Victor Hervey, 6th Marquess of Bristol

The Marquess of Bristol

Lord Bristol and Lady Juliet Fitzwilliam on their wedding day
Born (1915-10-06)6 October 1915
Died 10 March 1985(1985-03-10) (aged 69)
Title Marquess of Bristol
Tenure 5 April 1960 – 10 March 1985
Spouse(s) Pauline Bolton
Lady Juliet FitzWilliam
Yvonne Marie Sutton
Parents Herbert Hervey, 5th Marquess of Bristol
Lady Jean Cochrane

Victor Frederick Cochrane Hervey, 6th Marquess of Bristol (6 October 1915 – 10 March 1985), was a British aristocrat. He was a member of the House of Lords, Chancellor of the International Monarchist League, and an active businessman who later became a tax exile in Monaco.[1]

The 6th Marquess of Bristol was the only son of Herbert Arthur Robert Hervey, 5th Marquess of Bristol, and Lady Jean Cochrane, the daughter of the 12th Earl of Dundonald. His godmother was Queen Victoria Eugenie of Spain. He held the titles of Earl of Bristol, Earl Jermyn (by which title he was known until inheriting the Marquessate), and Baron Hervey of Ickworth in Suffolk. He was Hereditary High Steward of the Liberty of Bury St Edmunds, was patron of thirty Church of England benefices, and held estates in Suffolk, Essex, Lincolnshire, and Dominica in the West Indies. He was educated at Eton and at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. He was sometime President of the National Yacht Harbour Association, a member of the House of Lords Yacht Club, the Hurlingham Club, and the East Hill Club, Nassau, Bahamas.[2]

Family

The Marquess married three times:

  1. At the age of 34, on 6 October 1949 (divorced 1959), Pauline Bolton, daughter of a Kent businessman;[3] and had issue Frederick William John Augustus Hervey, 7th Marquess of Bristol (known as John), gaoled twice on drugs offences, died childless aged 44;
  2. At the age of 45, 23 April 1960, Lady Anne Juliet Dorothea Maud Wentworth Fitzwilliam, aged 25, only child of Peter Wentworth-FitzWilliam, 8th Earl FitzWilliam, with issue a son, Lord Nicholas Hervey, who was educated at Eton and Yale, was diagnosed with schizophrenia towards the end of his life, and died by his own hand aged 36, unmarried.
  3. At the age of 60, in 1974, Yvonne Marie Sutton, aged 29 and his private secretary,[1] with issue Frederick Hervey, 8th Marquess of Bristol and the socialites and models Lady Victoria Hervey and Lady Isabella Hervey

Lord Bristol was alleged to have been a harsh father to his eldest son, according to friends of the latter. "He treated his son and heir with indifference and contempt," said Anthony Haden-Guest. The Marquess of Blandford summed up the relationship: "Victor created the monster that John became."[1]

Crime and Imprisonment

In his youth Victor Hervey was called "Mayfair's Number One Playboy".[4] He has been called the Pink Panther of his day and the ringleader of a gang of former public school boys known as the Mayfair Playboys, who assaulted and robbed a jeweller from Cartier, as a result of which two of them were sentenced to being flogged with the cat-o'-nine-tails.[5][6]

In 1939 Hervey was gaoled for three years for two Mayfair jewellery robberies, committed when he was 22 years old. The Recorder of the court observed: "The way of the amateur criminal is hard. But the way of the professional is disastrous".[1] He later sold an article about his life and exploits to a newspaper.[4]

Business dealings

Prior to receiving his trust income, the Hon. Victor Hervey went bankrupt in 1937, aged just 21, with debts of £123,955, (approximately £7.21 million today).[7] He had been selling guns during the Spanish Civil War to both sides, ultimately selling the Republicans out to Franco; his bankruptcy may have resulted from an arms deal which went wrong. He nevertheless continued in his arms-dealing activities and was Franco's principal agent for many years. Bristol went on to amass a fortune, both inherited and earned, estimated to be in excess of £50 million.

In 1973[2] he was recorded as having a great many business interests, with estates in Suffolk, Lincolnshire and Essex. He was then Chairman of Sleaford Investments Limited, Eastern Caravan Parks Ltd., Estates Associates Ltd., Ickworth Forestry Contractors Ltd., Cyprus Enterprises Co., V.L.C. Associates Ltd., Marquis of Bristol & Co., The Bristol Publishing Company, Radio Maria Ickworth Automatic Sales Ltd., Bristol International Airways Ltd., Dominca Enterprises Co., World Liberty Plots and other companies. He owned the Ickworth Stud, Suffolk, and the Emerald Hillside Estates in Dominica.

Monaco and other interests

Bristol, his third wife and family moved to Monte Carlo, Monaco, in early 1979 as tax exiles. He was vice-president of the UK Taxpayers Union, a member of the West India Committee, and an expert on Central American affairs.[2] He was also Vice-President of the English-Speaking Union (East Region), and a generous donor to the Ambulance Corp in Northern Ireland.[8]

He was a member, until his death, of the International Monarchist League, joining its Grand Council in 1964,[2] from which time he also became a patron. In 1975 he was elected as the League's Chancellor.[9][10] He was also a long-standing member of the Conservative Monday Club.

Victor Bristol was a patron of the arts and a collector, an acknowledged authority on Alma Tadema and Tissot, and "a lover of art and beauty in all its forms."[11]

Death

The 6th Marquess of Bristol died in Monaco on 10 March 1985, aged 69, and was buried in Menton, France. On his grave was inscribed his motto "Je n'oublieray jamais" ("I shall never forget").

A two-page obituary for Victor, 6th Marquess of Bristol, appeared in the 1985 edition of The Monarchist,[11] written by Michael Wynne-Parker, who described him as "no fairweather friend, he was staunch, loyal, dependable, with a sense of humour. Long will I remember his cheerful voice speaking over the telephone from Monaco where he enjoyed his final years. Despite the pressures of life he remained bright of manner and optimistic.... His detractors and those who knew him slightly only saw the colourful and flamboyant side of his character; but it was as a thorough and practical man of business that Lord Bristol restored The Monarchist and the Monarchist League to surpass its former glory."

In October 2010 his last surviving son, the 8th Marquess of Bristol, repatriated his remains,[12] which were reburied in the family vault at Ickworth Church after a service in St Leonard's Church at Horringer.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Haden-Guest, Anthony. "The end of the peer", The Observer, 22 January 2006. Accessed 17 May 2008.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Kelly's Handbook 1973,London, 99th edition,p.300.
  3. ↑ The Independent obituary 12 January 1999
  4. 1 2 Marcus Scriven (2009). Splendour and Squalor.
  5. ↑ Day, Peter. "It girls' father was Pink Panther thief", The Sunday Times, 23 September 2007. Accessed 17 May 2008.
  6. ↑ Bale, Joanna."Junkie marquess died penniless after spending millions on drugs", The Times Online, 23 September 2005. Accessed 17 May 2008.
  7. ↑ UK CPI inflation numbers based on data available from Gregory Clark (2016), "The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)" MeasuringWorth.
  8. ↑ The Monarchist, edited by Jeffrey Finestone, London, no.66, 1985 edition, p.6.
  9. ↑ The Monarchist, edited by Guy Stair Sainty, London, nos. 46–47, Winter-Spring 1975–76 edition, p.5.
  10. ↑ The Sunday Times, 23 September 2007.
  11. 1 2 The Monarchist, edited by Jeffrey Finestone, London, no.66, 1985 edition, pps:5–6.
  12. ↑ "Marquess of Bristol's body to be dug up after 25 years". Daily Telegraph. 12 September 2010.

Sources

External links

Peerage of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Herbert Hervey		 Marquess of Bristol
1960–1985 		Succeeded by
John Hervey
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