Lord Ivor Spencer-Churchill

Lord Ivor Spencer-Churchill
Lord Ivor Spencer-Churchill
	Ivor Spencer-Churchill with his mother, by Giovanni Boldini.
Born	Lord Ivor Charles Spencer-Churchill; 14 October 1898; Mayfair, London
Died	17 September 1956 (aged 57)
Spouse	Elizabeth Cunningham
Children	Robert William Charles Spencer-Churchill
Parent(s)	Charles Spencer-Churchill; Consuelo Vanderbilt
Relatives	John Spencer-Churchill (brother)

Lord Ivor Charles Spencer-Churchill (14 October 1898 – 17 September 1956) was a British aristocrat, soldier, and art collector. He was the younger son of the 9th Duke of Marlborough and his first wife, the former Consuelo Vanderbilt, an American railroad heiress. His elder brother, John, was the 10th Duke of Marlborough.

Early life

Lord Ivor Charles Spencer-Churchill was born on 14 October 1898. He was the second son of the 9th Duke of Marlborough and Consuelo Vanderbilt. In 1921, his parents divorced when he was 22 years old. His father later wed the former Gladys Deacon; while his mother went on to marry Col. Jacques Balsan.^[2]

His mother was the only daughter and eldest child of William Kissam Vanderbilt, a New York railroad millionaire, and his first wife, the Mobile, Alabama born Alva Erskine Smith (1853–1933), who later married Oliver Belmont. His mother's name was in honour of her godmother, Consuelo Yznaga (1853–1909), a half-Cuban, half-American socialite who created a social stir a year earlier when she married the fortune-hunting George, Viscount Mandeville.^[3]

Spencer-Churchill was educated at Eton College and Magdalen College, Oxford.^[2]

Career

He joined the Royal Army Service Corps in 1917, gaining the rank of lieutenant. He fought in the First World War and was decorated with the French Legion of Honour.

A conveyance dated 26 September 1930 documents the purchase of three parcels of land and premises known as Springhead situated along Mill Street at Fontmell Magna in the county of Dorset.^[4] Another conveyance dated 8 November 1934 documents Lord Ivor Churchill selling one of these parcels (31 Mill Street, a semi-detached cottage) to Henry Rolf Gardener (see Rolf Gardiner.)^[5]

Personal life

In 1923, Lord Ivor was rumoured to have become engaged to Grace Vanderbilt, a distant cousin and the daughter of Cornelius Vanderbilt III.^[6]

On 15 November 1947, he married Elizabeth "Betty" Cunningham (1914–2010), the daughter of James Cyril Cunningham. Together, they had a son:^[2]

Robert William Charles Spencer-Churchill (born 1954), who in 1979 married Jeanne M. Maze, daughter of Etienne Maze and granddaughter of Paul Maze, a painter and friend of Winston Churchill.^[7]

Ivor developed an inoperable brain tumour and died in September 1956.^[2] He is buried beside his cousin Sir Winston Churchill and close to his mother at St Martin's Church, Bladon, near Woodstock, Oxfordshire.

Art collector

He was a famous art collector, especially interested by modern French painting, collecting paintings and organizing exhibitions like the Anglo-French Art & Travel Society's Exhibition of 19th Century French Painting (1–31 October 1936). He was in close relations with the English art dealer Percy Moore Turner.^[8]

Notes

^ "Court Circular". The Times. The Times Digital Archive. 15 October 1898. p. 11.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Times, Special to the New York (18 September 1956). "LORD IVOR CHURCHILL, 57; Patron of Modern Art, a Noted Collector, Dies in London". The New York Times. Retrieved 25 October 2016.
^ Stuart, Amanda Mackenzie, Consuelo and Alva Vanderbilt: The Story of a Daughter and Mother in the Gilded Age, Harper Perennial, 2005, ISBN 978-0-06-093825-3, p. 69
^ The vendor (seller) was Harold Squire and the purchaser was "The Honourable Ivor Charles Spencer Churchill (commonly known as Lord Ivor Churchill) of 4 John Street Berkeley Square in the county of London."
^ Both halves of this building (30 and 31 Mill Street) were converted to a detached house in the early 1980s, when the property became known as "Charlie's Cottage", named after Charlie Andrews, a former resident of 31 Mill Street.
^ "-GRACE VANDERBILT REPORTED ENGAGED;, Troth of General's Daughter to Albert H. Ely Jr. May Be Announced Soon. NO VANDERBILT COMMENT Five Previously. Reported Fiances Have Included Prince George and Lord Ivor S. Churchill". The New York Times. 30 November 1925. Retrieved 25 October 2016.
^ Mosley, Charles, editor. Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 106th edition, 2 volumes. Crans, Switzerland: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 1999, Volume 2, page 1870
^ D. Salmon, Le Saint Joseph charpentier de Georges de la Tour : un don au Louvre de Percy Moore Turner, Gand : Snoeck, 2017.