Anthony Ashley - Cooper , 9th Earl of Shaftesbury Anthony Ashley - Cooper , 9th Earl of Shaftesbury , KP , PC , GCVO , CBE , ( 31 August 1869 – 25 March 1961 ) was the son of Anthony Ashley - Cooper , 8th Earl of Shaftesbury and Lady Harriet Augusta Anna Seymourina Chichester ( 1836 – 14 April 1898 ) , the daughter of George Chichester , 3rd Marquess of Donegall and Lady Harriet Anne Butler . Family life . On 15 July 1899 , the 9th Earl of Shaftesbury married Lady Constance Sibell Grosvenor ( 22 August 1875 – 8 July 1957 ) , the daughter of Victor Alexander Grosvenor , styled Earl Grosvenor ( son and heir of Hugh Lupus Grosvenor , 1st Duke of Westminster ) and his wife , Lady Sibell Mary Lumley , daughter of Richard George Lumley , 9th Earl of Scarbrough . Lady Grosvenor was invested as a Dame of Justice of Order of St . John of Jerusalem ( DJStJ ) and served as a Lady and Extra Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Mary . The 9th Earl of Shaftesbury and his wife , Lady Constance had five children : Lord Ashley was heir apparent to the earldom , scheduled to inherit upon the death of his father . However , at age 46 , Ashley died unexpectedly of heart disease before succession . At that time , his son , Anthony Ashley - Cooper , became heir apparent , inheriting the earldom in 1961 upon the death of his grandfather . Philanthropy and community service . Bryanston School . In 1928 , the 9th Earl provided a financial grant to establish a co - educational independent boarding school in Blandford , north Dorset , England , near the village of Bryanston . The 9th Earl served the school as the first Chairman of the Governors . Bryanston School was founded by a young schoolmaster from Australia named J . G . Jeffreys . He used his confidence and enthusiasm to gain financial support for the school during a period of severe economic instability . With financial backing from the earl , he paid £35 , 000 for the Bryanston House and its of immediate grounds . The school occupies a palatial country house designed and built in 1889 – 1894 by Richard Norman Shaw and modelled on the chateau at Menars in the Loire valley . Shaw designed the house for Viscount Portman to replace an earlier one . The building and estate was the biggest in Dorset and the last of the grand stately homes to be built in England . The home had been occupied by the Portman family for 30 years at the time of its sale , however , death duties made it impossible for the 4th Lord Portman to hold on to his family estate . There were just seven teachers and 23 boys of various ages in the first term . Jeffreys was a natural innovator but one who respected good traditions , reflected in his choice of school motto , " Et Nova Et Vetera . " His was the first English school to adopt the Dalton Plan , its combination of the new and the old being of particular appeal . The system was flexible enough to offer a combination of lessons in the classroom and time for assignment work in subject rooms , which gave the students freedom to decide which pieces of academic work to focus their attention . Students were required to keep a daily record on a chart showing their use of working and leisure time , meeting with their tutors on a weekly basis to ensure effective monitoring of their progress . Bryanston is a member of the Headmasters ' and Headmistresses ' Conference and the Eton Group . It has a reputation as a liberal and artistic school . The principles of the Dalton Plan are still in place today and remain central to the school ’ s success . Offices and honours . Lord Shaftesbury was Lord Lieutenant of Belfast from 1904 to 1911 , Lord Lieutenant of Antrim from 1911 to 1916 , Lord Lieutenant of Dorset from 1916 to 1952 , and Lord Steward from 1922 to 1936 . The 9th Earl of Shaftesbury presented Belfast Castle to the City of Belfast in 1934 . In 1978 , Belfast City Council began a major refurbishment over a period of ten years at a cost of over two million pounds . The architect was the Hewitt and Haslam Partnership . The building officially re - opened to the public on 11 November 1988 . Death and burial . The 9th Earl of Shaftesbury died in 1961 . He was buried in the Parish Church at Wimborne St Giles near the family estate . The earl ' s titles passed to his 22 - year - old grandson , Anthony Ashley - Cooper . The 9th Earl had carefully arranged financial matters on the Shaftesbury Estate so that his heirs would avoid death duties . When the earl died in 1961 , his grandson inherited the family ' s 17th - century home and large estate in Dorset , several other properties and a collection of art , antiques , and other valuables . By the 1990s the 10th Earl ' s wealth was said to be in the " low millions " .