John Aspinall (zoo owner)

John Victor Aspinall, known to all his friends as "Aspers", was born in Delhi, British India on 11 June 1926, Robert Stivala Aspinall (1895–1954), a British Army surgeon of British parentage and Maltese origin; he had added Aspinall to his original surname Stivala after joining the Indian Medical Service, being known for some time as Robert Aspinall-Stivala. His mother was Mary Grace Horn (died 1987), the daughter of engineer Clement Samuel Horn, of Goring-by-Sea, Sussex. Years later, when he pressed his father for money to cover his gambling debts, he discovered that his biological father was George Bruce, a soldier of Nordic descent. Aspinall attended Felsted School in 1939 but after his parents divorced, his stepfather Sir George Osborne sent him to Rugby School, from which he was expelled for inattention. Aspinall later went to Jesus College, Oxford, but on the day of his final exams he feigned illness and went to the Gold Cup at Ascot racecourse instead. As a consequence, he never earned a degree. ==Gambling impresario==

Aspinall became a bookmaker; at that time the only gambling permitted by UK law was with cash and credit on the premises of racecourses and dog tracks, with credit by an account with a bookmaker, and on football pools. Casino gambling was not permitted at the time. However, between races Aspinall returned to London and hosted private gaming parties. He believed that games of Chemin de Fer, known as Chemie (Chemmy), were within the law in certain circumstances, and on average the owner of the house was able to make a 5% profit on the turnover of games. Aspinall targeted his events at the rich, sending out embossed invitations. Gambling houses were defined then in British law as places where gambling had taken place more than three times. With his Irish-born accountant John Burke, Aspinall rented upper class flats and houses, never used them more than three times, and had his mother pay off local Metropolitan Police officers. Among the gamblers were the Queen's racehorse trainer Bernard van Cutsem, The club's original members included five dukes, five marquesses, twenty earls and two cabinet ministers. Overheads were higher, and under the new laws, Aspinall was required to pay tax, only making a table charge which produced much smaller revenue for the house. In 1983, he made $30 million from their sale, but a decade later he was in financial difficulties once more, and in 1992 he set up yet another gambling spot, Aspinalls, which is now known as Wynn Mayfair. ==Animal parks==

In his years at Oxford, Aspinall had loved the book Nada the Lily by H. Rider Haggard, about an illegitimate Zulu prince who lived outside his tribe among wild animals. In 1956, Aspinall moved into an Eaton Place apartment with his first wife. In the back garden, Aspinall built a garden shed housing a capuchin monkey, a 9-week-old tiger, and two Himalayan brown bears. for their breeding of rare and endangered species and for the deaths of keepers who have been killed by the animals in their care. ==Politics==

Aspinall ran unsuccessfully for Parliament at the 1997 general election as the candidate of Sir James Goldsmith's single-issue (against Britain's involvement in the European Union) Referendum Party in the Folkestone and Hythe constituency, where he was defeated by senior Conservative Michael Howard. In private, Aspinall would express antisemitic views, including hatred towards Jews, and an admiration for Adolf Hitler. He was known to enjoy being provocative and believed an outrageous remark could provoke full-blooded responses and spirited debate, something he very much enjoyed. In Douglas Thompson's book The Hustlers former Clermont Club financial director John Burke states: ==Lucan connection==

Aspinall claimed that Lord Lucan, whose 1974 disappearance remains unresolved, had committed suicide by scuttling his motorboat and jumping into the English Channel with a stone tied around his body. According to the journalist Lynn Barber, in an interview in 1990, Aspinall made a slip of the tongue indicating Lucan had remained Aspinall's friend beyond the date of the alleged suicide. On 18 February 2012, Glenn Campbell of BBC News reported that John Aspinall's ex-secretary (using the pseudonym of Jill Findlay) had disclosed that she was invited into meetings where Aspinall and Goldsmith discussed Lucan. She further said, that on two occasions, between 1979 and 1981, Aspinall instructed her to book trips to Kenya and Gabon for Lucan's children. The arrangement was so Lucan could see his children from a distance, but he was not to meet them or speak to them. ==Marriages and family==

In 1956, he married Jane Gordon Hastings, a Scottish model (sister of Pye Hastings and Jimmy Hastings); the couple had one son, Damian Aspinall. Aspinall divorced her in 1966. In the same year, on 13 December, he married his second wife Belinda Mary Musker (b. 27 November 1942), daughter of Major Anthony Dermot Melloney Musker (killed in a motor racing accident on 8 August 1959) and wife (m. 2 November 1940) The Hon. Mary Angela FitzRoy, without issue. In 1972, he divorced his second wife and married Lady Sarah-Marguerite "Sally" Curzon (25 January 1945 - 17 June 2025), daughter of Francis Curzon, 5th Earl Howe, and Sybil Boyter Johnson. She was a widow who was previously married to the racing driver Piers Courage. John and Sally had a son Bassa Wulfhere Aspinall (b 1972). He also had a daughter, Amanda, and two stepsons, Jason and Amos Courage. Through his stepfather Sir George Francis Osborne, 16th Baronet, he is step-uncle to George Osborne, former Chancellor of the Exchequer of the UK, who is in line to inherit the title of the Osborne baronets of Ballintaylor and Ballylemon from his father, Sir George's son, Sir Peter Osborne, 17th Baronet. Aspinall died of cancer, in Westminster, London, on 29 June 2000, aged 74. ==Media==

A 1977 documentary, Echo of the Wild, by Roy Deverell told the story of the Aspinall Foundation and featured Damian and John Aspinall. Another Deverell documentary, 1983's A Passion to Protect chronicled Aspinall's life up to that point. A book that same year, "The Passion of John Aspinall," was written by Brian Masters. Aspinall was portrayed by Christopher Eccleston in the 2013 TV series Lucan. ==References==