John Crichton-Stuart, 7th Marquess of Bute

John Colum Crichton-Stuart, 7th Marquess of Bute (born 26 April 1958 in Rothesay, Isle of Bute), styled Earl of Dumfries before 1993, is a British peer and a former racing driver, most notably winning the 1988 24 Hours of Le Mans. He does not use his title and prefers to be known solely as John Bute, although he has also been called Johnny Dumfries. The family home is Mount Stuart House on the Isle of Bute. He attended Ampleforth College, as had his father and most male members of the Crichton-Stuart family, but did not finish the normal six years of study.

Racing career

Born into one of Scotland's oldest aristocratic families (being a descendant of Robert II of Scotland and through him Robert the Bruce) and the descendant of a British Prime Minister, Johnny Dumfries/John Bute was heir to a large fortune. He turned his back on an expensive education at Ampleforth College and set about pursuing a career in motor racing.

In 1984 Dumfries was the sensation of the F3 season, scoring 14 race victories on his way to winning, and completely dominating, the British Formula 3 Championship for Team BP (Dave Price Racing). He also finished runner-up to Ivan Capelli in the European Formula Three Championship that year. In 1985, he graduated to the newly created FIA International Formula 3000 Championship, initially competing for Onyx Race Engineering before switching to Lola Motorsport. It was a disappointing season, with a sixth-place finish in Vallelunga being the highlight of the year.

In 1986 he made his breakthrough into F1, and raced a single season for the JPS Team Lotus. He was a late addition to the team, apparently as a result of Ayrton Senna not wanting Derek Warwick as a teammate. He competed in 15 Grands Prix for Lotus (not qualifying at Monaco), which used the turbocharged Renault engines and scored 3 championship points.

He was replaced for 1987 by the Japanese driver Satoru Nakajima as part of Lotus's deal to use Honda engines from that season onwards. During the most part of the 1986 season, he was usually one of the midfield drivers, on par with the Tyrrell drivers Martin Brundle and Philippe Streiff.

In 1988, Dumfries scored the biggest racing victory of his career when he won the Le Mans 24 Hours driving a Jaguar XJR-9 for Tom Walkinshaw's Silk Cut Jaguar Team alongside Dutchman Jan Lammers and Englishman Andy Wallace.

Wealth

He ranked 616th in the Sunday Times Rich List 2008, with an estimated wealth of £125m. In the 2006 list, he ranked 26th in Scotland with £122m.

He lives with his family in London and at the ancestral seat Mount Stuart House, 5 miles (8.0 km) south of Rothesay on the Isle of Bute, PA20 9LR. In 2007, the other family home Dumfries House in Cumnock, Ayrshire was sold to the nation for £45 million.

Marriages and children

In 1984, he married Carolyn, daughter of Bryson and Rose Waddell. They were divorced in 1993. They have three children:

• Lady Caroline Crichton-Stuart (b. 26 September 1984)
• Lady Cathleen Crichton-Stuart (b. 14 September 1986)
• John Bryson Crichton-Stuart, Earl of Dumfries (b. 21 December 1989)

He married secondly Serena Solitaire Wendell, daughter of Major Jac Wendell and former wife of Robert Delisser, in 1999. They have one child:

• Lady Lola Affrica Crichton-Stuart (b. 1999)

Ancestry

Crichton-Stuart is the son of the 6th Marquess of Bute and his former wife Beatrice Weld-Forester. On his father's side, he is a direct male-line descendant of King Robert II of Scotland through an illegitimate line, and a female-line descendant of King William IV of the United Kingdom, by his mistress Dorothy Jordan, through their daughter, Elizabeth Hay, Countess of Erroll. As William IV was Queen Victoria's uncle, the Marquess of Bute is a distant cousin of Queen Elizabeth II. On his father's side he is also a descendant of Bernard, Earl of Granard and Beatrice Mills Forbes, an American socialite who was the daughter of Ogden Mills and Ruth "Tiny" Livingston Mills, a descendant of the Livingston family and the Schuyler family from New York.

On his mother's side, he is twice descended from King Charles II of England and Scotland through his eldest illegitimate son, James, Duke of Monmouth.

Racing record

Complete International Formula 3000 results

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Complete Formula One results

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Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results