Victor Hervey, 6th Marquess of Bristol

Victor Hervey was born on 6 October 1915, the only son of Lord Herbert Hervey, later 5th Marquess of Bristol, and Lady Jean Cochrane, a daughter of Douglas Cochrane, 12th Earl of Dundonald, and Winifred, Countess of Dundonald. His godmother was Queen Victoria Eugenie of Spain. He was educated at Eton and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, but was asked to leave the latter, because of bad temperament. Until 1951, he had no title, as his father was a younger son and inherited the family titles and estates from his older brother in that year. == Crime and imprisonment ==

Victor Hervey has been called the Pink Panther of his day when, as the ringleader of a gang of former public school boys known as the Mayfair Playboys, who, whilst drunk, and as a dare, assaulted and robbed a jeweller from Cartier, as a result of which two of them (but not Hervey) were sentenced to being flogged with the cat o' nine tails. Hervey seems not to have actually taken a direct part in that robbery himself. It has been said that he is remembered mainly for having taken part in a jewel robbery which he did not in fact commit, though he was convicted of a similar offence, in the same decade and in the same part of London (Mayfair). In July 1939, Hervey was arrested and charged with stealing jewellery, rings and a mink fur coat with a total value of £2,500 from a premises in Queen Street, Mayfair, and £2,860 of jewellery from a property on Park Lane. He was refused bail, and imprisoned for three years. The recorder of the court observed: "The way of the amateur criminal is hard. But the way of the professional is disastrous". His father, who had led a respectable life, as had been the case for all the men of the Hervey family since the Victorian era, broke down in tears on hearing the sentence. ==Business dealings==

Prior to receiving his trust income, Victor Hervey declared bankruptcy in 1937 with debts of £123,955, (approximately £ today). He had been selling guns during the Spanish Civil War to both sides, hoping to receive £30,000 as a bribe, which failed and led to the debts. He was sometime President of the National Yacht Harbour Association, a member of the House of Lords Yacht Club, the Hurlingham Club, and the East Hill Club, Nassau, Bahamas. ==Family==

On 6 October 1949, Mr Victor Hervey, as the future Bristol then was, married Pauline Mary Bolton, daughter of Herbert Coxon Bolton; they were divorced in 1959. They had one son, John Hervey, 7th Marquess of Bristol (15 September 1954 – 10 January 1999), who married Francesca Fisher in 1984 (and divorced in 1987). and one daughter, Lady Anne Hervey (stillborn, 26 February 1965). Both marriages failed because of Victor's infidelity; Lady Juliet subsequently saying "If you want to screw hookers when you are married, you make damn sure you are not caught". They had a son, Frederick Hervey, 8th Marquess of Bristol (born 1979), and two daughters: Lady Victoria Hervey (born 1976) and Lady Isabella Hervey (born 1982), who married Christophe de Pauw. Victor’s eldest son, John, by then Earl Jermyn, did not like Yvonne, and was upset about the third marriage, and with his brother Lord Nicholas unsuccessfully sued his father, after his will named Yvonne and her children as his main beneficiaries. ==Monaco and other interests==

In early 1979, Bristol, with his third wife and young children, moved to Monte Carlo, as tax exiles. He reportedly lowered the Union Flag at his home in Belgravia before leaving, vowing never to set foot on English soil again. Although living in Monte Carlo in an apartment, he continued to employ a butler and a nanny. Bristol was vice-president of the UK Taxpayers Union, was a member of the West India Committee, and was considered an expert on Central American affairs. He was a member, until his death, of the International Monarchist League, joining its Grand Council in 1964, He was also a long-standing member of the Conservative Monday Club. The Marquess was a patron of the arts and a collector, an acknowledged authority on the painters Lawrence Alma-Tadema and James Tissot, and "a lover of art and beauty in all its forms". He had acquired a substantial amount of 19th-century artwork at the time of his death. ==Death==

, Monaco The 6th Marquess of Bristol died in Monaco on 10 March 1985, aged 69, and was buried in Menton, France. On his grave was inscribed his motto "Je n'oublieray jamais" ("I shall never forget"). At the time of his death, he was living at 1E Le Formentor, Avenue Princesse Grace, Monte Carlo. On 30 August, probate was granted in London for Bristol’s estate in England and Wales, valued at only £7,508. His name was stated as “Most Honourable Marquis Victor Frederick COCHRANE”. which were reburied in the family vault at the parish church of Ickworth, after a memorial service in St Leonard's Church, Horringer, Suffolk. ==See also==