+ 10th Earl of Shaftesbury (1938-2004)
Michael Rhodes
brother-in-law, in November, 2004, aged 66, was a multi-millionaire
Dorset landowner, and 10th holder of the family earldom.
He was born Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 22 May, 1938, the only son of
Anthony, Lord Ashley (1900-47), by his second wife, Francoise, daughter
of Georges Soulier, of Rouen.
His father, a Major in the Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry, was sometime ADC
to the Governor of Bombay, and was the elder son and heir of the 9th
Earl of Shaftesbury, KP, PC, GCVO (1869-1961), courtier, Lord
Chamberlain to Queen Mary for many years, by his wife, Lady Constance
Sibell Grosvenor, a Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Mary, and sister of
the croesus-rich "Bend'Or" 2nd Duke of Westminster.
Anthony Ashley-Cooper was educated at Eton, and Christ Church, Oxford,
and served as a Lieutenant with the 10th Royal Hussars.
He succeeded to the earldom on the demise of his grandfather, 25 March,
1961. The 10th Earl was also Baron Ashley, of Wimborne St Giles,
Dorset, and Baron Cooper, of Paulett, Somerset, and a Baronet. Nine of
the ten earls have been called Anthony. Only the 6th earl wasn't (and
that was because he wasn't the eldest son and he succeeded his elder
brother).
Known as "Atty" to his friends, he also succeeded to the 9,000 Dorset
acres around the family estate St Giles's House, at Wimborne St Giles,
Dorset. The house possesses one of the finest private libraries in
Britain.
The Shaftesbury peerage was created for his ancestor Sir Anthony
Ashley-Cooper, a member of Charles II's "Cabal" administration, who
introduced the Habeas Corpus Act. Perhaps the 10th peer's most famous
ancestor was Anthony, 7th Earl (1801-85), the Victorian philanthropist.
His great 1845 Lunacy Act set up a national system of lunatic asylums,
the first step towards a state health service.
The 10th Earl was three times married, firstly, 31 July, 1966, to
Italian-born Bianca Maria, daughter of Gino de Paolis, of Rome, and
former wife of the film producer Jack le Vien (producer of The Valiant
Years); Bianca petitioned for divorce in June, 1976, after 10 years of
marriage, and was granted a divorce on the grounds of her husband's
adultery with an unnamed woman; he married secondly, in London, 15
December, 1976 (Times 17.12.76), Mrs Christina Casella, daughter of
Ambassador Nils Montan. She was a Swedish-born divorcee. This marriage
also ended in divorce in 2000; he married 3rdly, in 2002, Jamila Ben
M'Barek.
The Earl leaves two sons from his second marriage, (i) Anthony Nils
Christian Ashley-Cooper, styled Lord Ashley, who was born in London 24
June, 1977, educated at Marlborough and University of Bristol (BSc);
and (ii) the Hon Nicholas Edmund Ashley-Cooper, b. in London, 3 June,
1979 (Daily Telegraph 5.6.79).
Nicholas Ashley-Cooper is a godson of the Duke of Westminster and Simon
Elliot (who married Annabel Shand, sister of Camilla Parker Bowles).
Lord Shaftesbury was described as a generous, convivial, refined and a
distinguished individual...But so generoius that he became vulnerable.
He divided his time between his homes in England at the Cote d'Azur.
He hit the gossip colums in 2002 when he started an affair with
Nathalie Lyons, a 29-year-old nude model he met in a lingerie shop in
Geneva. According to friends, his family were concerned about his
willingness to hand over cheques of up to £50,000 to her, without
asking why she needed them.
Sometimes attired in black leather trousers, he often held court in
Bellini's, Kensington Court, London.
The peerages and baronetcy have devolved upon his lordship's elder son,
Anthony.
https:/www.maltagenealogy.com/LeighRayment/
Scrolling through the social media posts of the 61-year-old Dowager Countess of Shaftesbury, you would never imagine that this was a woman who once paid for her husband to be murdered and left his body to be mauled by wild animals.
Not for this former escort and Playboy model the contrite life of one quietly atoning for their sins.
Jamila Ben M’Barek, as she was born, has an Instagram page boasting the name ‘Comtesse’ — the French word for Countess — despite her role in the killing of the husband from whom she derived the title.
Further more on Daily Mail article.
