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Victor Frederick William Cavendish-Bentinck, 9th Duke of Portland (18 June 1897 – 30 July 1990; known as Victor Cavendish-Bentinck until 1960 and The Lord Bentinck of Branksea from 1960 to 1980), was a senior British diplomat, businessman, courtier, and peer. He served as Chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee during the Second World War and was British Ambassador to Poland, Brazil, NATO, and France. After retiring from the Diplomatic Service he served on the boards of several industrial concerns and was Lord Chamberlain from 1971 to 1984. In 1980, he became the 9th Duke of Portland, succeeding his elder brother Ferdinand. His grandson and successor as Duke was William Cavendish-Bentinck, 10th Duke of Portland, commonly known as Bill Portland, who since 2016 has been Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

Background and education
Cavendish-Bentinck was born in Marylebone, London on 18 June 1897. He was the second son of Frederick Cavendish-Bentinck, whose father, George Cavendish-Bentinck, was a grandson of William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland. Although formally Victor Cavendish-Bentinck he was known informally as Bill. Like other members of his family he informally dispensed with the name "Cavendish", being known simply as Bill Bentinck. He was educated at Wellington College.

Queen Elizabeth II is also descended from the 3rd Duke of Portland through her maternal grandmother Cecilia Cavendish-Bentinck. The Queen and the 9th Duke of Portland were third cousins, once removed.

Diplomatic career
Cavendish-Bentinck did not pursue a university education, declining a place at Trinity College, Cambridge, a decision he would in later life admit to regretting. Instead he entered the diplomatic service in 1915 at the age of 18 as attache to Oslo, before taking leave to fight with the Grenadier Guards in the First World War, returning to the Foreign Office in 1919. In 1922, he took charge of administrative arrangements for the Lausanne Conference. He served in the British Embassy in Paris and also in the League of Nations Department in the Foreign Office. Other postings included Athens in 1932 and Santiago in 1933. The high point of his diplomatic career came in 1939 when he was appointed chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee. He managed to develop the body as a highly effective instrument of government and, as a result, became counsellor to the Services Liaison Department of the Foreign Office in 1942.

In 1945, Cavendish-Bentinck was given his first ambassadorial posting on his appointment as Ambassador to Poland. When visiting the formerly German City of Stettin (Szczecin) in 1946 he was invited to talk to German civilians suffering from months of internment so their possessions and property could be taken over by Polish resettlers from territories lost to the USSR. Cavendish-Bentinck refused to do so, ignoring certain inhuman circumstances under which mainly old people, women and children had to suffer, by noting to his Polish hosts, he was "convinced that they will complain as usual".

He held the position for two years before the Foreign Office applied to appoint him Ambassador to Brazil. He served in the latter post from 1947 to 1952, "biding his time" by remaining separated from his wife, his marriage having long broken down, as a divorce, particularly with a chilly Labour government, would likely oblige him to resign from the Diplomatic Service. They were divorced almost immediately upon the return of a Conservative government in 1951, under which he returned to good standing, and enjoying the protection of Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden, who had also recently gone through a divorce and would soon remarry.

In 1952 he was appointed as Permanent Representative to NATO, his experience during the war having been seen as an asset, serving in that post for two years. In 1954 he was appointed as Ambassador to France, one of the most senior postings in the Diplomatic Service and a particular mark of favour on the part of Prime Minister Winston Churchill. In April 1957 he was made a Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order upon the occasion of the state visit of Queen Elizabeth II to France, and in that same year he was granted a three-year extension in office despite having reached the then-mandatory retirement age of sixty. He coordinated secret negotiations between the British, French and Israelis in advance of the Suez invasion at Sèvres in 1956, but being seen as "something of an Eden loyalist", in certain respects, he was sidelined by Prime Minister Harold Macmillan at the Paris "big power" summit in 1960. Regardless, upon his retirement in 1960 he was made a hereditary peer as the 1st Baron Bentinck of Branksea, sitting on the Conservative benches.

Post-diplomatic career
After his retirement from the diplomatic service, Cavendish-Bentinck, now Lord Bentinck, embarked on a business career, becoming Vice-Chairman of the Committee of Industrial Interests in Germany. From this position, he was able to advance the interests of British companies such as Unilever, later becoming an independent director on its board. He was also on the boards of numerous companies, including Rio Tinto and Bayer, serving as Chairman of Bayer UK. From these positions Bentinck derived considerable income, and was able to purchase a house in Carlyle Square, Chelsea.

He divided his time between London and his family's Branksea Castle estate on Brownsea Island in Dorset, which had been placed under the guardianship of Ministry of Works (and later English Heritage) in 1948 in lieu of death duties, but with the family retaining ownership and use of the Castle. He was a member of the Steering Committee of the Bilderberg Group, and was its Chairman from 1977 to 1981. He was also the President of the British Nuclear Industry Forum and Chairman of the board of St George's Hospital.

In 1964 Lord Bentinck was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Dorset. In 1971 he succeeded The Lord Cobbold as Lord Chamberlain of the Household. He was an active Lord Chamberlain, bringing his diplomatic talents to the role; his first major responsibility was planning the 1972 funeral of the Duke of Windsor, a delicate task that required utmost tact and diplomacy. He was sworn of the Privy Council in 1972. He also was responsible for arranging the ceremonial funerals of the Duke of Gloucester in 1974 and his friend the Earl Mountbatten of Burma, who had recommended him for the post of Lord Chamberlain, in 1979. In 1975 he was made a Knight of the Order of the Garter, the highest possible dignity in the British honours system.

Lord Bentinck also orchestrated the wedding of Princess Anne to Captain Mark Phillips in 1973, which was the first major royal ceremony to be broadcast on television since the Queen's coronation in 1952. A decade later, the now-Duke of Portland would orchestrate the biggest media event ever staged at the time, the wedding of the Prince of Wales to Lady Diana Spencer in 1981. Between weddings and funerals (coronations and royal funerals falling under the remit of the Earl Marshal), he also oversaw the more regular events such as the annual garden parties at Buckingham Palace and Holyroodhouse. He also coordinated plans for the Queen’s Silver Jubilee in 1977.

Later life and Duke of Portland
In 1980 he succeeded his elder brother Ferdinand Cavendish-Bentinck as Duke of Portland. He retired as both Lord Lieutenant and Lord Chamberlain in 1984. Upon retiring he was awarded the Royal Victorian Chain and made a Permanent Lord-in-Waiting by the Queen. His grandson would later quip that the Duke was awarded the high-ranking but comparatively obscure Royal Victorian Chain, which entitled its holders to no particular title, style, or postnominal, but is seen as a personal token of high distinction and esteem from the monarch, because "all other possible honours had already been bestowed upon him".

Upon the 9th Duke's death in 1990, the Dukedom was inherited by his grandson, William Victor Cavendish-Bentinck, Marquess of Titchfield, as his father William James, the 9th Duke's only son, had predeceased him in 1966. He was interred at the traditional burial place of the Dukes of Portland in the churchyard of St Winifred's Church at Holbeck. In 1993 the Portland Prize was endowed at the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House) in his honour to recognize "diplomatic excellence".

Marriages and children
Bentick married Clothilde Bruce Quigley (died 1984), an American, on 16 February 1924. She was the daughter of James Bruce Quigley. They had two children together:
 * William James Cavendish-Bentinck (6 July 1925 - 4 September 1966)
 * Lady Mary Jane Cavendish-Bentinck (16 December 1929 - 1 March 2010)

The marriage ended in divorce in 1948. Portland married secondly, Kathleen Elsie Barry (died 2004) on 27 July 1948. She was the daughter of Arthur Barry. This marriage produced one further child:
 * Lady Barbara Cavendish-Bentinck

Styles of address

 * 1897 – 1939: Victor Cavendish-Bentinck
 * 1939 – 1945: Victor Cavendish-Bentinck
 * 1945 – 1954: Sir Victor Cavendish-Bentinck
 * 1954 – 1957: Sir Victor Cavendish-Bentinck
 * 1957 – 1960: Sir Victor Cavendish-Bentinck
 * 1960 – 1972: The Rt Hon The Lord Bentinck of Branksea
 * 1972 – 1975: The Rt Hon The Lord Bentinck of Branksea
 * 1975 – 1980: The Rt Hon The Lord Bentinck of Branksea
 * 1980 – 1990: His Grace The Duke of Portland

Honours and awards

 * 6 June 1939 Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG)
 * 14 June 1945 Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG)
 * 10 June 1954 Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George (GCMG)
 * 10 April 1957 Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order (GCVO)
 * 23 April 1975 Knight of the Order of the Garter (KG)
 * 31 November 1984 Royal Victorian Chain

Foreign honours

 * 🇧🇷 1951 Grand Cross of the National Order of the Southern Cross
 * 🇫🇷 1957 Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour
 * 1972 Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (1st Class)
 * 🇲🇼 1984 Grand Cross of the Order of the Lion

Decorations

 * 26 July 1919 British War Medal
 * 1 September 1919 Victory Medal
 * 3 June 1935 King George V Silver Jubilee Medal
 * 11 May 1937 King George VI Coronation Medal
 * 1 June 1953 Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal
 * 11 June 1977 Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal