On 20 April 1858, he was commissioned a lieutenant in the Dorsetshire Yeomanry[4] and promoted to lieutenant-colonel on 19 July 1866.[5] He succeeded Lord Digby as lieutenant-colonel commandant on 20 September 1870.[6]
On 15 April 1882, Grosvenor resigned his command of the Dorsetshire Yeomanry Cavalry and was appointed honorary colonel of the regiment,[9] a post he held until 1895. In 1891, he was appointed chairman of the London and North Western Railway, of which he had been a director since 1870 and had eagerly promoted. In 1867 he was prompted by Emperor Napoleon III to head an international committee to promote a populist view of a Channel Tunnel, which contemplated a submarine railway between England and France.[3] In 1895 he established the LNWR Savings Bank, which became the main sponsor of a new ambulance centre for the St John's Ambulance Association in Manchester.
He had inherited Motcombe House in 1891. The house was demolished after he contracted typhoid fever in 1894 and a new house built in 1895. However, much of the estate was sold off in 1905 to raise money, when the family moved to London. Lord Stalbridge had, in 1887, agreed to pay off some of the debts of Liberal peer, Lord Sudeley, and the resulting financial entanglement severely reduced his wealth.[citation needed]
Family
Grave of Beatrice Charlotte Elizabeth (née Vesey), first wife of Richard Grosvenor, 1st Baron Stalbridge
Lord Stalbridge married at Westminster Abbey on 5 November 1874, as his first wife the Hon. Beatrice Charlotte Elizabeth Vesey, third and youngest daughter of Thomas Vesey, 3rd Viscount de Vesci, by Emma, youngest daughter of the 11th Earl of Pembroke. She died of pleurisy in Brook Street in 1876, shortly after the birth of their only child:
Hon. Elizabeth Emma Beatrice Grosvenor (1875–1931), who on 1 June 1899 married Aubrey Clare Hugh Smith, RN, who later became an admiral.
Stalbridge married his second wife on 3 April 1879, Eleanor Frances Beatrice (d.1911), younger daughter of Robert Hamilton-Stubber of Moyne, Queens County, by Olivia, daughter of the Rev Edward Lucas. They had five children:
Hon. Blanche Grosvenor (1880–1964), twin, married Lieutenant-Colonel James Holford
Hon. Gilbert Grosvenor (1881–1939), married Effie E. Cree; no issue
Captain Hon. Richard Eustace Grosvenor, MC (1883–1915), killed in the First World War
Hon. Eleanor Lilian Grosvenor (1885–1977), married Major Josceline Grant; mother of Elspeth Huxley
Lady Stalbridge died on 21 March 1911 at 22 Sussex Square, and was buried on 25 March at Motcombe. Lord Stalbridge survived her by about a year and died at his London home on 18 May 1912, aged 75. He was succeeded in the barony by his eldest son, Hugh.[1] His will was probated in July 1912 at £5,863 gross, and £2,849 net.
Arms
Coat of arms of Richard Grosvenor, 1st Baron Stalbridge
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