Duke and Duchess of Westminster Visit Vancouver Mentorship Hub
Hugh Grosvenor, the 7th Duke of Westminster, and his wife Olivia visited the new Mentorship HUB run by Big Sisters of BC Lower Mainland in Vancouver, Canada. Hello! magazine reported the visit on 27 October 2026.
The couple were joined by the Honourable Wendy Cocchia, Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia. The Lieutenant Governor is the Crown's representative in the province, and her presence marked the visit as an official occasion. The Duke and Duchess also toured the new hub, which is designed to give young people in the Lower Mainland, the region around Vancouver, a place to meet mentors and build skills.
The visit was part of a wider trip to see the Duke's business operations in Vancouver. The Duke's property interests in Canada are run by the Grosvenor group, which has a long record in British property development.
The hub's work is supported by the Westminster Foundation, a charity the Duke chairs. According to the foundation's own website, the foundation focuses on early intervention support for children and young people, meaning help given early, before problems grow. Hello! magazine reports that the foundation has a multi-year partnership with the Grosvenor group's Canadian property business. That partnership is helping Big Sisters expand its education and post-secondary programmes, which prepare young people for college, university and other training after school.
The foundation's grants work on a longer timescale. A Town & Country report from May 2024 said the foundation awards partnership grants of up to £100,000 a year to fund long-term projects, such as its Young Leaders programme.
Earlier public giving by the Duke has also been covered. In April 2020, the Telegraph reported that he had given £12.5 million to the national Covid-19 relief effort. In January 2026, Hello! magazine reported that the Duke's charity had awarded more than £10 million through 175 grants.
The couple's personal news has also been reported. The Duke married Olivia Henson at Chester Cathedral in June 2024. In July 2025, the Duke and Duchess announced the birth of their first child, a daughter, according to the Telegraph.
Big Sisters of BC Lower Mainland is the main beneficiary of the visit's news. The couple's trip shows how a private family's charity and business interests can meet a local youth organisation on the ground. The visit was a single event.
