Charmingly eccentric and every inch a gentleman, he veered off from the Wodehouse stereotype in his love of classical music, being a familiar sight at concerts.

His younger brother Henry, who had died before him, was a gifted musician.

George Halifax Lumley-Savile, the third Baron Savile of Rufford, enjoyed grouse shooting, and as one of Calderdale's biggest landowners, his antipathy to wind farms – he opposed having any on his land – was significant.

As a hereditary peer, he took his duties in the Lords seriously, and after the Lords reform which denied hereditary peers their seats, he missed being able to attend the debates.

Despite a succession of one-sided affairs – for a time he was the enthusiastic friend of Barbara Cartland's daughter Raine, later Countess Spencer and stepmother of Princess Diana – he never married.

George enjoyed the company of younger people, and the Bloody Marys served by his butler to those fortunate enough to be invited to Sunday lunch at Gryce Hall, a late Elizabethan farm house near Huddersfield which he bought after the war to serve as the family seat, were reckoned to be the best in the region.

His early years were blighted by his parents' blatant preference for his brother, making no secret to their friends that they regarded Henry as a more suitable heir.

But when the Second Baron died in 1931, it was, of course, George who inherited the title.

His mother sold the family mansion at Rufford Abbey, Nottinghamshire, and with it most of its contents, including paintings and furniture which had been accumulated by the family since it rose to prominence in Calderdale in the 16th century.

The family held estates at Hebden Bridge, Rishworth, Thornhill and Elland, and the lordships of the manors of Ovenden, Skircoat and Elland – now sold.

In 1939 the family made Walshaw Lodge above Hebden Bridge their permanent residence, Lady Savile having replaced the family heirlooms with pictures and pieces in the latest fashion.

During the Second World War, George was a captain in the Duke of Wellington's Regiment and was later attached to the 1st Battalion the Lincolnshire Regiment, seeing service with it in Burma during the campaigns of 1943 and 1944.

Settling down after the war at Gryce Hall, he was for many years a magistrate in the Dewsbury area.

The Savile family's munificence has benefited Calderdale considerably.

In 1866, George's great-uncle, Captain Henry Savile of Rufford Abbey, sold Skircoat Moor – then valued at about £40,000 – to Halifax Corporation for the nominal sum of £100, on condition the corporation took action to alleviate smoke pollution in the town.

In recognition of his generosity, the moor was renamed Savile Park.

Henry also gave large areas of Hardcastle Crags to the National Trust in 1950, and in 1960 gave Popples Common and nearby moorland close to Heptonstall to Hepton Rural District Council.

A devout Anglican, Lord Savile worshipped for over 60 years at Emley Parish Church, of which he was patron.

He leaves his sister, the Hon. Deirdre Barbara Elland of Maryland, USA, and his heir is his nephew, John Anthony Thornhill Lumley-Savile, who lives in Cornwall.