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.

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

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...

Read More

Other Subjects

Dilys Powell

Dilys Powell

Journalist. Born Elizabeth Dilys Powell at Lloyd's Bank, Bridgnorth, Shropshire. Although she claimed to have little knowledge of cinema, she was the well-respected film critic for the Sunday Times...

Person, Cinema, Journalism / Publishing, Literature

1 memorial
Jean-Paul Marat

Jean-Paul Marat

Physician, political theorist, scientist, radical journalist and politician from the French Revolution. Murdered in his bath by Charlotte Corday.

Person, Journalism / Publishing, Medicine, Nationalism, Politics & Administration, France, Switzerland

1 memorial
Richardson Evans

Richardson Evans

Civil servant, journalist and author. He served in the Indian Civil Service, for North-Western Provinces from 1867 to 1876, after which he worked in London as a journalist. From the 1880s onwards, ...

Person, Community / Clubs, Journalism / Publishing, Belgium, India

1 memorial
Punch magazine

Punch magazine

Founded in early June 1841 at a meeting at the Edinburgh Castle public house in the Strand, attended by Henry Mayhew, brewery manager Mark Lemon, and engraver Ebenezer Landells.  The first issue wa...

Media, Journalism / Publishing

4 memorials
Lord Beaverbrook

Lord Beaverbrook

Newspaper publisher and politician. Born William Maxwell Aitken in Maple, Ontario. He came to Britain in 1910, and served as an MP 1911-16. In 1919, he took over The Daily Express, and later founde...

Person, Journalism / Publishing, Politics & Administration, Canada

1 memorial

Previously viewed

Victor Baldessarre

Victor Baldessarre

Auxiliary fireman killed in the bomb attack on Henry Cavendish School, Balham. Andrew Behan has kindly researched this man and first needs to comment on the spelling of the surname: The Firefighte...

Person, Emergency Services

War dead non-military, WW2
1 memorial
James Walworth

James Walworth

Monk at London Charterhouse. Exiled to the Charterhouse in Hull and then executed in York.

Person, Execution, Religion

1 memorial
W. Baker, Jnr.

W. Baker, Jnr.

Co-partner or employee of the South Suburban Gas Company. Served but did not die in WW1.

Person, Armed Forces

War served, WW1
1 memorial