Jailed Marquis 'a poor little rich boy’

Press, 17 January 1986, Page 6

Jailed Marquis 'a poor little rich boy’

By AAP correspondent PHILIPPA MURRAY (through NZPA) London “How the mighty doth fall” one might say after the recent imprisonment of one of Britain’s most aristocratic peers. The Marquis of Blandford, James Spencer-Churchill, was sentenced to three months in Pentonville Prison and branded “a common criminal” for breaching a probation period imposed last year for possessing heroin. The stunned-looking lord, who still faces further drug charges, was reminded by

the Magistrate that “the highest in the land can fall to the lowest when drugs are taken.” For Lord Blandford, eldest son of the Duke of Marlborough and a greatnephew of Sir Winston Churchill, the sentence represents a sad chapter in the life of a poor little rich boy. Jamie Blandford has struggled against a £3OO ($858) plus-a-day heroin addiction for the last three years, and in spite of his obvious wealth, found it an uphill battle. As the eldest son of the Duke of Marlborough he

; stands to inherit the imposl ing family seat, Blenheim ! Palace and its 4654 hectares, conservatively valued at £5O million ($143 milf lion) His family life has been a i tale of ups and downs — ruptured by his parents’ i marriage break-up, disai greements with his father and adoration for his > mother. > The 30-year-old peer is “Sunny” Marlborough’s heir : by his first marriage to i Susan Hornby, whose family i runs the giant stationers, W. H. Smith. : It was Susan, now ) married for a third time to

West Country businessman John Gough, who visited her son loaded with several shopping bags when he spent Christmas in jail on remand. “My father has played some hard tricks on me in the past,” he said. The Duke, whose second marriage to Tina Onassis, wife of the Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis, also collapsed, at one stage banned him from visiting Blenheim and investigated means of cutting off his son’s inheritance. “I must tell you about the time my father and stepsister (Christina Onassis) tried

to get me into a nuthouse in the northern suburbs of Paris,” Lord Blandford said recently "They got their silly heads together and cooked up a neat little ploy to get me over to Paris. Christina sent her plane for me, pretending we were going to have a jolly week-end together. “When I got there, I found men in white coats, ambulances the lot. We got to the nuthouse and there were lots of men wandering around with no pyjama bottoms on — it was dreadful,” he said.

Lord Blandford escaped through a window and climbed an electric fence and a 7.75 metre high wall to catch the first plane back to London.

After completing his education at Harrow, the young Marquis failed his entry exams to Sandhurst Academy — a crushing blow to his father whose ancestors are among Britain’s most gallant military leaders. Instead, he dabbled in shipping insurance, maintained a pied-a-terre in London’s swinging Chelsea, drove fast cars and joined the rich and famous at play round the world. “I do feel confused about my destiny and I have al-

ways resented having my life mapped out for me,” he said last year.

An avowed womaniser — “I’m just no good without a relationship” — and accustomed to the high life of private parties, private planes on private islands across the globe, the Marquis ranked as one of the world’s most eligible bachelors.

Several stints in clinics failed to cure his heroin habit and the playboy peer exiled himself to a remote Scottish island for two months in a self-help drug centre.

Pronouncing himself cured, Lord Blandford returned to London but some time later hit the headlines after he was caught breaking into a chemist’s shop to steal heroin.

He got off with a £lOOO ($2860) fine and was placed on probation but was arrested late last year when found in possession of a large amount of cocaine. Penal life is proving to be a sobering shock. While on remand a fellow prisoner said he was “taking it all very badly.” “There were times when he looked close to despair and it was obvious he had been crying — it would obviously be tough for

someone from his background,” one inmate said. Lord Blandford’s fate inspired “The Times” newspaper to editorialise that, “the scion of Blenheim need have no sense of injury on his own account.”

“If like so many of his illustrious forbears, he can be a useful example to the nation, that is at least a small gain from one more British drug tragedy,” the paper said. His disposition has failed to. arouse the sympathies of his family: “We are glad that he is in jail at the moment. It’s the only hope for James. Having him out and subject to all sorts of temptation has done him no good,” one family member was quoted as saying. A Blenheim Palace spokeswoman said the family had “nothing to say” after his sentence was handed down.

Meanwhile, life on the estate goes on.

As the Lord Blandford was led off to Pentonville, his young half-brother and half-sister, Lord Edward Spencer-Churchill and Lady Alexandra, were seen hurtling up and down the drive in a miniature red E-type Jaguar — with a real engine.