THE 13th Duke of Bedford, who famously built an amusement park on his ancient seat of Woburn Abbey, has died aged 85 in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Born John Robert Russell, he caused outrage among his aristocratic peers when he raised the funds to restore his derelict home, north of London, by turning the 16,000 acres of land into a tourist attraction.

In 1939, he was disinherited by his grandfather, Spinach Russell, who disapproved of his marriage to Clare Hollway, a divorcee. The pair were reconciled after she died in 1945. The duke joined the Coldstream Guards in the second world war, but was soon discharged with ill health and became a Sunday Express reporter. He later took his family to South Africa, but returned after inheriting his title in 1953.

He restored Woburn, once a Cistercian abbey, with his second wife, Lydia. He married his third wife, Nicole, in 1960, and handed over the estate to his son, Robin Ian Russell, Marquess of Tavistock, in 1974.