Victor Hervey, 6th Marquess of Bristol

Victor Frederick Cochrane Hervey, 6th Marquess of Bristol (6 October 1915 – 10 March 1985), was a British aristocrat, hereditary peer and businessman. He was a member of the House of Lords, Chancellor of the International Monarchist League, and an active businessman who later became a tax exile in Monaco.
Victor was the only son of Herbert Arthur Robert Hervey, 5th Marquess of Bristol. He acquired a notorious reputation as a playboy and petty criminal in the 1930s, which culminated in him being imprisoned for jewellery theft in 1939. He inherited the Marquessate on his father's death in 1960, and acquired a large fortune through this and his business dealings. He was married three times and is the father of John Hervey, 7th Marquess of Bristol, Frederick Hervey, 8th Marquess of Bristol, Lord Nicholas Hervey, Lady Victoria Hervey and Lady Isabella Hervey. He spent his final years in Monaco with his third wife and three youngest children.

Early Life

Victor was born on 6 October 1915 as the only son of Herbert Arthur Robert Hervey, 5th Marquess of Bristol, and Lady Jean Cochrane, the daughter of the 12th Earl of Dundonald. His godmother was Queen Victoria Eugenie of Spain. He held the titles of Earl of Bristol, Earl Jermyn (by which title he was known until inheriting the Marquessate), and Baron Hervey of Ickworth in Suffolk. He was Hereditary High Steward of the Liberty of Bury St Edmunds, was patron of thirty Church of England benefices, and held estates in Suffolk, Essex, Lincolnshire, and Dominica in the West Indies.

He was educated at Eton and at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, but thrown out of the latter because of bad temperament. He was sometime President of the National Yacht Harbour Association, a member of the House of Lords Yacht Club, the Hurlingham Club, and the East Hill Club, Nassau, Bahamas.

Crime and Imprisonment

Victor became involved in theft and small crime as a young adult; he has been called the Pink Panther of his day and the ringleader of a gang of former public school boys known as the Mayfair Playboys, who assaulted and robbed a jeweller from Cartier, as a result of which two of them (but not Hervey) were sentenced to being flogged with the cat-o'-nine-tails.

In July 1939, Hervey was arrested and charged with stealing jewelry, rings and a mink fur coat with a total value of £2,500 from a premises in Queen Street, Mayfair and £2,860 of jewelry from a property on Park Lane. He was refused bail, and imprisoned for three years. The recorder of the court observed: "The way of the amateur criminal is hard. But the way of the professional is disastrous". He later sold an article about his life and exploits to a newspaper. His father, who had led a respectable life, as had been the case for all Marquesses of Bristol since the Victorian era, broke down in tears on hearing the sentence.

Business dealings

Prior to receiving his trust income, Victor declared bankruptcy in 1937 with debts of £123,955, (approximately £7.21 million today). He had been selling guns during the Spanish Civil War to both sides, hoping to receive £30,000 as a bribe which failed and led to the debts. He nevertheless continued in his arms-dealing activities and was Franco's principal agent for many years. Bristol went on to amass a fortune, both inherited and earned, estimated to be in excess of £50 million.

In 1941, Victor claimed to have been listed in a secret document written by Heinrich Himmler as an enemy of the Third Reich, but this was never proven and there is no evidence such a document ever existed

In 1973 he was recorded as having a great many business interests, with estates in Suffolk, Lincolnshire and Essex. He was then Chairman of Sleaford Investments Limited, Eastern Caravan Parks Ltd., Estates Associates Ltd., Ickworth Forestry Contractors Ltd., Cyprus Enterprises Co., V.L.C. Associates Ltd., Marquis of Bristol & Co., The Bristol Publishing Company, Radio Maria Ickworth Automatic Sales Ltd., Bristol International Airways Ltd., Dominca Enterprises Co., World Liberty Plots and other companies. He owned the Ickworth Stud, Suffolk, and the Emerald Hillside Estates in Dominica.

Family

The Earl married Pauline Bolton on 6 October 1949 and they were divorced in 1959. They had one son, Frederick William John Augustus Hervey, 7th Marquess of Bristol (15 September 1954-10 January 1999) who married Francesca Fisher in 1984 (and divorced in 1987). Lord Bristol was alleged to have been a harsh father to his eldest son, according to friends of the latter. "He treated his son and heir with indifference and contempt," said Anthony Haden-Guest. The Marquess of Blandford summed up the relationship: "Victor created the monster that John became."

He remarried Lady (Ann) Juliet Wentworth-Fitzwilliam, daughter of Peter Wentworth-FitzWilliam, 8th Earl FitzWilliam on 23 April 1960. The FitzWilliam family were not happy about Juliet's marriage owing to Victor's reputation. They were divorced in 1972 and also had one son, Lord Frederick William Charles Nicholas Wentworth Hervey (26 November 1961-26 January 1998). In both instances, the marriage failed because of Victor's infidelity; Lady Juliet subsequently saying, "If you want to screw hookers when you are married, you make damn sure you are not caught."

His third wife was Yvonne Marie Sutton, whom he married on 12 July 1974 at Caxton Hall. They had a son, Frederick William Augustus Hervey, 8th Marquess of Bristol (19 October 1979), and two daughters: Lady Victoria Hervey (6 October 1976) and Lady Isabella Hervey (9 March 1982) who married Christophe de Pauw. John, by then the Earl Jermyn, did not like Yvonne and was upset about their marriage, and unsuccessfully sued his father along with Lord Nicholas after the Marquess' will named Yvonne and her children as the main beneficiaries.

Monaco and other interests

Bristol, his third wife and family moved to Monte Carlo, Monaco, in early 1979 as tax exiles. The Marquess reportedly lowered the Union Flag at his home in Belgravia before leaving, vowing never to set foot on English soil again. He was vice-president of the UK Taxpayers Union, a member of the West India Committee, and an expert on Central American affairs. He was also Vice-President of the English-Speaking Union (East Region), and a generous donor to the Ambulance Corp in Northern Ireland.

He was a member, until his death, of the International Monarchist League, joining its Grand Council in 1964, from which time he also became a patron. In 1975 he was elected as the League's Chancellor. He was also a long-standing member of the Conservative Monday Club.

The Marquess was a patron of the arts and a collector, an acknowledged authority on Alma Tadema and Tissot, and "a lover of art and beauty in all its forms." He had acquired a substantial amount of 19th-century artwork at the time of his death.

Death

The 6th Marquess of Bristol died in Monaco on 10 March 1985, aged 69, and was buried in Menton, France. On his grave was inscribed his motto "Je n'oublieray jamais" ("I shall never forget").

A two-page obituary for Victor, 6th Marquess of Bristol, appeared in the 1985 edition of The Monarchist, written by Michael Wynne-Parker, who described him as "no fairweather friend, he was staunch, loyal, dependable, with a sense of humour. Long will I remember his cheerful voice speaking over the telephone from Monaco where he enjoyed his final years. Despite the pressures of life he remained bright of manner and optimistic.... His detractors and those who knew him slightly only saw the colourful and flamboyant side of his character; but it was as a thorough and practical man of business that Lord Bristol restored The Monarchist and the Monarchist League to surpass its former glory."

In October 2010 his last surviving son, the 8th Marquess of Bristol, repatriated his remains, which were reburied in the family vault at Ickworth Church after a service in St Leonard's Church at Horringer.