SOMERSET de CHAIR

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Somerset de Chair,
soldier, poet, author and
Conservative MP for
South West Norfolk, I935-
45. and for South
Paddington. 1950-51, died
in Antigua on January 5
aged 83. He was born on
August 22, 1911.

THE life of Somerset de Chair
was as colourful as his name.
He possessed charm, wealth
and talent. He had four wives,
innumerable mistresses and
in many ways lived the sort of
charmed life that one of Eve-
lyn Waugh’s bright young
things might have done, ex-
cept “"=.t in his case he was
still-,_ icated to enjoying the
pleasures of life in the 19905.
Like so many others, at one
time he was spoken of as a
future prime minister but a
sex scandal ended his political
career.

then Minister of Production,

the professional name of Syl-

His father was one of Jelli- ‘ ‘but his career was halted via Shelley, one of the beauties

coe’s adrnirals at Jutland who

Silver

topped Rolls-Royce

‘Ghost which he used for

frequent trips to parties in

London, where the pattern of

his ." became established.

W... -fie was still at Oxford
he \v.';%'§’his first books The
Impending Storm (1930), a
prophetic account of the men-
ace of Fascism, and before
coming down .he had pub-
lished another book, Divided
Europe (1931), on the perils of
Communism. This precosity,
combined with his blond good
looks and obvious promise,
were sufficient to obtain for.
him the nomination at South
West Norfolk, which he duly
held for the Conservatives at
the 1935 election. _

By this time he had married

Thelma Arbuthnot, who was

rich, charming and public-
spirited, the ideal wife for an
aspiring young Tory MP. He
was on the reserve of officers
and joined the Household
Cavalry on the outbreak of
war ‘-Ie served in the Middle
Ea; nd saw action during

‘ the Iraqi and Syrian cam-

paigns, where he suffered
wounds bad enough to have
him invalided out in 1942. His.

account of the Iraqi campaign.

The Golden Carpet (l943).has

been compared to the work of .

T. E. Lawrence.

‘ Back in the Commons, he
became Parliamentary Private
Secretary to Oliver Lyttelton.

temporarily by the labour

be adopted soon afterwards
for South Paddington, where
he was elected in 1950. His
innumerable affairs had been
largely concealed from Thel-
ma de Chair but she then
discovered that for two years
he had rented a flat in Belgra-
via for Carmen Appleton. who
was about to have his child.
The first Mrs de Chair was a
redoubtable figure in Tory
circles, a member of the old
London County Council and
she had overwhelming sym-
pathy in the constituency.
When his affair was revealed
de Chair was forced to give up
hisseat — aifate which some
modern Conservatives in com-
parable circumstances have
managed to avoid. ,

He married Carmen Apple-
ton but that marriage also
came to grief. This was not
because of his infidelities —
there were numerous exam-
ples of which she was appar-
ently aware — but because of
hers. She ran off with a
navigator on his 56-ton yacht.
Hairbell. This was one of the
few events in his sexual career
which ruffled de Chair. He
was known to say ruefully:
“And this was the woman for
which I had to give" up my
political career.”

However, de Chair took the
blame in the divorce court,
being cited for “miscondu "
with a model who went under’

of her day. Her real name was

bgcarne Governor of _New landslide of 1945 when he lost Patricia Manlove, and. they
"SouthWVaIé§TwheréHé"ChaiF“Ifi§"sat“‘t6‘sydn§‘Dye,"a’ “wéFe:"'married 'iTT958."B/‘

began his education at King’s famous Norfolk figure, who 1974 that marriage, too, was
School, Paramatta. When he scraped in by 53 votes. dissolved.

went up to Balliol College, De Chair was thought suffi- This was the year of his
Oxford, he drove an open- ciently valuable to his party to fourth and last marriage — to

Juliet, former wife of the then
Marquess of Bristol and the
only daughter of Earl
Fitzwilliam. Her father had
been killed in the crash of the
private aircraft in which he
was flying to the South of
France with Kathleen (Kick)
Kennedy, sister of President
Kennedy and widow of the
Marquess of Hartington, who
died with him.

To their marriage — which
took place after her divorce,
when the Marquess cited de
Chair — Juliet de Chair
brought -a great art collection,
including six Van Dycks and
seven Stubbses. The de Chairs
spent their married life in
considerable style, surround-
ed by their treasures, and
dividing their time between

. their medieval abbey in Essex.

their Queen Anne mansion in
Kent and their farm in New
York State.

After he left politics de Chair
wrote prolifically. He pro-
duced three novels, three col-
lections of poetry and a play,
and edited the memoirs of
both Napoleon and his father,
Admiral Sir Dudley de Chair.
He also wrote particularly
revealing volumes of autobi-
ography, detailing his varied
life and even more varied
loves.

He leaves his widow. three
sons and two daughters, one
son having predeceased him.

ut in ‘ ‘ —‘:‘i