Person:John Spencer-Churchill (4)

Biographical Summary

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

John George Vanderbilt Henry Spencer-Churchill, 11th Duke of Marlborough, (13 April 1926 – 16 October 2014) was a British peer. He was the elder son of the 10th Duke of Marlborough and his wife, the Hon. Alexandra Mary Hilda Cadogan. He was known as "Sunny" after his courtesy title of Earl of Sunderland.

His principal seat was Blenheim Palace, Woodstock, Oxfordshire. He was ranked 224th in the Sunday Times Rich List 2004, with an estimated wealth of £185 million. His death was announced on 16 October 2014 by Blenheim Palace.

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} John Spencer-Churchill, 11th Duke of Marlborough, in Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia
   retrieved 7 Dec 2017.
2. ↑ ^2.0 2.1 Winston Churchill's cousin the Duke of Marlborough dies aged 88 - passing his title to his ex-convict son, in UK Daily Mail
   article by Harriet Arkell, 16 Oct 2014.

   The 11th Duke of Marlborough died this morning at the age of 88, Blenheim Palace has said. The Duke, whose full name was John George Vanderbilt Henry Spencer-Churchill, was a cousin of wartime prime minister Winston Churchill and lived at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire.  His title will now pass to his son, former drug addict and ex-convict, the Marquess of Blandford, 58.  A spokesman for the palace said: 'With great sadness, we announce that the 11th Duke of Marlborough passed away peacefully this morning. 'Further announcements will be made in due course. As per his wishes, the palace will be open as normal today.' The Duke married four times; first WHSmith heiress Susan Hornby, mother of his first three children, two of whom survive, second Athina Onassis, with whom he had no children, third Rosita Douglas-Sjernorp, mother of his three younger children, two of whom survive, and fourth, Persian-born Lily Mahtani. His four children are the Marquess of Blandford, Lady Henrietta Spencer-Churchill, 56, Lord Edward Spencer-Churchill, 40, and Lady Alexandra Spencer-Churchill, 38. The marquess, his eldest surviving child, battled addictions to heroin and cocaine and three spells in prison, which resulted in his father taking legal action to prevent him from inheriting the 11,500-acre estate, where Churchill was born. In 1983 he was fined £100 for assaulting a policeman, and the following year he was sentenced to three months' imprisonment for breach of probation. He was put on probation again in 1985 and fined £1,000 for breaking into a chemist's shop and in 1986 he was convicted of drug offences.  At that time he admitted spending £20,000 on cocaine in four months. From the late 1980s through the early 1990s he chalked up a record of motoring offences and was repeatedly banned from driving. In May 1994, he was remanded in custody for three weeks in HMP Brixton after failing to keep appointments with probation officers, and the following month he was put on probation for 18 months and ordered to attend a clinic for drug addiction.  In December 1999 he was rushed to hospital with a missing eyelid, a badly damaged nose, three missing teeth and a broken shoulder after a car ran into his Toyota Land Cruiser in Kiddington, Oxfordshire. But he reformed his behaviour, stayed off the drugs, and after a lengthy legal battle, father and son put their differences behind them and agreed that Blandford would inherit the title while the estate would be run by a board of trustees including his younger brother, Lord Edward. The Duke said: 'I think there have been black sheep in every family and there's nothing new about that. We have had some good 'uns and some bad 'uns.' But after the rapprochement, he said: 'I am fully confident James will keep this place going. 'But over the top of him – and over the top of me – are trustees. You can’t predict the future.' Today the Prime Minister paid tribute to the Duke, saying: 'I am greatly saddened to hear of the death of the Duke of Marlborough. To me, he was not only the Vice-President of my Association but also a good man and friend. 'His Grace will be deeply missed by all those he worked alongside at Blenheim and by the town of Woodstock where he played such a positive and active role in the community he loved. 'My thoughts and prayers are with all his family and friends at this sad time.' Blenheim Palace was a gift from Queen Anne to John Churchill, the first Duke of Marlborough, in 1704. It was a reward for his victory over the army of Louis XIV of France in the Spanish War of Succession. Winston Churchill was born at Blenheim, which became a world heritage site under the stewardship of the 12th Duke.  The 200,000sq ft estate has 187 rooms, dwarfing Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle,and attracts about 500,000 visitors every year. Its grandeur registered even with Hitler. According to wartime lore, he planned to move in after invading England and ordered the Luftwaffe not to bomb it. 

   Highlights:
   * John George Vanderbilt Henry Spencer-Churchill was the 11th Duke
   * His family seat was Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, birthplace of Churchill
   * Was Churchill's godson, and distantly related to Diana, Princess of Wales 
   * His title will pass to his son, the 57-year-old Marquess of Blandford
   * Jamie Blandford is now clean after years spent battling addictions to drugs 
   * The Prime Minister David Cameron pays tribute to 'a good man and friend' 

   THE WELL-CONNECTED MARLBOROUGHS: ARISTOCRATIC DYNASTY
   The 11th Duke of Marlborough was born on 13 April 1926, the elder son of the tenth Duke of Marlborough by his first wife, Mary Cadogan. Winston Churchill, the then Chancellor, was his father's cousin and agreed to become his godfather. He was distantly related to the late Diana, Princess of Wales, through the Spencer family, and to the Vanderbilt dynasty via his grandfather, the ninth duke, who was said to have married Consuelo Vanderbilt purely for her cash. In 1951 he married for the first time, wedding WHSmith heiress Susan Hornby, and they went on to have three children, the eldest of whom, John Spencer-Churchill, died at the age of two.  Charles James Spencer-Churchill was born in 1955, followed by Henrietta Mary Spencer-Churchill three years later. The couple divorced ten years later, leaving the Duke free to marry Athina Onassis, ex-wife of Greek shipping tycoon, Aristotle Onassis. Like his first, this second marriage lasted ten years, after which she left him for her sister's former husband, Stavros Niarchos. In 1972, he married Rosita Douglas-Stjernorp, daughter of a Swedish count, and had three more children. Lord Richard Spencer-Churchill was born in 1973 but died four months later.  Lord Edward Albert Charles Spencer-Churchill was born in 1974, and in 1977 Lady Alexandra Elizabeth Spencer-Churchill was born.  He inherited the dukedom in 1972 when his father, the tenth Duke, died, and now his oldest surviving son, Jamie Blandford, will become the 12th Duke. Blandford has a son, George Spencer-Churchill, 22, by first wife Becky Few Brown, and daughter Araminta, seven, and son Caspar, five, by his second wife, Edla Griffiths, a Welsh ceramicist whom he met on London's Kings Road.

3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3} John George Vanderbilt Henry Spencer-Churchill, 11th duke of Marlborough, in Encyclopædia Britannica
   written by Ariana Nash.

   John George Vanderbilt Henry Spencer-Churchill, 11th duke of Marlborough, (born April 13, 1926, Blenheim Palace, Woodstock, Oxfordshire, Eng.—died Oct. 16, 2014, Blenheim Palace), British peer and preservationist who fought what he termed the “Battle for Blenheim” as he sought to preserve and update Blenheim Palace, the 18th-century house and 850-ha (2,100-ac) estate that he inherited upon succeeding to the title when his father died in 1972. Marlborough was the godson and second cousin of Winston Churchill, who was also born at Blenheim, and his improvements to the estate included the establishment of a Churchill exhibit and the restoration of the pleasure gardens, to which he added the second largest symbolic hedge maze in the world. The duke also allowed greater public access to the 187-room Blenheim Palace; he opened the family’s private apartments to the public, hosted many public events, and allowed film crews to shoot there, notably for actor-director Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet (1996), in which the duke made a cameo appearance. Marlborough was born with the courtesy title the earl of Sunderland (from which he derived his nickname, “Sunny”). He attended Eton College and served in the Life Guards for seven years until 1952, retiring with the rank of captain. He took his seat in the House of Lords in 1972 and was deputy lieutenant of Oxfordshire from 1974. In 1987 UNESCO named Blenheim Palace a World Heritage site.

4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1 4.2} Family unites at last for Duke of Marlborough's funeral, in UK Telegraph
   written by Tom Rowley, Special Correspondent, Woodstock, 24 Oct 2014.

   It was the final act of reconciliation. Jamie Spencer-Churchill, the 12th Duke of Marlborough, who was once cast out by his father as a “black sheep”, was the chief mourner at his funeral. The duke, who succeeded his father, John George Vanderbilt Henry Spencer-Churchill, to the title on his death last week, led the family into the service at St Mary Magdalene church in Woodstock, a few hundred yards from their seat, Blenheim Palace. He linked arms with the late duke’s widow, his fourth wife Lily, as he followed the coffin, which was carried by six estate workers dressed in Blenheim tweed. His children, George, the Marquess of Blandford, 22, Lady Araminta, seven, and Lord Caspar Spencer-Churchill, six, walked behind, with his second wife, Edla. Uniformed estate workers lined the route through the parkland to the church, bowing their heads as the cortege passed. Over the palace behind them the flag bearing the family crest flew at half-mast. Twenty years ago, the 12th duke faced his father in court contesting his wish to disinherit him. The 58-year-old has struggled with a heroin and cocaine addiction and ran up more than 20 convictions, including for drug offences and burglary. Concerns were raised over his suitability to inherit the dukedom and the £100 million Oxfordshire estate and his father tried to deny him his birthright. In recent years his father relented and agreed that he should inherit overall charge of the estate, after learning he had stayed clean of drugs for several years. He read the lesson, from Ecclesiastes, which he chose himself. After referring to “a time to be born, and a time to die,” he went on: “A time to rend, and a time to sew … A time of war, and a time of peace.” As drizzle fell on hundreds of locals gathered outside the church, family and close friends inside paid tribute to “Sunny”, as the duke was known, after a subsidiary title, Earl of Sunderland. Lady Henrietta Spencer-Churchill, one of the late duke’s daughters, read a poem originally composed for the funeral of Sir Winston Churchill, his godfather. Among the mourners were Churchill’s grandson, Sir Nicholas Soames, Andrew Parker Bowles and Viscount Linley. The Marquess of Blandford read a poem in tribute to his grandfather, telling the congregation: “The Sunny days are over”. In his tribute, Sir Mark Weinberg, the financier, said the duke had achieved his “dearest wish”: to pass on the estate in good order. The family was given the 11,500-acre estate as a gift in 1704 after the first duke’s victory over Louis XIV’s army at the Battle of Blenheim. Sir Mark said the late duke had successfully waged “the battle for Blenheim” by “turning the tide” of the estate’s finances. He remembered a “shy but very warm man” with a “dry sense of humour”. Once asked by an airport official if he had packed his luggage himself, he quipped: “Who do you think I am, the Duke of Marlborough?” Shops in Woodstock closed out of respect. Gordon Hollis, a 79-year-old Army veteran, sat on his mobility scooter outside the church. Five of his relatives worked on the estate and he once spent a year painting the palace for the duke. “I knew him from when I was a boy,” he said. “My uncle kept the lodge and the duke and his sister would come down for elevenses. They would have tea and biscuits and you could get into a conversation with him; he would talk about anything.” Before a private burial in the palace’s chapel, the Rev Canon Adrian Daffern, chaplain to the duke, recalled how he had once said they should be “on more intimate terms”, before asking if he could call him “Adrian”. After a pause, the rector replied: “What should I call you?” “You can call me ‘Duke’,” he responded. “It did make me wonder what that first encounter between Sunny and his maker was like,” Canon Daffern said. “I don’t think He will call him ‘Duke’.”

5. ↑ ^5.0 5.1 The Duke of Marlborough, Savior of Blenheim Palace, Has Died at Age 88, in Vanity Fair
   article by James Reginato, Oct 2014.

   Standing six feet and five inches tall, John George Vanderbilt Henry Spencer-Churchill was every inch a duke. He was born in 1926, at Blenheim Palace, the spectacular 187-room baroque behemoth that was part of the 2,000-acre estate in Oxfordshire that Queen Anne gifted in 1705 “on behalf of a grateful nation” to Spencer-Churchill’s forbear, John Churchill, the first Duke of Marlborough, after his pivotal victory against the French army. Blenheim (the only non-royal, non-ecclesiastical residence in Britain styled a palace) has awed all visitors ever since. “We have nothing to equal this,” King George III said to Queen Charlotte in 1786, upon his first visit. With the death of his father, in 1972, Spencer-Churchill became the 11th Duke of Marlborough and inherited the vast property—as well as the headaches all his ancestors had suffered trying to maintain the place. (Cousin Winston Churchill, born at Blenheim in 1874, was the presumptive heir to the dukedom until Spencer-Churchill’s grandparents produced a son.) “My famous ancestor won the Battle of Blenheim in one day—but his descendants have been fighting it ever since,” His Grace the Duke said in 2011, when he and the Duchess of Marlborough allowed me to interview them for Vanity Fair and posed for photographer Jonathan Becker. “All my life I have tried to assure its future, and ensure that it remains unique in the annals of British history,” he added. Upon his death after a heart attack on Thursday, at the age of 88, it can be safely said that the Duke succeeded. The astute management he introduced to the running of the estate brought it a stability not seen since the flush dowry gilded-age heiress Consuelo Vanderbilt brought when she married the ninth duke in 1895. While, inevitably, much of the estate had to be opened to the public, the family continues to live in splendor in the East Wing—a 46-room, four-story block with 12 bedrooms. For the Duke, who remembered his childhood, when the family inhabited the whole of the palace, this was akin to downsizing. “Now we have this small area,” he said, almost apologetically. “But it’s quite warm and cozy, and quite effective as a family home.” Indeed it was. A good deal of that warmth in recent years was provided by the former Lily Mahtani, whom he married in 2008. At the time, however, the marriage—his fourth—was controversial. Mahtani was far from him in age (she was 32 years his junior) and background (of Indian extraction, she grew up in Iran, and had previously been married to a Nigerian-based tycoon). Her romance with the Duke began when they met on a yacht off Sardinia. “It was a stroke of luck!” he recalled, beaming. “She’s brightened my life.” Friends and family would agree. For some years, his nickname of “Sunny” (from his childhood courtesy title, the Earl of Sunderland) seemed rather ironic. “Grumpy” was a word more often used to describe him. But not in recent years. “Sunny’s younger than springtime!" Mercedes Bass exclaimed to me shortly after his wedding. Funeral services are scheduled at Blenheim for Friday. The estate and title pass now to the Duke’s eldest son, Jamie, the Marquess of Blandford, who is 57.