Jonathan Guinness, 3rd Baron Moyne

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Jonathan Bryan Guinness, 3rd Baron Moyne (born March 16, 1930) succeeded as 3rd Baron Moyne in 1992. He is the son of Bryan Guinness, 2nd Baron Moyne and his first wife Diana Mitford (later Lady Mosley), and until his retirement was a merchant banker for Messrs Leopold Joseph.

Contents

[edit] Early life

Jonathan Guinness was educated at Eton College and the University of Oxford. He worked as a journalist and then as a merchant banker. From 1970 to 1974 he was a Leicestershire County Councillor.

[edit] Conservative Party

Lord Moyne twice stood as Parliamentary Candidate for the Conservative Party, including the Lincoln by-election of 1973, notable for the election of Dick Taverne. Here he gained the nickname "Old Razor Blades" when he was quoted as saying murderers should have razor blades left in their cells to enable them to "do the decent thing." He later claimed that what he actually said was that convicted criminals should have razor blades in their cells, allowing them to be able to shave and stay "decent" i.e. clean shaven.

[edit] Monday Club

He was a long-standing and early member of the Conservative Monday Club, serving on several of its committees. He was a member of the Club's Executive Council in 1971, when he became Chairman of their 'Action Fund', and elected National Chairman on 5th June 1972, fighting off challenges from Richard Body MP, and Timothy Stroud. The Guardian and The Times referred to his election as "a right-wing victory". At the Club's Annual General Meeting in April 1973 Guinness retained the Chairmanship for another year, defeating George Kennedy Young. In mid-1974 he was invited to address Conservative students at Portsmouth Polytechnic, but was prevented from doing so by protesters.

On 10 October 1989, at the Conservative Party Conference, he chaired a controversial fringe meeting organized by the Young Monday Club, advertised as The End of the English? - Immigration and Repatriation. The other speakers were MPs Tim Janman and Nicholas Budgen.

As Chairman of the Club's Race Relations & Immigration Committee, he also wrote the same month to all Club members; "There has been a lot of ill-thought out agitation following events in China, urging the government to amend the British Nationality Act so as to give the right of UK residence to more than three million people from Hong Kong who hold British passports. At the time of writing the government has stayed firm on this, but it is under pressure. If you have not already done so, please write to your M.P., your local and national newspapers, or the Prime Minister expressing support for the government's stand. Remember, a passport is not a residence permit, but a travel document; and think of the sheer physical burden of housing and accommodating a sudden influx of this size."

He was also Club Vice-Chairman until late 1990 when he was replaced by Andrew Hunter, MP.

[edit] Trustor

Lord Moyne was accused of involvement in a Swedish financial scandal. The case concerns a now defunct Swedish investment company, Trustor, of which Lord Moyne was made a figurehead director. It was alleged that Guinness was involved in the disappearance of £50,000,000 from Trustor's accounts, £35,000,000 of which has never been located. Guinness maintained that he was innocent of any wrongdoing, claiming he has been "stitched up". During the proceedings, Swedish authorities were successful in obtaining a freezing order over what little assets he had left. He was found innocent by the Swedish Court.[1].

[edit] Support for Falun Gong

Lord Moyne has spoken in support of the Falun Gong movement in China since it was banned there in 1999, as reported in Hansard.[2] [3]

[edit] Director of Guinness plc

Lord Moyne was a non-executive director from 1960 to 1988 of the company set up by his family. His book Requiem for a family business gives an uninvolved insider's account of the corporate developments leading to the Guinness share-trading fraud.

[edit] Private life

Lord Moyne has been twice married, with children:

  • 1) 1951 (divorced 1963) Ingrid Wyndham (now Lady Kelvedon), by whom he had two sons and a daughter.
  • 2) 1964 Suzanne Lisney, later known as Sue, Lady Moyne (d. 2005 of lung cancer)[1], by whom he had a third son and a second daughter.

He also had a mistress, Susan ('Shoe') Taylor (1944 - 2003), and a further three children by her. To avert a scandal Guinness published Shoe - The Odyssey of a Sixties Survivor in 1989. After which, "The Sun newspaper (6 July 1989) ran a double-page article with pictures entitled Always a Mistress - Never the Bride.

[edit] Children

Lord Moyne has the following children:

  • By Ingrid:
  1. Hon. Catherine Ingrid Guinness (b. 1 June 1952), who married 1stly 1983 (divorced 1988) James Donald Charteris, Lord Neidpath (b. 1948), only surviving son and heir of the Earl of Wemyss and March, by whom she has issue 1 son and 1 daughter.[2] She married 2ndly 1990 Robert Fleetwood Hesketh (d. November 2004) by whom she has issue three children, including twin daughters. She worked as PA to Andy Warhol.
  2. Hon. Jasper Jonathan Richard Guinness (b. 9 March 1954), who is married with two daughters.[3]
  3. Hon. Valentine Guy Bryan Guinness (b. 9 March 1959), who is married to handbag designer Lulu Guinness, nee Lucinda Rivett-Carnac, and has issue, two daughters.[4]
  • By Suzanne:
  1. Hon. Sebastian Walter Denis Guinness (b. 1964) who has been twice married, with no issue.[5]
  2. Hon. Daphne Suzannah Diana Guinness (b. 1967), socialite, former wife of Spyros Niarchos (b. 1957), by whom she had three children.
  • By Susan Taylor
  1. Diana Guinness (b. 1981)
  2. Aster Guinness (b. 1984)
  3. Thomas Guinness-Taylor (b.1986)

[edit] Defence of mother

Moyne and his daughter, Daphne, both had letters published in the same edition of The Daily Telegraph (16 August 2003) attacking the writer Andrew Roberts over his criticism in the same newspaper on the 13th inst., of Jonathan's mother, Diana Mitford, following the latter's death.

[edit] References and Publications

  1. ^ Heiress apparent, The Sunday Times, October 21, 2007.
  2. ^ Rather confusingly, some reference books and genealogies also list them as their mother's children by her second husband. The daughter Mary Olivia Charteris sometimes used the name of Charteris-Hesketh.
  3. ^ The Peerage database entry, last updated 10 May 2003
  4. ^ The Peerage database entry, last updated 10 May 2003
  5. ^ The Peerage database entry, last updated 10 May 2003
  • Copping, Robert, The Story of The Monday Club - The First Decade, April 1972, and The Monday Club - Crisis and After May 1975, both published by the Current Affairs Information Service, Ilford, Essex, (P/B).
  • Guinness, Jonathan, with Jeremy Harwood and John Biggs-Davison, M.P., Ireland - Our Cuba?, The Monday Club, London, 1970, (P/B).
  • Guinness, Jonathan, Arms for South Africa - the Moral Issue, The Monday Club, London, 1971, (P/B).
  • Courtney, Anthony T, OBE, RN (Retd), [M.P., for Harrow East 1959-1964], The Enemies Within, Foreword by the Hon. Jonathan Guinness, The Monday Club, London, 1972, (P/B).
  • Guinness, Jonathan, with Catherine Guinness, The House of Mitford, Hutchinson & Co., London, 1984, ISBN 0753818035
  • Guinness, Jonathan, Marx, the False Prophet, in Marx Refuted, edited by Ronald Duncan and Colin Wilson, Ashgrove Press Ltd., Bath, (UK), 1987, ISBN 0-906798-71-X
  • Guinness, Jonathan, Shoe - The Odyssey of a Sixties Survivor, Hutchinson, London, c1989.
  • Guinness, Jonathan, Requiem for a Family Business, Macmillan, London 1998. ISBN 0-333-66191-5
  • Hansard[4].
Political offices
Preceded by
George Pole		 Chairman of the Monday Club
June 1972 - March 1974		 Succeeded by
John Biggs-Davison
Peerage of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Bryan Guinness		 Baron Moyne
1992 – Present		 Succeeded by
Current Incumbent
Languages