Background and Education
Cecil was born on 11 January 1943 in a hospital near Aberdeen, ten minutes ahead of his twin brother David. His father, Henry Cecil, younger brother of the 3rd Lord Amherst of Hackney, had been killed in action with the Parachute Regiment in North Africa a fortnight earlier. His mother, Rohays Cecil, was the daughter of Major-General Sir James Burnett of Leys, 13th Baronet, owner of Crathes Castle, Aberdeenshire, which is today opened to the public by the National Trust for Scotland.
When he was still a baby, Cecil's mother married Captain Cecil Boyd-Rochfort, who was British flat racing Champion Trainer five times and who trained for, among others, King George VI.
Cecil and his brother were educated at Sunningdale School and at Canford School, Dorset. He described himself as "very late-maturing and backward", explaining that he was the first boy from his prep school ever to fail Common Entrance to Eton. After school, the twins went to work at the Earl of Derby's Woodland Stud in Newmarket, Suffolk, and at other studs overseas. They completed their education at the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester.
Read more about this topic: Henry Cecil
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