John Osborne, 11th Duke of Leeds

Ancestral arms of the Osborne family, Dukes of Leeds

John Francis Godolphin Osborne, 11th Duke of Leeds (12 March 1901 – 26 July 1963) was a British peer.

He was the son of Sir George Godolphin Osborne, 10th Duke of Leeds and Lady Katherine Frances Lambton. He succeeded to the title of 11th Duke of Leeds and its subsidiary titles on 10 May 1927.

He inherited half a million pounds after tax from his father at the age of twenty-six in 1927, but his father also left gambling debts.^[1] Hornby Castle estate was placed on the market in 1930 and the Duke spent the rest of his life as a tax exile on the French Riviera, and on the island of Jersey at his mansion Melbourne House. Hornby Castle, bar one gutted wing, was demolished in 1931.^[2]

Bibulous and self-centred, he had no interest in living up to his title, and dissipated much of the family's remaining wealth, although enough remained for his sole child Lady Camilla to inherit, in addition to an allowance, a million pound lump sum from the family trust in 1971.^[3]

In 1965 he sold a Goya portrait of the Duke of Wellington at auction for 140,000 pounds. It was subsequently stolen from the National Gallery in a famous theft.^[4]

Family

The Duke married three times:

• Irma Amelia de Malkhozouny, on 27 March 1933. They divorced in 1948.
• Audrey Young, on 21 December 1948. They divorced in 1955.

They had one daughter, Lady Camilla Dorothy Godolphin Osborne (b. 14 August 1950): Camilla married 1) Julian Brownlow Harris and 2) the gossip columnist Nigel Richard Patton Dempster (m. 1977 – div. 2002)

• Caroline Fleur Vatcher (1931-2005), daughter of Colonel Henry Monckton Vatcher of Jersey, on 22 February 1955.

Since the 11th Duke died without male issue, his titles passed to his cousin D'Arcy Osborne, 12th Duke of Leeds, the last holder of these titles when the lineage became extinct.

Ancestry

Ancestors of John Osborne, 11th Duke of Leeds

16. Francis Osborne, 1st Baron Godolphin               8. George Osborne, 8th Duke of Leeds                       17. The Hon. Elizabeth Eden               4. George Osborne, 9th Duke of Leeds                             18. Granville Leveson-Gower, 1st Earl Granville               9. Harriette Stewart                       19. Lady Henrietta Spencer               2. George Osborne, 10th Duke of Leeds                                   20. Horace Pitt-Rivers, 3rd Baron Rivers               10. George Pitt-Rivers, 4th Baron Rivers                       21. Frances Rigby               5. The Hon. Frances Pitt-Rivers                             22. Granville Leveson-Gower, 1st Earl Granville (= 18.)               11. Lady Susan Leveson-Gower                       23. Lady Harriet Cavendish               1. John Osborne, 11th Duke of Leeds                                         24. William Lambton               12. John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham                       25. Lady Anne Villiers               6. George Lambton, 2nd Earl of Durham                             26. Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey               13. Lady Louisa Grey                       27. The Hon. Mary Ponsonby               3. Lady Katherine Lambton                                   28. James Hamilton, Viscount Hamilton               14. James Hamilton, 1st Duke of Abercorn                       29. Lady Harriet Douglas               7. Lady Beatrix Hamilton                             30. John Russell, 6th Duke of Bedford               15. Lady Louisa Russell                       31. Lady Georgiana Gordon

References

1. England, Historic. "Hornby Castle Park - 1420079 | Historic England". historicengland.org.uk. Retrieved 2015-12-28.
2. History Today: England's lost houses http://www.historytoday.com/giles-worsley/englands-lost-houses
3. Willis, Tim Nigel Dempster and the Death of Discretion, Short Books, 2010, ISBN 1906021848
4. The angry bus driver who pulled off the most bonkers art theft in history: Why Kempton Bunton stole portrait Government had saved for the nation to make a statement about BBC licence fee, Daily Mail, 16 July 2015, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3163188/The-angry-bus-driver-pulled-bonkers-art-theft-history.html

External Links

• Pedigree at Genealogics.org