Background
William was the eldest son of Waldorf Astor and Nancy Witcher Langhorne.
William was the eldest son of Waldorf Astor and Nancy Witcher Langhorne.
He was educated at Eton and at New College, Oxford.
In 1932, Astor was appointed secretary to Victor Bulwer-Lytton, 2nd Earl of Lytton, League of Nations Committee of Enquiry in what was then known as Manchuria. Between 1936 and 1937 he was Parliamentary Private Secretary to the First Lord of the Admiralty Sir Samuel Hoare, who was then made Secretary of State for the Home Department in the new cabinet of Neville Chamberlain in 1937. Astor left parliament for a time, but returned as the Conservative Member of Parliament for Wycombe in the 1951 general election, serving for ten months.
On his father"s death in 1952, he inherited his title, becoming the 3rd Viscount Astor.
During the 1963 Profumo Affair Astor was accused of having an affair with Mandy Rice-Davies. In response to being told during one of the trials arising out of the scandal that Astor had denied having an affair with her, Rice-Davies famously replied "He would, wouldn"t he?" Astor then took over the family"s Cliveden estate in Buckinghamshire, where he and his family continued to live until 1966.
Active in thoroughbred horse racing, he inherited Cliveden Study, a horse farm and breeding operation in the village of Taplow near Maidenhead.
37th United Kingdom Parliament. 40th United Kingdom Parliament]
He was also a member of the Astor family. First elected to the House of Commons in 1935, he served as a Conservative Member of Parliament (Member of Parliament) for Fulham East until 1945.