The Goldschmidt Family

George Horatio Charles Cholmondeley, 5th Marquess of Cholmondeley GCVO, styled Earl of Rocksavage from birth until 1923, was a British peer. He was the Lord Great Chamberlain of England in 1936 and also between 1952 and 1966.

Cholmondeley was a direct descendant of Sir Robert Walpole, the first Prime Minister of Great Britain. He was the son of George Cholmondeley, 4th Marquess of Cholmondeley and Winifred Ida Kingscote. Like his great-grandfather, his great-uncle, his grandfather, and his father, Cholmondeley was educated at Eton (1896–1898). In the years before he acceded to his father's title, he was a well-known tennis and polo player.

Cholmondeley fought in the Boer War (1899–1901), serving as a Railway Staff Officer. In 1905 he attained the rank of Lieutenant in the 9th Lancers. He was Aide-de-Camp to the Viceroy of India and he fought in the First World War, during which he gained the rank of Captain in the 9th Lancers. In 1920 he was promoted to the rank of Major.

Cholmondeley's life and career took a turn when he acceded to his father's land, estates and title in 1923, and his inherited title became Marquess of Cholmondeley. In 1953, he was awarded a Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order.

The family seats are Houghton Hall, Norfolk, and Cholmondeley Castle, which is surrounded by a 7,500 acres (30 km2) estate near Malpas, Cheshire.

The Cholmondeleys bought Wenbans near Wadhurst in Sussex in the mid-1890s; and after major restoration work in the 1920s and 1930s, the rustic farm only fifty miles from London was reported to have been frequented as a romantic getaway for the Prince of Wales who later became Edward VIII. The property was sold around the time of the abdication crisis of 1936 and the accession of George VI.

One moiety part of the ancient office of Lord Great Chamberlain is a Cholmondeley inheritance. This hereditary honour came into the Cholmondeley family through the marriage of the first Marquess of Cholmondeley to Lady Georgiana Charlotte Bertie, daughter of Peregrine Bertie, 3rd Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven. The second, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh holders of the marquessate have all held this office.

The Marquess bore the Royal Standard at the Coronation of King George VI in 1937.

The wealth of the Cholmondeley family was greatly enhanced by Cholmondeley's marriage to Sybil Sassoon (1894–1989), a member of the Sassoon family, a Jewish banking family with origins in Baghdad and India, and heiress to her brother Sir Philip Sassoon. The couple were married on 6 August 1913; and they had two sons and one daughter.