Felix Hope-Nicholson

Charles Felix Otho Victor Gabriel John Adrian Hope-Nicholson[1][2] (21 July 1921 – 15 September 1990) was a British aristocrat and genealogist. The Herald of Scotland called him a "tall, imposing figure known as the Squire of Chelsea", and noted that after Eton College, Christ Church, Oxford,[3][4] and the war he had "dedicated his life to the greater glory of his ancestors, in particular the Linlithgow family and the Hopes of Hopetoun House."[5]

Biography

The son of Hedley Hope-Nicholson, a barrister, head of the Society of King Charles the Martyr and heir to a raincoat fortune,[6] in his young years Felix Hope-Nicholson was a notable figure in high society in London, and was often seen socialising at The Ritz.[7] During an air raid during World War II, in a drunken state, he tripped and fell on King Zog of Albania, who was staying at the hotel at the time.[8] By the 1970s he was described as "impoverished",[9] but successfully kept up the appearance of a "bachelor dandy".[10] He lived in the house in which he was raised, More House on Tite Street.[2][10] Hope-Nicholson was a friend of Francis Bacon[11] and Hamish Erskine (son of the 5th Earl of Rosslyn),[12] a "notoriously vain, rather silly and extremely amusing" homosexual, unofficially ('listlessly') engaged to Nancy Mitford until Erskine ended the relationship.[13][14]

References
  1. "Charles HOPE-NICHOLSON | | The Gazette". www.thegazette.co.uk.
  2. Family First: Tracing Relationships in the Past, Ruth Alexandra Symes, Pen and Sword History, 2015, pg 83
  3. Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage, 107th edition, vol. 2, ed. Charles Mosley, Burke's Peerage Ltd, 2003, p. 2353
  4. Oxford University Calendar 1945, University of Oxford Press, 1945, p. 893
  5. "Saviour sought for gem of a house". The Herald (Scotland). 8 April 1993. Retrieved 23 June 2015.
  6. "M-J Lancaster: Outspoken writer and editor who became a prototype of". The Independent. 23 October 2011.
  7. Thompson, Damian (22 June 2004). Loose Canon: A Portrait of Brian Brindley. A&C Black. p. 52. ISBN 978-0-8264-7418-6.
  8. "Puttin' on the Ritz, at The Ritz". The Chicago Tribune. 7 December 2008. Retrieved 23 June 2015.
  9. Salwak, Dale (1 May 2011). AfterWord: Conjuring the Literary Dead. University of Iowa Press. p. 116. ISBN 978-1-58729-989-6.
  10. Massingberd, Hugh (12 July 2012). Daydream Believer: Confessions of a Hero-Worshipper. Pan Macmillan. p. 213. ISBN 978-1-4472-1022-1.
  11. Mellor, David Alan; Joule, Barry; Hamilton, Richard (31 December 2000). The Barry Joule archive: works on paper attributed to Francis Bacon. Irish Museum of Modern Art. p. 10. ISBN 978-1-873654-84-2.
  12. Cooper, Artemis (16 June 2011). Writing at the Kitchen Table: The Authorized Biography of Elizabeth David. Faber & Faber. p. 24. ISBN 978-0-571-27977-7.
  13. Dalley, Jan (2 May 2000). Diana Mosley. Knopf. p. 61. ISBN 9780394587363.
  14. "Nancy pursued . . . and caught". The Telegraph. Retrieved 23 June 2015.
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