Lt.-Col. Hon. Osbert Eustace Vesey, KCVO CMG CBE

LT-COL OSBERT EUSTACE VESEY KCVO, CMG, CBE b.1884–d.1957

A direct descendant of William the Conqueror, the Honourable Osbert Eustace Vesey was raised near Guildford by his widowed mother, with four siblings and nine servants. He was educated at Eton and Sandhurst. Lieutenant-Colonel Vesey served with the 9th Lancers from 1904 to 1911 and during the First World War in Yeomanry in Egypt and France. He was awarded the OBE in 1918 for military services and this was advanced to CBE in 1919. From 1919 to 1921 he was Private Secretary to the Under-Secretary of State for Air. During the Second World War he worked at the War Office.

Prior to succeeding Harry J Newman, Vesey was a director of Newcastle-upon-Tyne wine merchants Blayney & Co Ltd. In 1935 Harper’s wrote of Colonel Vesey that he had joined Toby Folks in 1933 and was a good judge of wine and that he specialised in Champagne, Claret and Port.

He was senior partner to Brigadier Brumell from 1946 to 1957, when together they made a formidable team in the face of frustrating trading problems caused by serious Champagne shortages.

In 1956 Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II dubbed him a Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order after 34 years service as a Gentleman at Arms. In 1948 he had been promoted to Clerk of the Cheque and Adjutant, in 1953 to Standard Bearer and in 1955 to Lieutenant.

It is said that he was an extremely shy man who regularly declined to have his photograph taken.