucestershire. He also held the office of Lord Lieutenant of Gloucestershire between 1931 and 1984 and was Chancellor of the University of Bristol from 1965 to 1970. Other offices held included President of the MCC, Bristol Rovers F. C., the British Olympic Association, the Battersea Dogs Home, and the Anchor Society in Bristol in 1969.

On 14 June 1923, Somerset, then styled Marquess of Worcester, married Lady Victoria Constance Mary Cambridge (1897–1987), a daughter of Adolphus Cambridge, 1st Marquess of Cambridge, a German prince whose mother was a granddaughter of King George III of the United Kingdom. The marriage was childless. Victoria had been born with the title Princess Mary of Teck; however, on 17 July 1917, following World War I, King George V decided to outwardly renounce his German heritage and issued a royal proclamation that changed the name of the British royal house from the German sounding House of Saxe Coburg and Gotha to the House of Windsor. All the king's British domiciled German relatives likewise relinquished their German titles and styles, and were granted new British titles. Mary's father was created Marquess of Cambridge, and she became known as Lady Mary Cambridge until her marriage. Mary's paternal aunt was Queen Mary, wife of George V, so that among her first cousins were King Edward VIII and King George VI. The Dukes of Beaufort were among the closest friends of the royal family. Queen Mary lived at Badminton during World War II and the royals stayed there several times a year, particularly for the Badminton Horse Trials, which usually took place at the time of Queen Mary's birthday.

Beaufort died in 1984, aged 83, at his seat of Badminton House, and was buried in the churchyard of his parish Church of St Michael and All Angels, Badminton. Unusually, the Queen, who usually attends funerals of close family only, went to his, as did most other members of the royal family. On Boxing Day 1984 animal rights activists vandalised his grave but stopped short of their plan to disinter his remains and send his head to Princess Anne.

The Dukedom of Beaufort, created in 1682 by letters patent not by writ, cannot pass via a female line. As he died childless, the dukedom, the titles Earl of Worcester (cr. 1513), Marquess of Worcester (cr. 1642) and his estates passed to his first cousin twice removed, David Somerset, 11th Duke of Beaufort (1928–2017) (the grandson of his first cousin Henry Charles Somers Augustus Somerset, son of Lord Henry Somerset, second son of the 8th Duke), to whom he was close and who had lived for many years on the Badminton estate which he had helped to manage.