Lord Bath
Alexander George Thynn, 7th Marquess of Bath (6 May 1932 - 4 April 2020), styled Viscount Weymouth between 1946 and 1992, was an English politician, artist, and author. He was ranked 359th in the Sunday Times Rich List 2009 with an estimated wealth of £157 million.
Early life and education
Although born in London, he grew up at his family's seat, Longleat, a great Elizabethan house set in Wiltshire parkland landscaped in the 18th century by Capability Brown.[1] After attending Ludgrove School and Eton College, he was commissioned into the Life Guards as a lieutenant in 1951.[2] He was then educated at Christ Church, Oxford, where he was president of the Bullingdon Club, and travelled across Europe.[3]
Political career
Believing that Wessex would be better off as a devolved region within the UK, he stood in the February 1974 General Election as a Wessex regionalist. Shortly after the election, he was one of the founders of the Wessex Regionalist Party. He stood for the party in the first ever elections to the European Parliament in 1979.[citation needed]
After inheriting the marquessate from his father in 1992, he sat in the House of Lords as a Liberal Democrat. Among other things, he spoke on the need for devolution for the regions of England, until he lost his place in the House of Lords after the Labour Government's reforms excluded most of the hereditary peers.[citation needed]
Personal life
In 1969, he married Hungarian-born Anna Gyarmathy, also known as Anna Gael,[4] by whom he has two children, Lady Lenka Abigail Thynn and Ceawlin Thynn, 8th Marquess of Bath, who were sent to the local comprehensive school.[5] After his father's death, he sacked Christopher, his brother, as estate controller and evicted him from his home.[6] Lord Bath has also acknowledged an illegitimate daughter born circa 2000.[7]
Born with the family name Thynne, he dropped the "e" in 1976, as he wanted it to be pronounced to rhyme with "pin" and not "pine". He was known for his colourful style of dress, which he acquired as an art student in Paris in the 1950s,[8] and was a prolific amateur painter who has decorated rooms of his home with erotic scenes from the Kama Sutra.[4][5] He had openly had sexual relations with over seventy women during his marriage, and installed many of them in estate cottages. He referred to these women as wifelets.[9]
The Marquess passed the management of the business to his son Viscount Weymouth early in 2010.[10] By one account, the Viscount intended to evict the wifelets from their estate cottages.[11] Some of his father's murals were removed, which caused a rift and led to a boycott by the Marquess of his son's marriage to Emma McQuiston.[12]
Death
He was admitted to the Royal United Hospital, Bath on 28 March 2020, and while in hospital tested positive for the COVID-19 virus. He died of the virus on 4 April 2020 at the age of 87.[13][14]
Appearances and media
In 1999, he appeared in series 6, episode 4 of Time Team, which dealt with the excavation of a cave in the Cheddar Gorge, an area of land owned by him. From 2000 to 2009 Animal Park, a television documentary about the life of keepers and animals at Longleat Safari Park, Wiltshire, England, aired over 9 series on the BBC. It also covered the daily life of workers in Longleat House, the estate and the gardens and regularly featured items about Lord Bath himself.
In March 2009, he appeared in episode 4 of Heston's Feasts. The Marquess of Bath, a book by Nesta Wyn Ellis, initially written with Bath's co-operation, was published in the autumn of 2010.[15] Lord Bath's autobiography, collectively called Strictly Private to Public Exposure, was first published as a series by Artnik Books, and since 2002 has been republished by Top Spot Publishing. His other screen credits include an episode of Globe Trekker. He plays an aristocrat in the music video for the Pet Shop Boys song "Rent".[citation needed]
Artist and potter Grayson Perry interviewed the Marquess in the third of his three-part 2012 documentary series All in the Best Possible Taste with Grayson Perry which focused on Britain's upper class.
In 2014 he appeared in All Change at Longleat, a three-part documentary of some of the issues as he passed the running of the house to his son.
Bibliography
Bath, Alexander Thynn (2000). The New World Order of Alexander Thynn: Views on Politics, Society and Religion by the Marquess of Bath. London: Starhaven. ISBN 0-936315-13-X.
Bath, Alexander Thynn (2002). Strictly Private to Public Exposure (Series 1: A Plateful of Privilege). London: Artnik. ISBN 978-1-903906-08-8.
Ellis, Nesta (2010). The Marquess of Bath. London: Dynasty Press. ISBN 978-0-9553507-4-0.
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