Ceawlin Thynn, 8th Marquess of Bath

Born in Hammersmith,[3] the first son and second child of Alexander Thynn, 7th Marquess of Bath, and his wife Anna Gyarmathy,[4] Ceawlin Thynn was educated at Horningsham Primary School, a village school near the family estate of Longleat, in Wiltshire, then at Kingdown School in Warminster and Bedales School in Hampshire; he finally read economics and philosophy at University College London.[5]

He is named after Ceawlin of Wessex, having been born shortly after his father had stood as the Wessex Regionalists' parliamentary candidate in Westbury at the February 1974 United Kingdom general election.[6]

In 1996, Thynn was injured in a building collapse in New Delhi, India, which killed his girlfriend, Jane Kirby, and his business partner, Crinan Wilde.[7][8]

Thynn began his business career as an emerging markets specialist at the London investment bank Caspian Securities, before becoming a partner in Sabre Projects, a real estate development firm.[4] At Sabre he put together a project with Group Menatep, the holding company of Russia's then-largest oil company, Yukos, to develop a mid-market hotel in every major city in Russia.[9][10]

In 2008, Thynn formed the Lion Trust, a private equity vehicle of which he is the principal.[11] The Lion Trust invests in a range of mature and emerging markets.[2][12]

Since June 2010, Thynn has been a director at Finmetron AB, a Swedish listed firm offering factoring services in Russia.[2][13][14]

From 2010 until 2013, Thynn was executive chairman of Wombat's Holdings GmbH – a chain of hostels in Germany and Austria – having acquired a majority stake in the company.[15][2][16] In 2013, the company was bought back by its former owners.[17]

In January 2009, Thynn became chairman of Longleat Enterprises, a limited company that manages business interests at Longleat House and Safari Park on the family estate of Longleat, Wiltshire, as well as the commercial activities at Cheddar Gorge, in the Mendip Hills in Somerset.[2][18][19] In early 2010, Thynn's father passed the management of the family business over to him.[20] Following this retirement, Thynn hired a new estate chief executive, David Bradley, formerly of Legoland.[21][22] Together, they worked with designers from Hollywood to make improvements to the house and park; additions to the park included "Jungle Kingdom", "Monkey Temple", and "Hunters of the Sky".[21][2] In September 2013, Bradley resigned,[23] and in February 2014 the American Bob Montgomery was hired for the same role.[24]

In April 2020, Thynn's father died, and he succeeded him as Marquess of Bath.[25]

Thynn is a trustee of the Longleat Charitable Trust,[26] a charity established in 1996 that focuses on relieving poverty around the Longleat estate and Cheddar Gorge.

Thynn made donations of £30,000 and £15,000 to the Liberal Democrats during the 2019 general election.[27][28]

In November 2012, aged 38, Thynn announced his engagement to Emma McQuiston, the daughter of Suzanna McQuiston and Nigerian oil billionaire Oladipo Jadesimi, a founder and the executive chairman of Lagos Deep Offshore Logistics.[29][30] She is a younger half-sister of Iain McQuiston, the husband of Thynn's half-aunt, Lady Silvy Cerne Thynne, a daughter of his paternal grandfather, the 6th Marquess of Bath, by his second wife.[1] Thynn’s mother was reported as strongly disapproving of her son's planned marriage, due to her prospective daughter-in-law's African ancestry, and she was not invited to the wedding.[31]

It was reported that Thynn intended to evict his father's 'wifelets' from their estate cottages,[32] and some murals painted by his father were removed from Longleat. A rift between them developed.[33]

Thynn and McQuiston were married at Longleat on 8 June 2013,[34] with Lord Bath boycotting the event.[33] Despite the absence of both his parents, the marriage was attended by Thynn’s sister.[35]

On 26 October 2014, Lady Weymouth gave birth to the couple’s first child, John Alexander Ladi Thynn.[36] On 30 December 2016, their second child, Henry Richard Isaac Thynn, was born by surrogacy at a private clinic in West Hollywood.[37][38]