How the Duke of Westminster’s great-uncle was a ‘bully’ who conspired to have his married brother-in-law thrown out of Britain because he was secretly gay – a scandal that inspired Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited
The richest man in Britain – and by far the dirtiest.
Not Hugh, the seventh Duke of Westminster – who will marry in grand style at Chester Cathedral next month – but his great-uncle Bendor, the second Duke.
According to one biographer, he was “a womanizing, jealous bully” – a man who cared only about making himself richer and having fun at everyone else’s expense.
His sense of entitlement was so great that he was willing to divorce his wife at a moment’s notice – just because she had read a book.
And he conspired to have his brother-in-law, the Liberal politician Earl Beauchamp, thrown out of Britain for being secretly gay.
The distraught earl, who had played a key role in King George V’s inner circle, was driven to the brink of suicide.
Beauchamp’s flight from Britain inspired Evelyn Waugh to write his iconic novel Brideshead Revisited.
The richest man in Britain – and by far the dirtiest. Not Hugh, the Duke of Westminster, who will be married in grand style at Chester Cathedral next month, but his great-uncle Bendor
Godson of King Charles and best friends with Prince William, Hugh is a generous heart whose charitable activities include supporting vulnerable children and young people
Bendor’s great-nephew Hugh, godson of King Charles and best friends with Prince William, is a million miles away from his ancestor in every way.
His charitable activities include supporting vulnerable children and young people, working with organizations supporting families, schools and local communities, and leading a fundraising campaign for the Defense and National Rehabilitation Centre.
And in his role as CEO of Family Action, he works with children from families affected by poverty, addiction, food insecurity, mental and physical ill health, poor housing and domestic violence.
Bendor, whose real name was also Hugh, got his nickname from the family’s Derby-winning racehorse Bend Or.
He sailed yachts and bedded women and was born into everything he could wish for.
But according to a relative, he was an “angry, unfulfilled man – nothing but a foolish, spoiled, aging playboy.”
And he was a man accused of callously hastening the death of his only son and heir, aged five.
The Duke loved to hate people. Most of all, he hated his sister’s husband.
Bendor was deeply jealous of Beauchamp’s closeness to the throne in his roles as Knight of the Garter and Lord Steward of the Household.
Although he had all the riches, he had no garter. So he launched his plot to have Beauchamp – who led a colorful homosexual life despite a happy marriage and seven children – arrested and deported from Britain.
“Dear father-in-law,” he wrote, after completing his treacherous mission, “you got what you deserved!”
Bendor conspired to have his brother-in-law, Liberal politician Earl Beauchamp (above), thrown out of Britain for being secretly homosexual
Earl Beauchamp became the inspiration for Evelyn Waugh’s character Lord Marchmain in his famous novel Brideshead Revisited. Above: Anthony Andrews, Laurence Olivier and Jeremy Irons as Lord Sebastian Flyte, Lord Marchmain and Charles Ryder in the 1981 TV adaptation of Waugh’s novel
Bendor, 2nd Duke of Westminster, with his fiancée Loelia Ponsonby in February 1930. The couple married a week later
Constance ‘Shelagh’ Edwina Lewes was the first wife of Hugh Grosvenor, 2nd Duke of Westminster
The character of Lord Marchmain is based on the fugitive earl, and Brideshead Castle is partly a portrait of the Beauchamp family home of Madresfield.
So what made the Duke such a brute?
Born into enormous wealth – the family owned vast parts of London’s Belgravia and Mayfair – he was already known at the age of twenty as one of the richest men in the world.
He had a ten-year affair with fashion queen Coco Chanel before marrying a string of women – four in total.
Bendor could get what – and who – he wanted.
That included not one but two private yachts and a fleet of seventeen Rolls Royces that followed him around the world wherever he went.
He had a personal train built to take him from the family estate, Eaton Hall in Cheshire, to London, where his main home was Grosvenor House on Grosvenor Square – later the site of the American Embassy.
“He was a man who enjoyed hiding diamonds under his mistresses’ pillows, and there were many mistresses,” one biographer recalled.
But Bendor’s affection came at a price: a very high price. His third wife, Loelia Ponsonby, did not hold back when she wrote about him after their divorce.
“He got drunk every night,” she recalled. ‘Frenzied scenes would go on and on through the long hours of the night – objects would fly through the air.’
Convincing herself that Loelia was cheating on him (who could blame her?), the Duke smashed her priceless diamond Cartier clock into a thousand pieces, then sifted through the rubble to pick up the diamonds and pocket them so she could wouldn’t have anymore.
“Despite all his marriages, he had only one male heir: Edward, Earl Grosvenor,” wrote biographer Jane Mulvagh.
‘When Edward was only five, his father insisted that he go hunting, despite the child’s complaints of severe stomach pains. Edward died that day of peritonitis while hunting.”
Bendor’s wife immediately left him and it was then that he turned his unrepressed rage on the unsuspecting Beauchamp, who had married his sister several years earlier.
Earl Beauchamp’s wife Lettice – sister of the 2nd Duke of Westminster – with her three eldest daughters, Lettice, Sybil and Mary
Lady Lettice Lygon was the eldest daughter of Earl Beauchamp. She is pictured above in The Sketch from 1929. The publication described the tall beauty as ‘six feet or so lovely’.
When Bendor went to get him, he informed King George V that his dear courtier had broken every rule in the book.
The king reportedly blurted out when he heard the news, “I thought such men shot themselves.”
It was a ridiculous response. But Beauchamp had ignored the rules of discretion that governed the upper classes, and just as a warrant was about to be issued for his arrest – homosexuality is still illegal – he issued a statement saying that “ill health” forced him to take of a spa. healing in Germany.
He fled the country. That’s when Westminster sent his brother-in-law his scathing, triumphant letter.
Beauchamp had been robbed, his position and status in society ruined. But his seven children – all of whom adored him – stopped him from committing suicide.
He was in exile for more than five years and longed for his beautiful home every day.
But when the dust finally settled on the scandal and he was allowed to return to Britain, he had only two years to live.
“The problem with Bendor is that he had too much money and not enough self-control,” a friend wrote after the duke died in 1953.
