The 12th Duke of Bedford was found shot in 1953, and the son he had cut off opened Woburn Abbey to paying visitors to meet a £4.5 million tax debt

Herbrand Russell, 11th Duke of Bedford, did not speak to his son Hastings for 20 years. The two still worked on plans to shield the Bedford fortune from British tax. The 11th Duke died on 27 August 1940 before the plans took effect. Hastings, the 12th Duke, was a pacifist who funded the British People's Party and wrote pro-Nazi material. He cut off his own son John, who had married against his wishes in 1939. John worked as an estate agent and a Sunday Express journalist, then farmed fruit in South Africa. In 1949 and 1950 the east wing of Woburn Abbey and the east ends of its north and south wings were demolished after dry rot was found. On 9 October 1953 the 12th Duke was found dead with a gunshot wound in the grounds of Endsleigh in Devon. The coroner recorded accidental death. The historian Richard Griffiths wrote that it was almost certainly suicide. John became 13th Duke with a tax debt of £4,500,000. He kept Woburn out of the National Trust and opened it to paying visitors in April 1955. The first season drew 181,000 visitors. Woburn Safari Park opened in 1970. He left Britain as a tax exile in 1974 and died in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on 25 October 2002. In 2026 Andrew Russell, 15th Duke, owns Woburn. The Abbey closed for a restoration begun in 2019, and the estate website says it is preparing to reopen.