Alistair Vane-Tempest-Stewart, 9th Marquess of Londonderry

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Alexander Charles Robert Vane-Tempest-Stewart, 9th Marquess of Londonderry , called Alistair Vane-Tempest-Stewart , (born September 7, 1937 , † June 20, 2012 ) was a British peer and member of the House of Lords .

Life

Alistair Vane-Tempest-Stewart was the son of Robin Vane-Tempest-Stewart, 8th Marquess of Londonderry (1902-1955) and his wife Romaine Combe († 1951). His father was a politician and from 1933 to 1945 MP for the Unionists in the House of Commons for the constituency of County Down . His grandfather was the British politician Charles Vane-Tempest-Stewart, 7th Marquess of Londonderry .

He had two older sisters, Jane (* 1932) and Annabel (* 1934). His mother died of carcinoma of the oral cavity in 1951 . His father then gave in to alcohol, became a chronic alcoholic and died of liver failure . In 1955, after the death of his father, Alistair Vane-Tempest-Stewart inherited the title of Marquess of Londonderry at the age of 18 .

He attended Eton College in Eton in the county of Berkshire . During his time there he formed and directed a jazz band called The Eton Five . As a title heir and heir to the family estate, Alistair Vane-Tempest-Stewart was denied a classic university education. He then undertook private studies, learned French , Italian and German and became a connoisseur of European literature. He studied privately with Egon Petri in the United States and became a respected pianist . He was considered an excellent interpreter of Franz Liszt's piano music . Early on he promoted the composers and pianists John Ogdon and Leslie Howard . He restored and made extensive renovations to the Wynyard Park family estate , a County Durham mansion . In 1987, for financial reasons, he finally had to sell the property to businessman John Hall, the former president of Newcastle United football club .

Shortly after becoming title heir, he caused a scandal when he attacked the monarchy in a letter to the weekly newspaper The New Statesman . He criticized the British royal family for merely "putting on their toothpaste smile, showing off their latest hairstyles and showing their deplorable taste for fashion"; a few days later, however, he submissively apologized for his "bad manners".

In the 1960s he bought a country house in Tuscany , which he renovated. After selling Wynyard Park, he moved to Dorset . He died on July 20, 2012 at the age of 74.

Membership in the House of Lords

With the death of his father in 1955, he also inherited his father's seat in the House of Lords . He was a formal member of the House of Lords from October 1955 to November 1999. However, he never took his seat. He lost his seat under the House of Lords Act 1999 .

family

Alistair Vane-Tempest-Stewart was married twice. On May 16, 1958, he married the then 17-year-old Nicolette Elaine Katherine Harrison, the daughter of the stockbroker Michael Harrison and his wife, the Latvian- born Baroness Maria Madeleine Benita von Koskull (1902-2004). During the marriage a total of three children were born, the daughters Sophia (* 1959) and Cosima (* 1961) and a son, James, who carried the title Viscount Castlereagh. Blood tests later revealed that James was not the biological son of Alistair Vane-Tempest-Stewart. James' biological father was the British musician and singer Georgie Fame . Alistair Vane-Tempest-Stewart and Nicolette Elaine Katherine Harrison were divorced in 1971; Harrison and Fame were married in 1972. In August 1993, Nicolette Harrison committed suicide by jumping off the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol .

His daughter Cosima Vane-Tempest-Stewart later claimed that Alistair Vane-Tempest-Stewart was not her biological father either; her father is rather the nightclub pianist and writer Robin Douglas-Home (1932-1968), nephew of the former British Prime Minister Alec Douglas-Home and a close friend of Princess Margaret , who died of a pill overdose.

On March 10, 1972, Alistair married Vane-Tempest-Stewart for the second time; his second wife was Doreen Wells , former prima ballerina of the Royal Ballet . The marriage resulted in two sons, Frederick Aubrey Vane-Tempest-Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh (* 1972), the heir to the title, and Reginald Alexander Vane-Tempest-Stewart (* 1977).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e The Marquess of Londonderry - Obituary in: The Daily Telegraph, June 20, 2012; last accessed on June 24, 2012
  2. ↑ a b c d e Alexander Charles Robert Vane-Tempest-Stewart, 9th Marquess of Londonderry on thepeerage.com , accessed September 11, 2016.
  3. ^ Mr Alexander Vane-Tempest-Stewart Entry at Hansard
  4. ^ Maria Harrison - Obituary in: The Daily Telegraph, April 8, 2004
  5. ↑ NOTICED; Blood tells. So does Burke's. in: New York Times, June 27, 1999
predecessor Office successor
Robin Vane-Tempest-Stewart Marquess of Londonderry
1955-2012 		Frederick Aubrey Vane-Tempest-Stewart
personal data
SURNAME Vane-Tempest-Stewart, Alistair, 9th Marquess of Londonderry
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Londonderry, Alexander Charles Robert Vane-Tempest-Stewart 9th Marquess of; Vane-Tempest-Stewart, Alistair
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British peer and member of the House of Lords
DATE OF BIRTH September 7, 1937
DATE OF DEATH June 20, 2012