GATHORNE-HARDY, Jonathan Gathorne (1933-2019)

[Richard R]

From the Telegraph and Times of 20 July 2019: GATHORNE-HARDY - Jonathan, died peacefully on 16th July at his home in Aldeburgh, aged 86. Beloved husband of Nicky, father of Ben and Jenny, stepfather of Becalelis, Noa and Joseph, and dearly loved grandfather. Funeral for close family on 24th July, and there will be a memorial at a later date.

The author. He was s of Surg-Cdr Hon Antony Gathorne GATHORNE-HARD RN (1907-76 s of 3rd Earl of CRANBROOK (1870-1915) and his 1st w Ruth Elizabeth (1910-73) d of Cdr Arthur Penton Napier THOROWGOOD (c1847-1920) and Elizabeth Montgomery HUNTER BLAIR (1855-1936), scion of the Bts of that name. He m 1st 1963 (div 1977) Sabrina Viola (b 1943) d of Hon David Francis TENNANT (1902-68 s of 1st Baron GLENCONNER (1859-1920)) and his 2nd w Virginia Penelope PARSONS (1917-2003 having m 2nd the 6th Marquess of BATH), and had a son and a dau as above. He m 2nd 1985 Nicolette (Nicky) d of Dr Kenneth William Cripps SINCLAIR-LOUTIT MBE.

[colinp]

Amusing obituary in Daily Telegraph 30 July 2019 - https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2019/07/29/jonathan-gathorne-hardy-flamboyant-author-whose-books-included/

EXTRACTS

Jonathan Gathorne-Hardy, who has died aged 86, was a prolific author and high-spirited humorist capable of transforming his life on the fringes of the aristocracy into rambling prose, spattered with life-enhancing joie de vivre on and off the page.

In his early days he had a job with the London advertising agency, Ogilvy and Mather, where he worked alongside the young Salman Rushdie, wore the same smart green suit every day and could often be heard on the telephone talking to a builder and decorator about improvements to the London flat he shared with his first wife, Sabrina Tennant, whom he married in 1963.

Jonny Gathorne-Hardy was born on May 17 1933 in Edinburgh, where his father, Anthony, youngest son of the third Earl of Cranbrook, was training to be a doctor. He claimed that he came from “the non-posh side of a fairly posh family” and was particularly proud of the possibility that he might be an illegitimate descendant of Disraeli, for whom his grandfather’s grandfather had worked as Home Secretary. He and his impoverished, alcoholic parents spent the next few years on the outskirts of the estate of his bat-expert uncle John, the fourth Earl of Cranbrook, near Snape, Suffolk.

Here young Jonny made friends with his “unfeasibly camp” batchelor uncles, Bob and Eddie, particularly Uncle Eddie, the model for Evelyn Waugh’s Miles Malpractice in Vile Bodies.

A year after this incident, Gathorne-Hardy married his second wife, the painter Nicky Loutit, a stepdaughter of his old friend Robert Kee, and moved into a 16th century cottage near the sea in Norfolk, where a large nude self-portrait by Behrens vied for attention with confident landscapes by his new wife, with whom he would live happily for the rest of his life.

He is survived by his wife, along with two children and three stepsons.

Jonathan Gathorne-Hardy, born May 17 1933, died July 16 2019

[sarac...@googlemail.com]

Late father-in-law Dr.Kenneth William Cripps Sinclair-Louttit(b.1913-d.31 Oct 2004) had an interesting career as well as ancestry:Welsh-born,Cambridge Univ graduate,who later ran the Republicans' first mobile medical unit during the Spanish Civil War,after which time during WW2 he met and romanced Nicolette's mother,the later literary socialite Janetta  Slater,nee Woolley(b.31 Dec 1921-d.9 June 2018),becoming her 2nd husband and her,his 2nd wife.The marriage lasted from 1943-5,and he married again in 1946 leaving 2 sons and 1 dau. by his 3rd and final wife Angela de Renzy Martin.Janetta,married 3 more times,incl. her 3rd husband(1948-50),Robert Kee CBE(b.5 Oct 1919-d.11 Jan 2013),eventually finishing up as (Parlade) Marquesa de Apezteguia.

A private family tree,drawn up by Dr.Sinclair-Louttit and given in 2001-2 correspondence to my late clan patron,shows his paternal line was Louttit of Lyking in the Orkney isles,with at least 2 specific Sinclair marriage alliances,namely (1) with that of Stank,near Stromness,Orkney,who J.Storer Clouston,briefly conjectured in 'Records of the Earldom of Orkney,1299-1614'(1914),were possible descendants of John Sinclair,Bishop-elect of Caithness,an illegitimate son of William Sinclair,1st Earl of Caithness;(2) Rapness in Westray,Orkney with further female-lines going through them,Traill,Bellenden and Halcro,back to Stewart of Burgh in Stronsay,founded by a son of Patrick Stewart,2nd Earl of Orkney(b.c.1566-exec.6 Feb 1615).