MY FRIEND THE MARQUESS OF DEPRAVITY The Marquess of Bristol was a drug addict and homosexual philanderer who betrayed his wife and squandered his entire family fortune before he died at 44. Here his closest confidant NICK ASHLEY examines the fatal flaws that ruined a brash young aristocrat FB Edition

On January 10, John, 7th Marquess of Bristol, died alone in a Suffolk farmhouse an almost forgotten man of 44, old before his time. No last words were attributed to him; those were supplied by the coroner: 'Multiple organ failure brought about by chronic drug abuse.' After his death, the P...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inMail on Sunday
Main Author Ashley, Nick
Format Newspaper Article
LanguageEnglish
Published London (UK) Solo Syndication, a division of Associated Newspapers Ltd 14.11.1999
Subjects
Onas, Christina
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Summary:On January 10, John, 7th Marquess of Bristol, died alone in a Suffolk farmhouse an almost forgotten man of 44, old before his time. No last words were attributed to him; those were supplied by the coroner: 'Multiple organ failure brought about by chronic drug abuse.' After his death, the Press projected an eerily unwholesome, almost reptilian image of the man a degenerate rogue aristocrat, a jailbird, reclusive junkie shunned by his friends, a wastrel who had squandered millions. In 1976, the Bristol estate included 16,000 acres of farmland in Suffolk, Essex and Lincolnshire indulgent, elderly parents. My early circumstances were more than comfortable, though not as distinguished as I would later pretend. Common sense decreed that if, like me, you had known him, it was prudent to keep your head down and your mouth shut. However, John was my closest associate for 20 years. I had been in turn dazzled and exasperated by him, stunned by his outrageous behaviour and touched by his warmth. I lived with him for five years, I'd stood beside him in the dock and I guess you could say I had loved the man. 'Jeez,' he said, 'a cross between a curry house and a high-class knocking shop!' It never crossed my mind that John was unlucky to have had Victor Bristol for a father. Not because Victor had been one of the Mayfair Men a group of upper-class jewellery thieves who did 'bird' during the war (to my mind this added to the family's glamour), but because he landed John with far too much far too soon. John's inheritance was a fire waiting to consume him.