Later Life
In 1975, Astor resigned as editor of The Observer but continued as a trustee. In 1977 the paper was sold by his family to Robert O. Anderson, the American owner of the Atlantic Richfield Oil Company. In his retirement, Astor continued to support a number of charities and to finance pressure groups for causes that he strongly believed in. For his contributions to British society, he was made a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour in 1994.
David Astor died in London at the age of 89 and is buried in All Saints' Churchyard, Sutton Courtenay, Oxfordshire, in a grave with a simple headstone bearing only his name. In the grave next to Astor's is buried his friend George Orwell whose real name was Eric Blair. Astor bought both burial plots when he learned that Orwell had asked to be buried in an English Country Churchyard.
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