John Jacob Astor IV Alida Rebecca Armstrong, Astor was also a great-grandson of Senator John Armstrong, Jr. and Alida Livingston of the Livingston family. His maternal grandparents were Abraham Schermerhorn, a wealthy merchant, and socialite Helen Van Courtlandt White. He was also a nephew of financier and philanthropist John Jacob Astor III, and grandnephew of occasional poet John Jacob Astor, Jr. His sister Helen's husband was diplomat James Roosevelt "Rosey" Roosevelt, half-brother of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt of the Roosevelt family. Another sister, Carrie, a noted philanthropist, was the wife of Marshall Orme Wilson (brother of banker Richard Thornton Wilson, Jr. and socialite Grace
Waldorf Astor, 2nd Viscount Astor He also supported war against Germany when it came although both remained uncomfortable with Joseph Stalin as an ally (from 1941). His son David Astor, who became owner and editor of "The Observer" in 1948, never forgave Claud Cockburn and his newssheet "The Week" for attacks on the "Cliveden Set". The Astor family donated Cliveden Estate in Buckinghamshire to the National Trust in 1942. Viscount Astor died on 30 September 1952 at Cliveden near Taplow, England, and was buried in the Octagon Temple at Cliveden. His eldest son Bill succeeded him as Viscount. Waldorf Astor, 2nd Viscount Astor Waldorf Astor,