Loel Guinness (politician)

Group Captain Thomas Loel Evelyn Bulkeley Guinness OBE (9 June 1906 – 31 December 1988)^[1] was a British Conservative politician, Member of Parliament (MP) for Bath (1931–1945), business magnate and philanthropist. Guinness also financed the purchase of the Calypso for the famous oceanic explorer Jacques-Yves Cousteau and his movie The Silent World (1956).

Early life

Grave of Bridget Henrietta Frances Williams-Bulkeley, the mother of Thomas "Loel" Guinness, in Mougins, France

Raised in the United States and England, Loel Guinness was a son of Benjamin Solomon Guinness (1868–1947), a lawyer from whom he inherited a fortune, and Bridget Henrietta Frances Williams-Bulkeley (d.1931). He was descended from Samuel Guinness, a Dublin goldsmith (1727–1795) and younger brother of the Guinness brewery's founder Arthur Guinness.

He also had two sisters:

• Meraud Michelle Wemyss Guinness (1904–1993) who married Alvaro Guevara (1894–1951) in 1929.
• Tanis Eva Bulkeley Guinness (1908–1993) who married:
  1. The Honourable William Drogo Sturges Montagu (m.1931-1937), son of George Charles Montagu, 9th Earl of Sandwich.
  2. Howard Dietz (m.1937-1951).
  3. Lieutenant Commander Charles Edward Harold John Phillips (paternal uncle of Alexandra Hamilton, Duchess of Abercorn and Natalia Grosvenor, Duchess of Westminster, and first cousin of Janet Mountbatten, Marchioness of Milford Haven), whom she married in 1951.

He was educated at Royal Military College, Sandhurst. He gained the rank of Lieutenant in the service of the Irish Guards. In 1929, after taking flying lessons, Mr. Guinness became one of the first private citizens in England to own an airplane and soon he was a member of the County of London's Auxiliary Air Force Squadron. He later served as president of Air Work Ltd., an aircraft-parts supplier, and of British United Airways.

First marriage

Guinness's first marriage was to the Honourable Joan Barbara Yarde-Buller (1908–1997), a daughter of the 3rd Lord Churston, who left him for Prince Aly Khan, the eldest son of the Aga Khan III (Aly later married the actress Rita Hayworth; Princess Joan Aly Khan married thirdly the 2nd Viscount Camrose and died as the Dowager Viscountess Camrose or Joan Berry, Viscountess Camrose). He and Joan had a son, Patrick Benjamin Guinness (1931–1965) who would later marry his stepsister in 1955.

Princess Ingrid of Sweden (1910–2000) was a godmother at christening of Patrick Benjamin at St Margaret's, Westminster on 15 July 1931. The other godparents were Richard Francis Roger Yarde-Buller, 4th Baron Churston (1910–1991), Sir Philip Sassoon, 3rd Baronet (1888–1939), Mr. Walter Rosen (1875–1951), Judith Blunt-Lytton, 16th Baroness Wentworth (1873–1957), and Mrs. Richard Guinness (née Beatrice Mackay, formerly Mrs. Nico Jungman).

Member of Parliament

In 1931, on his third try, Mr. Guinness was elected to Parliament for Bath and was named parliamentary private secretary to Sir Philip Sassoon, the Under Secretary for Air between 1931 and 1935. He held his seat until 1945, when he stood down.

Second World War

He gained the rank of Group Captain in the service of the Royal Auxiliary Air Force. When the Second World War broke out in 1939, Loel Guinness went on active duty with the Royal Air Force. In 1940 he flew as a fighter pilot in the Battle of Britain, famously buying a petrol station near his aerodrome when his driving was restricted by rationing. In 1944 he became commander of a wing of the Second Tactical Air Force and by the war's end he had been mentioned in despatches five times. He was invested as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1942. The Netherlands made him a commander of the Order of Orange Nassau and France made him an officer of the Legion of Honor and awarded him a Croix de Guerre.

Second marriage

Loel's second wife was Lady Isabel Violet Kathleen Manners (1918–2008), the second daughter of the 9th Duke of Rutland, by whom he had a son and a daughter:

• William Loel Seymour Guinness (born 1939), married Agnes Elizabeth Lynn Day in 1971. Have issue:
  1. Sheridan William Guinness (born 1972).
  2. Thomas Seymour Guinness (born 1973).
  3. Chloë Belinda Vane-Tempest-Stewart (born 1976), married Lord Reginald Alexander Vane-Tempest-Stewart (born 1977).
• Serena Belinda Rosemary ("Lindy") (born 1941), who married the 5th and last Marquess of Dufferin and Ava in 1964, a great-grandson of Edward Guinness, 1st Earl of Iveagh.

Third marriage

Loel's third wife was the socialite Gloria Rubio y Alatorre (1912–1980) whom he married on 7 April 1951.

Her daughter, Dolores Guinness born as Dolores Maria Agatha Wilhelmine Luise, Freiin von Fürstenberg-Hedringen (1936–2012), married Patrick Benjamin Guinness (1931–1965) on 22 October 1955 in Paris, son of Loel and his first wife Joan Yarde-Buller (and thus a half-brother to the present Aga Khan IV). They had issue:

1. Maria Alexandra (born 1956) married Foulques, Count de Quatrebarbes (born 1948) in 1979.
2. Loel Patrick (born 1957).
3. Victoria Christina (born 1960) married Philip Niarchos in 1984 (son of late Greek billionaire Stavros Niarchos).

Loel Guinness died of heart disease at The Methodist Hospital in Houston, United States.

Notes

References

• Mosley, Charles, Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 107th edition, volume 2, page 1695.
• Vickers, Hugo, The Unexpurgated Beaton: The Cecil Beaton Diaries as He Wrote Them, 1970–1980, Knopf, New York, 2003.

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Loel Guinness
• Obituary: Loel Guinness, 82, R.A.F. Flier And a Socialite on 2 Continents From The New York Times