Hugh van Cutsem

Early life

Hugh Bernard Edward van Cutsem was born on 21 July 1941. His father, Bernard van Cutsem (1916–1975), was a millionaire horse trainer and breeder. His mother was Mary Compton. The van Cutsems were Roman Catholic of Flemish origin who had moved to England in the nineteenth century. He graduated from Ampleforth College, a Roman Catholic boarding school in Ampleforth, North Yorkshire, and from the University of Cambridge. He then served as an officer in the Life Guards.

Business career

Van Cutsem worked as an investment banker at Hambros Bank. Later, he started his own company and purchased further companies, including a data storage company.

Conservation

Van Cutsem inherited his father's stud Northmore Farm in Exning near Newmarket, Suffolk in 1976. He also owned a 4,000-acre estate in Norfolk, best known for its private wild game shoots. In 2001, the estate had thirty-five pairs of stone-curlews, a very rare bird. On top of this, he owned a hunting lodge and grouse moor on the North Yorkshire-Cumbria border. In the 1990s, he sold his father's farm in Exning and purchased the Hilborough estate, where he transferred his horsebreeding operations. In 1994, he won a Country Landowners' Association for his restoration of an old barn on the Hilborough estate; Prince Charles presented the award.

He was a founding member of the Countryside Movement, a conservationist non-profit organization. He was also a significant fundraiser for the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust, a British charity highlighting game and wildlife management for the benefit of conservation. Moreover, he served as Chairman of the Countryside Business Trust. He was also elected to the Council of the National Trust.

Personal life

On 10 June 1971, he married Emilie Quarles van Ufford, who was born in the Netherlands and a daughter of Jonkheer Pieter Quarles van Ufford, at Guards Chapel, Wellington Barracks. They had four sons:

The family rented Anmer Hall in Anmer, Norfolk on the Queen's Sandringham estate for ten years. They later moved into a neo-Palladian mansion designed by architect Francis Johnson in Hilborough, on their estate.

A devout Roman Catholic, he built a chapel near his Hilborough residence for family occasions, with visiting priests. However, he also regularly attended Mass at Our Lady of Pity in Swaffham with his family. In 1993, he was appointed a Knight of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta.

He was a friend of Charles, Prince of Wales since university. His son Edward, whose godfather was Prince Charles, was a pageboy at the wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales, and Lady Diana Spencer in 1981. His granddaughter, Grace van Cutsem, was a flower-girl at the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton in 2011.

Funeral

Van Cutsem died on 2 September 2013, aged 72. His funeral took place in the Brentwood Cathedral and was conducted by Thomas McMahon, Bishop of Brentwood. Each of his four sons also gave a reading; Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor read the prayer of commendation; the choir sang "Pie Jesu". It was attended by the Prince of Wales; his sons, the Duke of Cambridge and Prince Harry; and his wife, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall; together with Andrew Parker Bowles; Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester; Birgitte, Duchess of Gloucester; Ralph Percy, 12th Duke of Northumberland; Gerald Grosvenor, 6th Duke of Westminster; Natalia Grosvenor, Duchess of Westminster; and Lady Tamara Grosvenor.