John Michael Beaumont

John Michael Beaumont OBE ( December 20, 1927 - July 3, 2016 ) was the twenty-second Seigneur de Sercq of the Channel Islands .

He worked as a civil engineer before succeeding his paternal grandmother, Sibyl Hathaway , the Dame de Sercq , as Seigneur de Sercq in 1974.

During his rule over the island he lost many of the feudal rights that had previously been granted to him; therefore he was called the last feudal lord.

family

Beaumont was the son of Royal Air Force officer and film producer Francis William Beaumont and his first wife Enid Ripley. His paternal grandmother, Sibyl Hathaway , succeeded him as the Lady of Sark six months before he was born. His parents divorced in 1937 after committing adultery with actress Mary Lawson, whom his father later married.

His father and stepmother were killed in an attack on Liverpool on May 4, 1941 . This made him apparent (non-displaceable heir) of his grandmother.

Beaumont worked as a design engineer at the British Aircraft Corporation in Bristol before moving to Shoreham-by-Sea , where he worked on the Beagle Aircraft .

In 1956 he married Diana La Trobe-Bateman and had two sons Christopher and Anthony with her.

Seigneurship

La Seigneurie

Beaumont's grandmother died in 1974 and he succeeded him as Seigneur de Sercq.

The new seigneur swore allegiance to Queen Elizabeth in 1978 when she and the Duke of Edinburgh visited the island for the first time since taking office.

In 1990 a group of French nuclear physicists around André Gardes came to the island to replace him as Seigneur. The attempt failed.

During her visit in 2001 the Queen appointed him Officer of the Order of the British Empire .

In 2008, Sark's system of government was changed. Beaumont remained fiefdom of the island, but lost some privileges. He kept the privilege of being the only one on the island to keep pigeons and non-neutered dogs. The first democratic elections took place in December 2008. Beaumont regretted the changes and denied being a feudal lord.

The last few years

Because of the deteriorating health, he and his wife moved from La Seigneurie, the traditional manor house, to a more manageable hut on their estate. In 2009 they allowed David Synnott and his wife to live in the Seigneurie for ten years until the end of October 2019. Instead of a rent, they had to pay for the renovation of the building.

Major Christopher Beaumont , Michael Beaumont's son and heir, lived in Great Britain and served in the Land Forces. In 2008 he declared before the Chief Pleas, the parliament of Sark, that he planned to return to Sark and to succeed him as feudal lord.

In 2011, the seigneur declared that he would never sell his fiefdom.

Michael Beaumont died on July 3, 2016. Less than five months later, the family announced that Diana, Michael's wife, died on December 1, 2016, at the age of 80.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Michael Beaumont: Seigneur of Sark dies aged 88 . In: BBC News . July 3, 2016 ( bbc.com [accessed August 25, 2017]).
2. ↑ - Island of the last feudal lords . In: Deutschlandfunk . ( deutschlandfunk.de [accessed on August 25, 2017]).
3. ↑ Catalog description for Document No. J 77/3752/4301.
4. ^ News in letter. In: The Times. (48028) London, June 23, 1938, p. 14, col. C.
5. ↑ ^{a b} Geoffrey Levy: The last feudal baron: New laws to bring the island of Sark into the 21st century. In: The Daily Mail. April 19, 2008, accessed October 8, 2017 . 
6. ^ History of La Seigneurie. 2012, accessed October 8, 2017 . 
7. ↑ SARK: Death of a Dame . In: Time . July 29, 1974, ISSN  0040-781X ( time.com [accessed August 25, 2017]).
8. ↑ ^{a b} Sark - Isle of Sark, Channel Islands. ( Memento of November 16, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) June 19, 2009.
9. ↑ ^{a b} Lost world: the last days of feudal Sark. (No longer available online.) In: The Independent . October 26, 2006, archived from the original on November 3, 2007 ; Retrieved February 22, 2008 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
10. ↑ Grave affair. (Andre Gardes tries to take over Sark in the Channel Islands) . ( Memento from May 4, 2016 in the web archive archive.today ) In: The Economist , at Highbeam.com, September 1, 1990.
11. ^ Sark Spring. Retrieved August 25, 2017 . 
12. ^ Minutes of the Michaelmas Meeting of Chief Pleas. (PDF) (No longer available online.) October 1, 2008, archived from the original on April 21, 2013 ; accessed on October 8, 2017 . 
13. ↑ Beaumonts' move raises question of protocol . ( Memento from April 12, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ) September 29, 2009.
14. ↑ Island of Sark 'is not for sale', says Seigneur. In: BBC News. March 1, 2011, accessed October 8, 2017 .