Group Captain Thomas Loel Evelyn Bulkeley Guinness, (9 June 1906 – 31 December 1988) was a British politician, Royal Air Force officer, business magnate and philanthropist. He was Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for Bath (1931–1945) and achieved fame as a fighter pilot in the Battle of Britain during World War II. Guinness also financed the purchase of the Calypso, leasing her for one symbolic franc a year to famous oceanic explorer Jacques-Yves Cousteau. and Tanis Eva Guinness. The following year, he became one of the first private citizens in England to own an airplane and soon he was a member of the County of London's Auxiliary Air Force squadron. He later served as president of Air Work Ltd., an aircraft-parts supplier, and of British United Airways. and was named parliamentary private secretary to Sir Philip Sassoon, the Under Secretary for Air from 1931 to 1935. He held his seat until 1945, when he stood down. Before their divorce, they had a son, Patrick Benjamin Guinness, who was killed in an automobile accident near Rarogne, Switzerland.

Joan left him for Prince Aly Khan, the eldest son of the Aga Khan III, the 43rd Shia Imam, and Guinness successfully sued Joan and Khan on grounds of adultery. Joan and Khan did not defend the charges and the judge, Mr Justice Bucknill, granted Guinness a decree nisi and full custody of their son and ordered Khan to pay court costs. Joan married Khan on 18 May 1936, a few days after the divorce became absolute.

In 1936, he married his second wife, Lady Isabel Violet Kathleen Manners (1918–2008), daughter of the 9th Duke of Rutland. The Guinnesses were prominent in society at Palm Beach. Together, they were the parents of a son and a daughter, Serena Belinda Rosemary ("Lindy") Guinness, who became the Marchioness of Dufferin upon her marriage to the 5th Marquess of Dufferin.

On 7 April 1951, he married his third wife, the Mexican socialite Gloria Rubio y Alatorre (1913–1980). Her daughter, Dolores married his eldest son.

On 31 December 1988, Guinness died of heart disease at The Methodist Hospital in Houston, Texas, United States. He was buried with the remains of his third wife at the Bois-de-Vaux Cemetery, Lausanne.

References

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  • Mosley, Charles, Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 107th edition, volume 2, page 1695.
  • Vickers, Hugo, The Unexpurgated Beaton: The Cecil Beaton Diaries as He Wrote Them, 1970–1980, Knopf, New York, 2003.<!-- ISSN/ISBN needed -->
  • Obituary: Loel Guinness, 82, R.A.F. Flier And a Socialite on 2 Continents, The New York Times, 3 January 1989.