Rupert Guinness, 2nd Earl of Iveagh

At the outbreak of war the Ministry of Agriculture instigated a ploughing-up campaign as part of the 'War Effort'. Lord Iveagh agreed to increase the arable area as requested. 600 acres (2.4 km²) were ploughed, 200 acres (0.8 km²) of which were Lucerne leys, and the rest old lands that had been used for game and had gone out of cultivation. This proved discouraging, crops failing to cover the expense of growing them. The following year Lord Iveagh was asked to plough another 1000 acres (4 km²) and agreed to make the attempt even though the previous efforts had proved unsuccessful. All had to be fenced against rabbits and the wire was difficult to obtain.

The new ground yielded more crops than anticipated, but later the whole project was dealt a severe blow. The War Office announced its intention of using a large area of the estate as a tank training ground and despite the need for food production, many of the new crops were ruined, and fences torn down, allowing the ingress of rabbits, which were more destructive than the tanks. After a great deal of damage had been done, it was agreed to fence off small areas of the land for cultivation. The value of the ploughing-up experiment had been largely lost and an enormous amount of much needed food had gone to waste. Undeterred, Lord Iveagh obtained permission from the War Office to cultivate portions of the requisitioned lands that were hardly used and by the end of the war had regained much of the lost ground – which was successfully cropped. Leys had also been increased by another 1000 acres (4 km²). Some of the extra area had been obtained from old pasture land but most of it was gained from previously untouched heath.

His only son, Arthur Onslow Edward Guinness, Viscount Elveden, was killed in action in Belgium in 1945, being an unlucky victim of a V-2 rocket strike.

For several years the Forestry Commission had coveted parts of Elveden Estate for extending Thetford Forest, but Lord Iveagh's success with farming brought a settlement in his favour in 1952.

It was during Rupert's management that the Guinness World Records started. The brewery was always on the look-out for good promotional ideas to bring the Guinness name to the public's attention. One of these ideas came about when Sir Hugh Beaver, then the managing director, went on a shooting party in 1951. He became involved in an argument about which was the fastest game bird in Europe, the golden plover or the grouse, and he realised that a book, published by Guinness, that supplied answers to this sort of question might prove popular. Sir Hugh's idea became reality when the McWhirter twins, Norris and Ross, who had been running a fact-finding agency in London, were commissioned to compile what became the Guinness Book of Records. The first edition was published in 1955 and went to the top of the British best-seller lists by Christmas that same year. Since then Guinness World Records has become a household name and the book has sold more than 80 million copies in 77 different countries and 38 different languages. It has also prompted successful television shows around the world, and the launch of the guinnessworldrecords.com website in the year 2000.

Rupert became a Knight of the Garter KG in 1955.

He retired from Guinness in 1962 in favour of his grandson, Lord Elveden and was elected FRS in March 1964 at ninety for his services to science and agriculture. Lord Iveagh died in his sleep at his house in Woking, Surrey, 14 September 1967.

He was married to Lady Gwendolen Onslow, (daughter of the William Onslow, 4th Earl of Onslow) who succeeded him as Member of Parliament for Southend-on-Sea. They had five children:

1. Richard Guinness (15 October 1906 – 17 October 1906)
2. Lady Honor Dorothy Mary Guinness (1909 – 2 November 1976) she married Sir Henry Channon on 14 July 1933 and they were divorced in 1945. They have one son. She remarried F/Lt. Frantisek Svejdar on 19 November 1946.
   • Henry Paul Guinness Channon, Baron Kelvedon (9 October 1935 – 27 January 2007) he married Ingrid Wyndham on 7 August 1963. They have three children.
3. Arthur Guinness, Viscount Elveden (8 May 1912 – 8 February 1945) he married Lady Elizabeth Hare on 22 July 1936. They have three children, nine grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren:
   • Benjamin Guinness, 3rd Earl of Iveagh (20 May 1937 – 18 June 1992) he married Miranda Smiley on 12 March 1963 and they were divorced in 1984. They have four children and nine grandchildren:
     • Lady Emma Lavinia Guinness (7 December 1963) she married James Barnard on 4 December 1995. They have two sons:
       • Benjamin Philip Barnard (23 October 1996)
       • Arthur James Barnard (8 March 1998)
     • Lady Louisa Jane Guinness (20 February 1967) she married Rupert Uloth in 2001. They have three children:
       • Honor Miranda Uloth (12 February 2001 – 31 July 2020)
       • Nonie Margaret Uloth (4 March 2003)
       • Rufus Benjamin Uloth (22 March 2005)
     • Edward Guinness, 4th Earl of Iveagh (10 August 1969) he married Clare Hazell on 27 October 2001. They have one son:
       • Arthur Benjamin Geoffrey Guinness, Viscount Elveden (6 January 2003)
     • Hon. Rory Michael Benjamin Guinness (12 December 1974) he married Mira Maini in 2006. They have three children:
       • Aoife Maya Theadora Guinness (8 May 2006)
       • Beatrice Miranda Margareta Guinness (31 January 2008)
       • Aidan Tidu Benjamin Guinness (29 October 2013)
   • Lady Elizabeth Maria Guinness (31 October 1939) she married David Nugent on 28 September 1960 and they were divorced in 1990. They have four children. She remarried Robert Mays-Smith on 7 February 1992
   • Lady Henrietta Guinness (19 August 1942 – 3 May 1978) she married Luigi Marinori on 3 February 1978. They have one daughter:
     • Sara Marinori (1977)
4. Lady Patricia Florence Susan Guinness (3 March 1918 – 14 May 2001) she married 1st Viscount Boyd of Merton on 29 December 1938.
5. Lady Brigid Katherine Rachel Guinness (30 July 1920 – 8 March 1995) she married Prince Frederick of Prussia on 30 July 1945. They have five children, fifteen grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. She remarried Major Anthony Patrick Ness on 3 June 1967.

Rupert Guinness began rowing at Eton; he won the School Sculls 1892 and was part of the Eton eight which won the Ladies' Challenge Plate at Henley Royal Regatta in 1893. At Cambridge, he joined Third Trinity Boat Club but, according to Vanity Fair's pen picture of him, "had the bad luck to develop a weakness of heart, which kept him from his place in the Cambridge eight."[5]

While an undergraduate, he joined Thames Rowing Club to have a London base to train with Bill East, the 1891 English professional sculling champion.[6]

Helped by coaching from East, he became a successful sculler, joined Leander Club and won the Diamond Challenge Sculls at Henley in 1895 and 1896,[7] as well as the Wingfield Sculls,[8] for the Amateur Sculling Championship of the Thames and Great Britain, in 1896. The sculling boat in which he did so now hangs in the River & Rowing Museum in Henley-on-Thames.

He was President of Thames Rowing Club from 1911 until his death and was also the first President of the Remenham Club, from 1914 until 1938.[9]

In June 1902 he was on board German torpedo boat S. 42 when it sank off Cuxhaven, after it was accidentally run over by the steam ship SS Frisby. Guinness had been granted passage in the torpedo boat from Heligoland to Cuxhaven, returning from the Dover to Heligoland yacht race, and survived unharmed, though the captain and several German crew members drowned.[10]