Robert Edward Peter Gascoyne-Cecil, the 6th Marquess of Salisbury, bucked the family tradition of working in politics and opted instead to become a soldier and a farmer.
Gascoyne-Cecil was educated at Eton, and received a commission with the Grenadier Guards during World War II. In 1942, he was wounded by a Hurricane that went off target. Twenty-three soldiers were killed, and Gascoyne-Cecil was shot in the lung. He was still being treated for his injury when he joined in the invasion of Normandy with the 2nd Battalion. He was also part of the first British unit to enter Brussels, and later appointed the Resident Minister in North Africa.
After the war, Gascoyne-Cecil followed his father to Parliament. He lost his first election, but won the Bournemouth West by more than 13,000 votes. He only spent four years in office, however, because an illness he contracted in Yugoslavia debilitated him.
Gascoyne-Cecil rested, healed, then devoted himself to running his great estates in Dorset. In 1965, he was elected president of the Royal Association of British Dairy Farmers.
Gascoyne-Cecil died on July 11. Cause of death was not released. He was 86.