Jonathan Guinness, 3rd Baron Moyne

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Jonathan Bryan Guinness, 3rd Baron Moyne (born 16 March 1930), is a British

Diana Mitford (later Lady Mosley). Until his retirement, he was a merchant banker
with Messrs Leopold Joseph.

Early life

Guinness was educated at Eton College and the University of Oxford. He worked as a journalist and then as a merchant banker. From 1970 to 1974 he was a member of Leicestershire County Council.

Conservative Party

Guinness stood twice unsuccessfully as a parliamentary candidate for the Conservative Party, at both the 1973 Lincoln by-election (notable for the election of Dick Taverne) and the 1976 Coventry North West by-election.

Monday Club

He was a long-standing and early member (1968) of the

MP and Timothy Stroud.[1]

The Guardian and The Times referred to his election as "a right-wing victory". At the club's annual general meeting in April 1973 Guinness retained the chairmanship for another year, defeating George Kennedy Young by 30 percent of the vote.[2] In mid-1974 he was invited to address conservative students at Portsmouth Polytechnic, but was "prevented from entering by a solid wall of militant protesters hurling abuse".[3] Guinness was a supporter of Rhodesia and, with John Stokes and the Lord Barnby addressed a Monday Club meeting on the issue in 1974 in Caxton Hall.[4]

On 10 October 1989, at the Conservative Party Conference, he chaired a fringe meeting organised by the Young Monday Club, advertised as The End of the English? – Immigration and Repatriation. The other speakers were MPs Tim Janman and Nicholas Budgen.[5]

As chairman of the club's Race Relations & Immigration Committee, he also wrote the same month to all Club members; "There has been a lot of ill-thought out agitation following events in China, urging the government to amend the British Nationality Act so as to give the right of UK residence to more than three million people from Hong Kong who hold British passports. At the time of writing the government has stayed firm on this, but it is under pressure. If you have not already done so, please write to your M.P., your local and national newspapers, or the Prime Minister expressing support for the government's stand. Remember, a passport is not a residence permit, but a travel document; and think of the sheer physical burden of housing and accommodating a sudden influx of this size."

He was also Club Vice-Chairman until late 1990 when he was replaced by

MP.[6]

Trustor

Lord Moyne was accused of involvement in a Swedish financial scandal. The case concerns a now defunct Swedish investment company, Trustor, of which Lord Moyne was made a figurehead director. It was alleged that Guinness was involved in the disappearance of £50,000,000 from Trustor's accounts, £35,000,000 of which were soon found on Trustor AB:s own bank account as they had never left the company. Guinness maintained that he was innocent of any wrongdoing, claiming he has been "stitched up". During the proceedings, Swedish authorities were successful in obtaining a freezing order over what little assets he had left. He was found innocent by the Swedish court.[7]

Support for Falun Gong

Lord Moyne has spoken in support of the Falun Gong movement in China since it was banned there in 1999, as reported in Hansard.[8][9]

Director of Guinness plc

Lord Moyne was a non-executive director from 1960 to 1988 of the company set up by his family. His book Requiem for a Family Business[10] gives an uninvolved insider's account of the corporate developments leading to the Guinness share-trading fraud.

Personal life and family

Lord Moyne has been married twice and has eight children.

He married firstly, in 1951 (marriage dissolved 1963), Ingrid Wyndham, later the wife of Lord Kelvedon, with issue:

Lord Moyne married secondly, in 1964, Suzanne Lisney (died 2005 of lung cancer[11]), with issue:

  • Hon. Sebastian Walter Denis Guinness (born 1964), who has been twice married without issue.
  • Hon. Daphne Suzannah Diana Guinness (born 1967), socialite, who married in 1987 (marriage dissolved 1999) Spyros Niarchos (born 1955), by whom she has three children.

By his mistress Susan "Shoe" Taylor (1944–2003), Lord Moyne has three more children:

To avert a scandal over the extramarital affair with Taylor, Lord Moyne published Shoe – The Odyssey of a Sixties Survivor in 1989. The Sun newspaper ran a double-page article with pictures entitled Always a Mistress – Never the Bride on 6 July 1989.

Moyne and his daughter Daphne both had letters published in the same edition of

Lady Mosley
, following her death.

Lord Moyne's younger brother, Desmond Guinness, died in August 2020.

References

  1. ^ Copping, 1975, p. 6.
  2. ^ Copping, 1975, p. 8.
  3. ^ Copping, 1975, p. 16.
  4. ^ Copping, 1975, p. 19 (includes photo).
  5. ^ Conservative Party Conference Handbook 1989.
  6. ^ Monday Club News, January 1991.
  7. ^ "Lord Moyne could face jail: ThePost.ie". Archived from the original on 24 June 2008. Retrieved 14 November 2006.
  8. ^ "Lord Moyne's Public Statement at the Falun Gong Press Conference in London, UK". www.clearharmony.net.
  9. ^ "Table of Contents for Lords Hansard of 21 Oct 1999". publications.parliament.uk.
  10. Independent.co.uk. 9 November 1997. Archived
    from the original on 14 June 2022.
  11. ^ Heiress apparent, The Sunday Times, 21 October 2007.
  • Copping, Robert, The Story of The Monday Club – The First Decade, April 1972, Current Affairs Information Service, Ilford, Essex.
  • Copping, Robert, The Monday Club – Crisis and After May 1975, Current Affairs Information Service, Ilford, Essex.
  • Hansard

Bibliography

Party political offices
Preceded by Chairman of the Monday Club
June 1972 – March 1974
Succeeded by
Peerage of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Baron Moyne
1992–present
Incumbent
Heir apparent:
Hon. Valentine Guinness