John Spencer-Churchill, 11th Duke of Marlborough

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John Spencer-Churchill, 11th Duke of Marlborough, 1987
Coat of arms of John Spencer-Churchill, 11th Duke of Marlborough

John George Vanderbilt Henry Spencer-Churchill, 11th Duke of Marlborough (born April 13, 1926 in Blenheim Palace near Woodstock, † October 16, 2014 ) was a British peer and politician .

Life

He was the elder son of John Spencer-Churchill, 10th Duke of Marlborough , from his first marriage to the Hon. Alexandra Mary Hilda Cadogan. His grandfather was Charles Spencer-Churchill, 9th Duke of Marlborough , his great-uncle the Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill .

As his father's apparent marriage , he carried the courtesy title Earl of Sunderland from birth and from 1934 the courtesy title Marquess of Blandford . When his father died, he inherited his title of nobility as the 11th Duke of Marlborough and was thereby a member of the House of Lords , where he belonged to the faction of the Conservative Party . When the House of Lords Act 1999 abolished the inheritance of parliamentary seats, he left the House of Lords in November 1999.

To finance his family home, Blenheim Palace , he opened it to tourists and as a film set for filming, and founded various companies on the property, including a trading company for wooden garden furniture and bottling mineral water . The duke also worked as a board member of the beverage company Martini & Rossi . With an estimated fortune of £ 185 million, Spencer-Churchill was ranked 224th on the Sunday Times Rich List in 2004, the list of Britain's richest people.

At times he also held the public offices of Deputy Lieutenant of Oxfordshire and Justice of the Peace .

family

Spencer-Churchill married Susan Mary Hornby (* 1929) for the first time on October 19, 1951. The marriage, which was divorced in 1961, had three children:

In his second marriage, he married Athina Onassis (1926–1974) on October 23, 1961, the divorced wife of the Greek shipowner Aristoteles Onassis and daughter of the shipowner Stavros G. Livanos, mother of Christina Onassis . The marriage ended in divorce in 1971 and remained childless. Athina then married the shipowner Stavros Niarchos in 1971 .

In his third marriage on May 20, 1972, he married Countess Rosita Douglas (* 1943), sister of the Swedish entrepreneur Count Gustaf Douglas . This marriage, which was divorced in 2008, had three children:

  • Lord Richard Spencer-Churchill (* and † 1973);
  • Lord Edward Albert Charles Spencer-Churchill (* 1974) ⚭ 2018 Kimberly Hammerström;
  • Lady Alexandra Elizabeth Spencer-Churchill (* 1977).

On December 3, 2008, he married Lily Sahni (* around 1957 in Tehran, from an Indian family), the divorced wife of the Nigerian- born major entrepreneur Ratan Mahtani. The marriage remained childless.

Web links

Commons : John Spencer-Churchill, 11th Duke of Marlborough  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Duke of Marlborough dies aged 88 ( Memento from October 16, 2014 in the web archive archive.today )
  2. ^ A b Dennis Barker: The Duke of Marlborough obituary . The Guardian , Oct. 16, 2014.
  3. ↑ The Sunday Times Rich List, 2004
predecessor Office successor
John Spencer-Churchill Duke of Marlborough
1972-2014 		James Spencer-Churchill
personal data
SURNAME Spencer-Churchill, John, 11th Duke of Marlborough
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Spencer-Churchill, John George Vanderbilt Henry, 11th Duke of Marlborough (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British nobleman and politician (MP in the House of Lords)
DATE OF BIRTH April 13, 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH Blenheim Palace at Woodstock
DATE OF DEATH October 16, 2014