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Dominick Elwes

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Dominick Elwes
Born
Bede Evelyn Dominick Elwes

(1931-08-17)17 August 1931
Great Billing, Northamptonshire, England
Died5 September 1975(1975-09-05) (aged 44)
Chelsea, London, England
Cause of deathBarbiturate overdose
Resting placeAmberley, West Sussex
Other namesDominic Elwes
EducationLadycross
Friends Academy (1940–1941)
St. Albans (1941–1944)
Downside (1945–1948)
Occupation(s)Editor, journalist, portrait-painter
Known forPaintings, elopement scandal
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1958; div. 1969)​
Children
FatherSimon Elwes

Bede Evelyn Dominick Elwes (24 August 1931 – 5 September 1975) was an English portrait painter whose much publicised elopement with an heiress in 1957 created an international scandal.

Early life

Elwes (pronounced "El-wez") was born on 24 August 1931 at Billing Hall, Northamptonshire, to English portrait painter Simon Elwes (RA, KM), and the Hon. Gloria Rodd, daughter of Rennell Rodd, 1st Baron Rennell, some-time British Ambassador to Rome, and Conservative MP for St. Marylebone (1928–1932).[1]

Elwes was descended from the Roman Catholic Cary-Elwes (sometimes known simply as Elwes) family, which includes such noted British prelates, priests and monks as Abbott Columba Cary-Elwes, Bishop Dudley Cary-Elwes, and Father Luke Cary-Elwes. He was the grandson of Gervase Cary Elwes (1866–1921), a diplomat and professional classical tenor, and Lady Winifride Mary Elizabeth Feilding, daughter of the 8th Earl of Denbigh. He was a nephew of the English novelist, biographer and journalist Nancy Mitford,[2] and a godson of Evelyn Waugh. One of his cousins was Tremayne Rodd, 3rd Baron Rennell. For his early education, Elwes spent much of his childhood during the Second World War in the United States, after which he returned to England to attend Downside School in Somerset.

Elopement

At age 26, Elwes met and wished to marry 19-year-old shipping heiress Tessa Kennedy, daughter of Geoffrey Ferrar Kennedy and Daška Ivanović. Kennedy's parents, however, disapproved of the relationship and instituted wardship proceedings.[3]

On 27 November 1957, Geoffrey Kennedy obtained a restraining order against Elwes from Justice Sir Ronald Roxburgh, barring the couple from marrying.[4][5] The High Court Tipstaff was not authorised, however, to apprehend Elwes anywhere outside England or Wales.[6] After initially attempting to marry in Scotland while being pursued by the press, Elwes and Kennedy eloped to Havana, Cuba, where they married in a civil ceremony on 27 January 1958 as guests of infamous American mobster Meyer Lansky, who provided accommodation for them at his hotel, the Habana Riviera.[7][8]

When Fidel Castro's revolution threatened the stability of the country the newlyweds fled aboard a raft with two National Geographic explorers who were sailing to Miami. From there they flew to New York City where they took out a marriage licence on 31 March.[7][9] On 1 April, the couple repeated the ceremony to ensure they were legally married in Manhattan's Supreme Court officiated by Justice Henry Clay Greenberg.[10] On 15 July, the two set sail for England aboard the liner SS Liberté docking at Southampton. The following day, accompanied by his wife and an attorney, Elwes turned himself over to authorities and was transferred to Brixton Prison where he remained for two weeks while awaiting trial for contempt of court for defying the judge's order to return Miss Kennedy to her parents.[11][12] At trial the judge accepted that Elwes did love his bride but commented that every parent knows that love was not "readily convertible into bread and butter" for the support of a wife. In his ruling he directed that Elwes be released from custody but also ordered that Kennedy remain a ward of court. Elwes and Kennedy were married until the union was dissolved in London in January 1969. Elwes never remarried.[13] He and Kennedy had three children, film producer Cassian Elwes, artist Damian Elwes, and actor Cary Elwes.

Career

In January 1960 Elwes became the assistant editor of Lilliput Magazine until its closure in July of that same year.[14] From 1960 to 1962, he was the Company Director of Dome Press where he began the newsweekly Topic Magazine as editorial director, along with William Rees-Davies and Maurice Macmillan. While at Topic, Elwes discovered and hired a then unknown art student to be a graphic artist for the magazine, Ridley Scott, who went on to become a famous director. In 1963, together with Nicholas Luard, he published and subsequently became the director of Design Yearbook, which developed into the book-packaging firm November Books.[15] The company's clients included Thames & Hudson, a publisher of books on art, architecture, design and visual culture. In 1964, he co-wrote a book with Luard, Refer to Drawer: Being a Penetrating Survey of a Shameful National Practice – Hustling, which included illustrations by cartoonist John Glashan. Elwes subsequently became a member of the National Union of Journalists.

Following in his father's footsteps Elwes then became a portrait painter, painting many of London's Clermont Set. Around 1967 he moved to Andalucia, Spain, where, with the aid of architect Philip Jebb,[16][17] he designed a Mediterranean-style apartment complex, completed in 1970. Clients included Luard and the actor Hugh Millais. In 1975, Elwes became part owner with George Britnell of a hair salon, Figurehead, on Pont Street in Knightsbridge which he filled with paintings by his father. His then ex-wife helped promote the salon for an article in The Daily Telegraph.[18] One of Elwes' portraits was of John Bingham, 7th Earl of Lucan, who disappeared in November 1974 after the murder of his children's nanny.

Death

Elwes committed suicide at 1 Stewart's Grove Chelsea with an overdose of barbiturates in 1975,[13] about a month after the death of his father, and about a month before the death of his mother. His body was found by his girlfriend Melissa Wyndham.

Artworks

Bibliography

  • Refer to Drawer: Being a Penetrating Survey of a Shameful National Practice – Hustling. With Nicholas Luard. London: Arthur Barker, 1964.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Person Page". thepeerage.com. Retrieved 21 March 2018.
  2. ^ "Interview" (PDF). carolinephillips.net.
  3. ^ Cretney, Stephen Michael (2003). Family law in the 20th century. ISBN 978-0-19-826899-4.
  4. ^ San Antonio Light (11 December 1957, p. 9)
  5. ^ Gossip: a history of high society, 1920–1970, p. 198, by Andrew Barrow
  6. ^ "Mr. Dominic Elwes. Order by Roxburgh, J. for return to England from Scotland of Miss Tessa Kennedy". Nationalarchives.gov.uk. Retrieved 9 July 2010.
  7. ^ a b "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 12 October 2014. Retrieved 15 June 2014.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  8. ^ "The Tessa Kennedy Collection at Christie's". Homes and Property. 12 March 2014. Retrieved 21 March 2018.
  9. ^ The New York Times (1 April 1958, p. 2)
  10. ^ The New York Times, 2 April 1958, p. 63.
  11. ^ "The Glasgow Herald – Google News Archive Search". news.google.com. Retrieved 21 March 2018.
  12. ^ "The Catalogue: Full Details". The National Archives. Retrieved 9 July 2010.
  13. ^ a b Roger Wilkes (9 September 2000). "Inside story: Stewart's Grove". The Telegraph.
  14. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2 December 2014. Retrieved 15 June 2014.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  15. ^ "Nicholas Luard obituary". The Independent. London. 28 May 2004. Retrieved 9 July 2010.
  16. ^ Louis Jebb. "Philip Jebb Architect". Philipjebb.com. Retrieved 9 July 2010.
  17. ^ Jebb, Louis (13 April 1995). "OBITUARY: Philip Jebb". The Independent. London.
  18. ^ "Britt ekland".
  19. ^ Elwes, Dominic (1972). "Portrait of Lord Lucan". ladylucan.co.uk. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016.
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