William Cavendish-Bentinck, 7th Duke of Portland

Who was William Cavendish-Bentinck, 7th Duke of Portland?

William Arthur Henry Cavendish-Bentinck, 7th Duke of Portland KG, styled Marquess of Titchfield until 1943, was a British Conservative Party politician.

Portland was the elder son of William Cavendish-Bentinck, 6th Duke of Portland, and his wife Winifred Anna. He was elected to the House of Commons as the Member of Parliament for Newark in 1922, a seat he held until he succeeded his father in the dukedom in 1943, and served as a Junior Lord of the Treasury under Stanley Baldwin from 1927 to 1929 and under Ramsay Macdonald in 1932. He also held the honorary posts of Lord Lieutenant of Nottinghamshire between 1939 and 1962 and was the second Chancellor of the University of Nottingham between 1954 and 1971. In 1948 he was made a Knight of the Garter.

Portland married Ivy Gordon-Lennox, daughter of Lord Algernon Charles Gordon-Lennox, in 1915. They had two daughters, Lady Anne and Lady Margaret.

He died in March 1977, aged 84, and was succeeded in the dukedom by his third cousin Ferdinand Cavendish-Bentinck. His junior title of Baron Bolsover became extinct on his death.