Cholmondeley was born in 1919 in St George Hanover Square, London, a descendant of Sir
Robert Walpole, the first
Prime Minister of Great Britain. He was the son of
George Cholmondeley, 5th Marquess of Cholmondeley and
Sybil Sassoon, of the
Jewish Sassoon and
Rothschild families. His mother was Jewish (from a family from Iraq, India, Germany, and France). Like his great-great-grandfather, his great-granduncle, his great-grandfather, his grandfather, his father and his son, Cholmondeley was educated at
Eton. He studied at
Magdalene College,
University of Cambridge. Cholmondeley served in the British army, initially in the
Grenadier Guards and later in the
1st Royal Dragoons. During the
Second World War, he saw action in the Middle East, in Italy, in France and in Germany. In 1943, he was decorated with the
Military Cross (
MC). When Cholmondeley retired from the military in 1949, he had attained the rank of Major. Cholmondeley succeeded to his father's land, estates and title in 1968. He died at
Cholmondeley Castle in
Cheshire in 1990. ==Marriage and children==