Edward Cavendish, 10th Duke of Devonshire (1895-1950)

When Edward Cavendish succeeded his father as 10th Duke of Devonshire in 1938 he and his wife, Lady Mary Cecil, daughter of the 4th Marquess of Salisbury, planned to make many alterations and improvements at Chatsworth.

Just a year later, however, the Second World War broke out and Chatsworth was occupied by Penrhos College, a girls' boarding school in Colwyn Bay.

In 1949 the house was re-opened to visitors and, in spite of petrol rationing, 105,000 people visited within a year.

In May 1944 the 10th Duke's eldest son and heir William, Marquess of Hartington (1917-1944) married Kathleen Kennedy, sister of the late President J. F. Kennedy.  Just four months later he was killed in action in Belgium while serving with his regiment, the Coldstream Guards. Kathleen died in an aeroplane accident in 1948.

They had no children, so the 10th Duke's second son Andrew succeeded his father following his sudden and unexpected death in 1950 at the age of 55.

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