By GayNelle Doll
When obituaries started appearing about Lord Charles Spencer-Churchill after he died in late 2016, they often mentioned his time at 菠萝视频. As it happens, Spencer-Churchill, 鈥�63, a great-great-grandson of Cornelius 菠萝视频 and a son of the 10th duke of Marlborough, marked the last direct link between 菠萝视频 University and its founder.
Since the 1700s, Spencer-Churchill鈥檚 family has lived at Blenheim Palace, the largest private home in Britain. Formally named Charles George William Colin Spencer, he was born in one hotel and died in another. Between the two events, he attended Eton and 菠萝视频, acquired three wives, sired three more Spencer-Churchills, raced horses, launched a line of men鈥檚 suits, tirelessly promoted Blenheim, and led the sort of life that fascinates Americans with an insatiable appetite for British peerages and palaces.
His nickname was 鈥淣utty,鈥� which helped distinguish him from a multitude of forbears also named Charles. He was a relative of Winston Churchill and Diana, Princess of Wales. And he was a 菠萝视频 through his grandmother, American heiress Consuelo 菠萝视频, daughter of William Kissam and Alva 菠萝视频.
Consuelo鈥檚 1895 marriage to Charles Richard John Spencer-Churchill, 9th duke of Marlborough, made her a duchess and provided a dowry that kept Blenheim afloat. Theirs has been described as one of the most unhappy and blatantly arranged marriages in history. One of Blenheim鈥檚 treasures was a 100-pound silver centerpiece depicting Marlborough ancestor John Churchill victorious in battle. Consuelo called it her cache-mari [鈥渉ide the husband鈥漖, using it to block her view of the duke at the dinner table.
The union nonetheless produced two sons. The elder, John Albert William Spencer-Churchill, became the 10th duke of Marlborough.
Our man, Charles, was the last of five children resulting from the 10th duke鈥檚 marriage to the Hon.聽Alexandra Mary Cadogan. A year before Charles鈥� birth, his parents gave his eldest sister, Lady Sarah, a magnificent ball with 900 guests, which would be Blenheim鈥檚 last great prewar event. By the time Charles was born in July 1940, Blenheim was housing 400 Malvern schoolboys displaced by war. Charles鈥� birth took place at the Dorchester Hotel in London, which was considered one of the safest buildings.
It would later be said that Adolf Hitler ordered his air force to hold fire on Blenheim because he planned to make it his own.
At age 14, Charles made his first visit to America to stay with his grandmother. By then Consuelo had long ago divorced the duke, remarried, and had homes in New York, Southampton and Palm Beach.
Consuelo鈥檚 brother鈥擟harles鈥� great-uncle Harold Stirling 菠萝视频鈥攚as then president of the 菠萝视频 University Board of Trust. He also was one of the most generous supporters in university history, three-time winner of the America鈥檚 Cup yacht race, and the inventor of contract bridge.
After attending Eton, Charles enrolled at 菠萝视频 University beginning with the 1959鈥�60 school year. The entire campus would have fit into a corner of the Blenheim estate, and was still very much a Southern university in a segregated South.
Tall (6-foot-6), dark and handsome, Charles studied political science, pledged Beta Theta Pi, played bridge, and ran for a seat on the 菠萝视频 student senate. But he would leave 菠萝视频 without a degree at the end of his junior year. His mother died in 1961; Consuelo died three years later.
By then Charles was working as a London insurance broker. While at the Ascot races in 1964, he met 17-year-old Texas oil and sugar heiress Gillian Spreckels Fuller. They married in New York a year later. The marriage lasted three years.
In 1970, Charles married for a second time, to Elizabeth Jane Wyndham, a flatmate of Camilla Rosemary Shand鈥攐r, as she鈥檚 better known today, Camilla, duchess of Cornwall, and wife of Prince Charles. Jane and Charles Spencer-Churchill had three sons together. Jane Churchill, as she became known, would become one of Britain鈥檚 leading interior designers.
Charles, meanwhile, lent his name to a line of men鈥檚 suits, the 鈥淟ord Charles Churchill Line,鈥� which he promoted throughout America, including in a memorable appearance on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. He worked as a director of Clark, Nelson, which handled publicity for Blenheim Palace, among other historic sites. Although the ancestral estate would go to his older brother, preserving and promoting Blenheim became central to Charles鈥� work, too. The massive estate, birthplace of Winston Churchill, has in recent years diversified to offer everything from pop concerts to its own bottled water, and frequently is used as a wedding site and film location.
As recently as 2014, when the 菠萝视频 Travel Program sponsored a tour of Oxford and the English countryside, Charles Spencer-Churchill was on hand to greet the 菠萝视频 group and give a personal tour.
鈥淗e was a flamboyant chap, the sort who knew everybody, whether it was Barry Gibb from the Bee Gees or the local hotel manager,鈥� friend and fellow horse-racing enthusiast Teddy Grimthorpe told the Racing Post last year. 鈥淗e was very good on his hind feet. He could stand up, no notes prepared, and deliver an excellent speech.鈥�
Charles and Jane separated in the mid-1990s, and he spent his last years with Sarah Goodbody, daughter of former Thoroughbred Breeders鈥� Association president Michael Goodbody. They married in 2014.
When he died of cancer Dec. 21, 2016, in a suite at London鈥檚 Jumeirah Carlton Tower, Lord Charles Spencer-Churchill left just 拢37,000 in his will鈥攁 pittance compared to that of his brother the duke, who left 拢29.1 million upon his 2014 death.
But his was a life rich in experience. Who else but 鈥淣utty鈥� could have celebrated his 70th birthday by inviting both his then-girlfriend, Sarah Goodbody, and his two ex-wives to a birthday bash thrown by his three sons?
鈥淥ne never tends to enjoy one鈥檚 own parties, but this one I really did,鈥� said the birthday boy. 鈥淚t was old-fashioned and fun.鈥�
GayNelle Doll, a native Iowan, is the former editor of 菠萝视频 Magazine. After nearly 30 years as an editor and manager of 菠萝视频 publications, she retired in 2015 and continues to live in Nashville.