Thanks to Wiltshire Hunt Sabs for this guest post, who, alongside Cirencester Illegal Hunt Watch, Bristol Hunt Sabs and Bath Hunt Sabs, have been keeping the pressure on the Beaufort Hunt.
The Duke of Beaufort’s Hunt is one of Britain’s most prominent fox hunts and has been terrorising wildlife across the countryside surrounding the Badminton Estate in Gloucestershire for hundreds of years. But the Beaufort Hunt does not exist in isolation. Behind it lies a wider rural network of landowners, estate managers and property professionals.
One of the most striking examples is Rupert Sturgis, Partner and Head of Knight Frank’s Cirencester office.
Knight Frank’s website describes Sturgis as specialising in the sale of town and country property across Gloucestershire and North Wiltshire.
He is also a Field Master of the Beaufort Hunt.
On Saturday we filmed Rupert directing the field riders to surround a covert. This is so foxes become trapped inside, whilst hounds are sent in to kill them. It’s a classic cubbing technique that teaches the new hounds to kill.
Rupert’s role with the hunt is not recent. In 2015, Horse & Hound described him as an estate agent who was then in his 12th season as a Beaufort Field Master.
The Field describes him as a Beaufort Field Master, quoting him discussing the hunting country where they were openly hunting foxes just last Saturday, and where our drone was shot down in December 2025: “Field Master Rupert Sturgis recommends the Widleys hedges as part of a run west from Common Wood Farm”.
His wife, Beanie Sturgis, is also a Beaufort Field Master. Badminton Horse Trials states that she married Rupert in 2007 and describes her as a Beaufort Field Master, as well as an event organiser, show judge and course designer. Beanie accepted a community resolution in respect of a hate crime committed against a hunt sab in October 2024.
The connection between Knight Frank and the Badminton Estate goes well beyond Rupert Sturgis. In fact, Knight Frank has been involved with the estate for decades, with senior figures from the firm becoming closely involved in the management structure surrounding Badminton.
In its 2015 Rural Report, Knight Frank stated that it had been involved with the Badminton Estate for 15 years. The report featured Simon Dring, then Badminton’s senior resident agent, who said he had worked at the estate for more than 30 years, including 15 years as senior resident agent. He described working closely with the Duke and his family, as well as coordinating the various specialists and advisers involved with the estate.
Dring retired from the Knight Frank LLP partnership on 31 December 2016, but his relationship with Badminton continued for almost another decade. He remained the estate’s senior resident agent until his retirement from Badminton in late 2025.
Dring once hilariously told us, via deluded hunt supporters, that we couldn’t fly our drone in the ‘Duke’s air space’.
Companies House records show that he was secretary of Swangrove Estates Ltd from 31 March 2000 until 9 March 2026. The company is registered at the Estate Office, Badminton, and its stated business is mixed farming. He was also secretary of Swangrove Holdings Ltd from 31 March 2000 until 9 March 2026, another company registered at the Badminton Estate Office.
Both companies show current officers including members of the Somerset family alongside other directors. The records show the overlap between the people managing the estate and the companies through which its interests are held.
And Dring is not the only former Knight Frank figure with a connection to the Badminton Estate.
Christopher Smith, who was a Knight Frank partner heading its rural consultancy, renewables and energy consultancy, is now listed as a person with significant control of Badminton Hospitality Ltd, with ownership and voting rights of 75% or more. His correspondence address is the Badminton Estate Office.
Alexander (Sandy) Douglas provides another link. He has been a director of Swangrove Estates Ltd since 2000, with the company’s records giving his correspondence address as the Badminton Estate Office. Douglas also has a longstanding history with Knight Frank, having previously been an LLP member.
The overlap extends beyond Badminton. Atty Beor-Roberts, whose real name is Alastair Guy White Beor-Roberts, spent more than 30 years with Knight Frank and was chairman of the firm’s central region, retiring in 2018 but continuing as a consultant.
At the same time, Beor-Roberts was chairman of the Radley College Beagles, retiring in May 2026. In the same interview, he listed hunting among his preferred weekend activities. Beor-Roberts was chairman of the hunt when sabs were arrested, whilst stopping illegal hare hunting near Radcot.
This provides another example of the close relationship between senior figures in the rural property world and Britain’s traditional hunting networks.
These links show a network of people whose professional careers in rural property have overlapped with the management and corporate interests of one of Britain’s most prominent landed estates.
And the Beaufort Hunt itself is of course closely tied to the Badminton Estate. The hunt’s own contact information lists the Badminton Estate Office alongside the organisations with which it is associated.
The Beaufort family’s association with fox hunting dates back to 1762, when the 5th Duke of Beaufort chased a fox into Silk Wood and decided to focus his attention entirely on fox hunting. Since then, successive Dukes of Beaufort have maintained a deep involvement in the hunt. The mastership has traditionally been held by the head of the Beaufort family at Badminton, with the family owning the hunt’s hounds, kennels and stables.
The current Duke’s grandfather, Henry Somerset, the 10th Duke of Beaufort, led the hunt for 60 years and was described as the ‘greatest fox hunter of the 20th century’. A dubious title if ever there was one.
In 1980, he published ‘Fox-Hunting’, described as a ‘comprehensive examination’ of the ‘sport’ of fox hunting. Its chapters cover the management of hounds, fox coverts, earth-stopping, terriers and digging.
The book provides a detailed and disturbing insight into fox hunting and is particularly relevant given the Beaufort Hunt’s use of artificial earths ‘AEs’, which continued until recently when their use was exposed by sabs.
The AEs are used to encourage foxes to live and breed, therefore keeping them in the area to be hunted. The foxes are flushed on the morning of the hunt, and the entrances then blocked so they can’t return.
Henry ‘Harry’ Somerset, the current 12th Duke of Beaufort, is a director of both Swangrove Estates Ltd and Swangrove Holdings Ltd, as well as a director of Badminton Horse Trials Ltd. He is also the senior Master of the Beaufort Hunt.
These connections show a longstanding overlap between the professional world of rural property management and the institutions surrounding the Badminton Estate.
Knight Frank has itself described its involvement with Badminton as longstanding, while former Knight Frank figure Simon Dring held senior positions within companies connected to the estate. At the same time, Knight Frank’s Cirencester office is headed by Rupert Sturgis, who is a Field Master of the Beaufort Hunt.
These connections raise questions about the extent to which the same people and professional networks operate across the rural property industry, major landed estates and hunting organisations.
Knight Frank publicly describes itself as a responsible business and says its sustainability plan is intended to address global risks including climate change and nature depletion, while making a positive and measurable difference to the natural environment and communities.
Meanwhile, Rupert Sturgis – Partner and Head of the Knight Frank Cirencester office – is publicly carrying out illegal hunting in his role as a Field Master of the Beaufort Hunt.
The Beaufort Hunt is part of a much wider rural network in which landowners, estate managers, property professionals and hunting figures are connected through longstanding personal and commercial relationships. By exposing those connections, we can better understand the establishment surrounding illegal hunting and the networks that allow it to continue.
The question is not just who goes hunting. It is who manages the land, who advises those who own it and how closely those worlds are connected.
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