Person    | Male  Born 31/3/1848  Died 18/10/1919

William Waldorf Astor, 1st Viscount

Born New York City into an extremely wealthy family. Lived in Rome in his mid-thirties where he developed a life-long taste for the arts.  On his father’s death in 1890 he built the luxury Waldorf Hotel on the site of the New York family home. (His cousin, John Jacob Astor IV, who built the adjoining Astoria Hotel was killed on the Titanic.)

Moved with his family to London in 1891, renting Lansdowne House until 1893 when he bought the Cliveden estate in Buckinghamshire.  In 1895 he had 2 Temple Place built, by architect John Loughborough Pearson, as his London residence and estate office. Owned the Pall Mall Gazette, Pall Mall Magazine and The Observer. 1899 became a British citizen.  1908 opened the Waldorf Hotel in London.  In 1906 gave Cliveden to his eldest son Waldorf as a wedding present on his marriage to Nancy Langhorne who became Lady Astor. Died at home in Brighton.

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This section lists the memorials created by the subject on this page:
William Waldorf Astor, 1st Viscount

Creations i

Sante Maria weather vane

Made of beaten copper.  War-damaged in 1944 it was restored and re-erected in...

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J. Wisden & Co

J. Wisden & Co

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Julius Salter Elias, Viscount Southwood

Julius Salter Elias, Viscount Southwood

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William Pitt Byrne

William Pitt Byrne

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Tin Pan Alley

Tin Pan Alley

‘Tin Pan Alley’ originally, 1885, referred to the section of New York City where music publishers and songwriters were based.  In 1920s London music shops congregated in Denmark Street and the term...

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Sir Henry Morton Stanley

Sir Henry Morton Stanley

Explorer and journalist, born as John Rowlands at Denbigh, Wales. Illegitimate and brought up in a workhouse, he sailed to America as a cabin boy in 1859. He befriended a trader called Henry Hope S...

Person, Exploring, Journalism / Publishing, Race Issues, Seriously Famous, Africa, USA, Wales

1 memorial