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Lindy Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, Marchioness of Dufferin and Ava

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The Most Honourable
The Marchioness of
Dufferin and Ava
Born
Serena Belinda Rosemary Guinness

(1941-03-25) 25 March 1941 (age 83)
Prestwick, Scotland[1][2]
NationalityBritish
Other namesLindy Guinness[3]
Occupation(s)Artist, conservationist
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1964; died 1988)​
Parent(s)Gp Capt Loel Guinness
Lady Isabel Throckmorton

Serena Belinda Rosemary Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, Marchioness of Dufferin and Ava (née Guinness; 25 March 1941), also known as Lindy Guinness, is a British conservationist and businesswoman. She was married to the fifth Marquess from 1964 until his death in 1988.

Early life

Born in Prestwick, Ayrshire, Scotland, Guinness is the daughter of financier Loel Guinness and his second wife, Lady Isabel (née Manners), daughter of John Manners, 9th Duke of Rutland.[4] She has an older brother, William Loel Guinness (born 1939). She had an older half-brother from her father's first marriage to Hon. Joan Yarde-Butler, daughter of 3rd Baron Churston, Patrick Benjamin "Tara" Guinness (1931–1965). Tara Guinness married his stepsister Dolores Maria Agatha Wilhelmine Luise von Fürstenberg, daughter of his father's third wife, but was killed in a car crash.[5] When Lindy was 9 years old, her parents divorced; her father married Mexican beauty Gloria Rubio in 1951,[6] and her mother married Sir Robert Throckmorton, 11th baronet two years later.[7]

She grew up in Belvoir Castle, the family seat of the Dukes of Rutland. Her father and stepmother took her to Palm Beach for the winters, where she spent time with Rubio's close friend Truman Capote. As a girl, she was a passionate artist and studied painting under Oskar Kokoschka.[6]

Marriage

She married Sheridan, the Marquess of Dufferin and Ava, her fourth cousin (through their great-grandfather Edward Guinness, 1st Earl of Iveagh), at Westminster Abbey on 21 October 1964. Princess Margaret was among the 2,000 people in attendance, and Arthur Gore, 9th Earl of Arran, then Viscount Sudley, was the best man. Lindy wore a dress by John Cavanagh and the Dufferin and Ava shamrock tiara.[7]

Sheridan was also an art enthusiast and opened a gallery in London. The Dufferins' Holland Park mansion was a popular gathering for London's "aristo-bohemian set" during the '60s and '70s. "We used to give endless parties," she told W magazine in 2009. "They had this kind of innocence and openness about them. There was no sort of formality." The marquess, who was gay, died of an AIDS-related illness in 1988.[6][8]

In his will, the marquess bequeathed Clandeboye, the 2,000-acre family estate in Bangor, County Down, Northern Ireland, to his widow. Nervous about moving to Northern Ireland during the Troubles, she became active in conservation issues as a way to bring people together. She invited an environmental group, Conservation Volunteers, to open its first Northern Ireland branch. "I thought this was a way to bring the estate back to its historic position of being the center of the community." The estate includes a large herd of heifers, and in 2009, Dufferin launched Clandeboye Estate Yoghurt, the only yoghurt producer in Northern Ireland.[9]

She also opened an art gallery, the Ava Gallery,[6] and keeps the estate self-sufficient through various other enterprises, including a golf course and banquet hall for weddings.[3]

References

  1. ^ New York State, Passenger and Crew Lists, 1917–1967
  2. ^ "Statutory registers - Births". Scotland's People. National Records of Scotland and the Court of the Lord Lyon.
  3. ^ a b Lyttelton, Celia (3 November 2011). "Clandeboye: The Irish mansion filled with a diplomat's memorabilia". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 6 August 2015.
  4. ^ Mosley, Charles, ed. (2003). Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knighthood (107 ed.). Burke's Peerage & Gentry. p. 1196. ISBN 0-9711966-2-1. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |editorlink= ignored (|editor-link= suggested) (help)
  5. ^ Burke 2003, pp. 1695–1696
  6. ^ a b c d Reginato, James (February 2009). "The Marchioness". W. Retrieved 6 August 2015.
  7. ^ a b "Marquess of Dufferin and Ava Weds Miss Belinda Guinness". The New York Times. 22 October 1964. Retrieved 6 August 2015.
  8. ^ Hoare, Phillip (23 May 1998). "Obituary: Maureen, Marchioness of Dufferin and Ava". The Independent. Retrieved 6 August 2015.
  9. ^ Coleman, Maureen (9 September 2014). "Clandeboye wakes up and smells the coffee with new Costa contract". Belfast Telegraph. Retrieved 6 August 2015.
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