As his older brother, Ronald, died without issue in 1908, Charles succeeded to his father's barony upon his death in 1909. The Greville estate aggregated to 20,000 acres across England.[4]
Personal life
In February 1909, his mother, Lady Violet (who died in 1932), wrote about the decadence of British society, blaming American brides. "'This,' she writes, 'has struck at the root of our family life and introduced a new element into the simplicity and dignity of old-fashioned households. The rich American has no traditions; no prejudices in favour of old customs, duties, or responsibilities; she is essentially irresponsible, and measures everything by one standard only--money. The result permeating through all classes has considerably increased luxury and made for independence. It has, far more than any suffragette movement, given liberty to women to do as they like; for the American regards her husband as an inferior being, made to work for her, and to lavish pleasures and gifts as a reward for her beauty and sprightliness.'"[5] At the time, it was thought to be a criticism of the marriage of Lord Granard to Beatrice Mills.[5]
Nine months later on 24 November 1909, Charles was married to American heiress Olive (née Grace) Kerr (1876–1959), at St Paul's Church, Knightsbridge.[6] Olive was more than twenty minutes late to the wedding due to the breakdown of her car on the way to the ceremony.[7] The wedding was in London,[8] followed by a large reception at the Carlton House Terrace home of Freddie Guest and his American wife, Amy Phipps (a daughter of Henry Phipps Jr.), which the Greville's had rented for a year.[9] The guests at the wedding included Prince Alexander of Teck.[7][a] Olive, the widow of banker Henry S. Kerr (from whom she inherited $1,000,000), was a daughter of John W. Grace of Leybourne Grange in Kent (formerly the seat of the Hawley baronets) and a niece of Michael P. Grace and MayorWilliam Russell Grace, founder of W. R. Grace and Company.[10][b] Together, Olive and Charles were the parents of:[3]
Ronald Charles Fulke Greville, 4th Baron Greville (1912–1987),[12] who died unmarried.[3]
Lord Greville died on 14 May 1952 and was succeeded in the barony by his eldest legitimate son, Ronald. Upon Ronald's death in 1987, the barony of Greville became extinct, although his second son Peter Charles Algernon Ascroft Greville may come to inherit the Title.[3]
Lord Greville, 3rd Baron Greville, Charles Beresford Fulke Greville had two sons. The second son was the Greville family secret and never recognised although known by the senior family members, was Peter Charles Algernon Ascroft Greville, he was born June 27, 1916, at his cousin Earl Harcourt's estate Ankerwycke Priory, where he remained until the age of four. The mother Cecil Violet Enid Ascroft (formerly Greville) was separated in 1913 from her first husband Charles Walmer Harcourt Ascroft and returned from Africa to England in 1913 with her father Major Brooke Southwell Greville. She was the 3rd Baron Greville's niece and the daughter of Major Brooke Southwell Greville, Kings Messenger. Cecil Violet Enid (Greville) Ascroft returned to London in 1913 and worked at the War Office and the Greville families closely socialised together with Baron Greville and Cecil Violet Enid Greville becoming intimate and she conceived her uncle Baron Greville's child. The Greville family moved her out of London very quickly in 1915 to give birth to her son Peter Charles Algernon Greville Ascroft. Her son was put into a private boys' school aged just four and she returned to the Greville's residence at Beaufort Gardens, Knightsbridge in 1920. Cecil Violet Enid then obtained a divorce from her first husband in 1927 and married Air Vice Marshal Edward Irvine Bussell CBE in 1927. Her first son and second son of 3rd Baron Greville, Peter Charles Algernon Ascroft Greville died in 2007 and his eldest son Christopher Brooke Fulke Greville, born September 1951 has reclaimed the Barony, he is now known as 6th Baron Greville, Christopher Brooke Fulke-Greville.[13]
Notes
^According to The New York Times, "[t]he wedding was the occasion for a family reunion on the side of the Grevilles which attracted much attention. The bridegroom's parents have not been on speaking terms for years, and Lady Greville and her daughters were not friends. All the family, however, was so pleased at the match that it brought Lord and Lady Greville and Mrs. Hay, their daughter, together into one pew in the church."[7]
^Mair, Robert H. (1884). Debrett's Peerage, Baronetage, Knightage, and Companionage: Comprising Information Concerning All Persons bearing Hereditary or Courtesy Titles, of Companions of the Orders of Knighthood and of the Indian Empire, and of all Collateral Branches of Peers and Baronets; Illustrated with 1400 Armorial Bearings. London: Dean and Son. p. 314.