Worse yet, goats and cattle ran wild. His kinsman, Simon Blow – whose Broken Blood: The Rise and Fall of the Tennant Family would receive its controversial publication in 1987 – maintained he was "hardly ever" in the office, preferring to concentrate on his social life and driving his Ford Thunderbird. A free-spirited, low-key island perfect for lounging in villas and strolling unmanicured beaches. Other parcels of land on what he now branded the Beau Estate were sold. The Royal family have been regular visitors to the island; this is the seventh time Will and Kate have … "No one says anything interesting or witty anymore," he complained. He bid me sit down, and we talked – for the next five days. It is a private island, owned by the Mustique company, stretches across 2.2 square miles, and has a population of 500. Given to extravagant gestures – for his 60th birthday party in 1986, the likes of Jerry Hall, Raquel Welch and Princess Margaret flew to Mustique at his expense for a Peacock Ball – he was seldom out of the limelight. The company oversees every aspect of island life as well as the management of the villas on behalf of the shareholders and the safeguarding of the island. It was Snowdon's first and last visit to the island, and Tennant saw little of Margaret until her marriage began to disintegrate. The vision of Glenconner barking imperious and impetuous commands to his hapless assistants encouraged reviewers to believe he represented an egregious example of feudal arrogance, if not near-lunacy. Her death, in 2001, did not seem to affect him greatly. Shelley McLaughlin You can also choose to be emailed when someone replies to your comment. In 1981 he bought the 480-acre Jalousie estate. Glen and its 9,000 acre estate, which his father Christopher had made over to him in 1963, and which he had used fitfully in the 1960s and 1970s, had lost its sense of being a family home and would later be run as a business. The Mustique Company Colin Tennant, the third Baron Glenconner, had a permanent place in the gossip columns for most of the second half of the 20th century, largely because of his intimate friendship with Princess Margaret; but also because of his Faustian compact with fame – or, perhaps, notoriety. With his edgy exile from Mustique after a row over electric prices in 1977 he sold his Great House there for £2m and moved 45 miles north to St Lucia, where, he claimed, he was for years "the only white man". Like his uncle Stephen, he never seemed to have grown up – or, at least, accepted the banalities of modern existence. You can find our Community Guidelines in full here. There the family had owned an estate in Trinidad which he had sold for £44,500 in 1958, and shortly after had bought Mustique for £45,000. "I said, 'yes', and she said, 'Does it include a house?' Named after its giant mosquitoes, the island was three and a half miles long, and Glenconner set about developing it as a deluxe resort. The Medical Clinic on the island is run by Dr Michael Bunbury. The company now runs the … Six years later Charles died, aged 39. Having frittered away most of his fortune, Scottish brewing heir Colin Tennant Colin Tennant, now Lord Glenconner, purchased the … In 1958 Lord Glenconner, Colin Tennant, arrived on Mustique and bought the island for just £45,000 despite the fact it had no roads, no jetties and no running water. Having recently watched Bullman's film, I almost turned down the offer. In fact, as his faithful driver and loyal factotum, Kent, delivered me to what looked like a beach hut perched in the most desirable position on the island the man who greeted me was charm itself. Mustique island, St Vincent and the Grenadines. Set on the bay between the Pitons, it was a great chunk of Eden, sloping down to the palm-fringed beach and back up into hills lush with avocado trees. Les Jolies Eaux, a 10-bedroom, pale-green painted villa, turned out rather more costly than Glenconner had envisaged, at £25,000. Modern eyes would be opened to his more colourful aspects in The Man Who Bought Mustique, a film directed by Joseph Bullman in 2000, which followed Glenconner as he prepared for a visit by Princess Margaret to his island. shelley@mustique.vc Photograph: BlueOrangeStudio/Alamy Stock Photo. Should you have any queries please read our Health Advice sheet or alternatively please contact the Clinic at clinic@mustique.vc or call +1 784 488 8353. The Mustique Company, the island’s management company with over 756 resident staff, is led by Managing Director, Roger Pritchard. Tennant's attempt to run two-thirds of the Jalousie estate as a four-star resort failed after three seasons. Prime Minister Boris Johnson is set to jet off to the private island of Mustique in the Caribbean with girlfriend Carrie Symonds for some winter sun. Your Guide to Mustique, the Private Caribbean Island Where You Can Stay in David Bowie's Former Villa. I said, 'Yes'. Although he preferred the exploits of his maternal grandmother, Lady Muriel Paget, who during the Russian Revolution had had guns pointed at her, only to reply "Nonsense!" and push them away, Glenconner would maintain more than a little of the Tennants' mercurial, sometimes frustrating feyness in the character he created for himself. Sarah Richardson, who owns the magnificent home where the Prime Minister stayed on Mustique, confirmed that she and her husband Craig had rented it out – and that they had ‘got paid’. A former sugar plantation, it had been found by his son Henry. sdurrant@mustique.vc Are you sure you want to delete this comment? Mustique island is located in the St Vincent and the Grenadines country, the Lesser Antilles island arc, southeastern Caribbean Sea. I recall arriving in St Lucia, the island to which Glenconner had retreated after his Mustique dream had ended in acrimony, with some trepidation. The key to success was to attract the right people, and he knew them – pre-eminently in the shape of Princess Margaret. Intelligent, well-read, with impeccable manners, he was one of the most entertaining men I have met; I saw that he had inherited his uncle's winning, but perhaps dangerous, allure. Please continue to respect all commenters and create constructive debates. However, Glenconner denied that Bindon had produced his prodigious manhood for royal eyes; the flashing was done to one of her ladies-in-waiting, who merely commented, "I've seen bigger". In 1949 he went up to New College, Oxford then joined the family firm, but his father doubted his aptitude for the business, and in 1963 sold it before retiring to Corfu – even though his sonwould claim, "I was, frankly, running the company brilliantly". Are you sure you want to mark this comment as inappropriate? Start your Independent Premium subscription today. With David Bowie, Joseph Bullman, Nicholas Courtney, Lady Glenconner. He has spent the past 25 years running the island’s clinic, providing excellent health care to guests and the local community. He maintained an interest in politics and still referred to himself as a Liberal peer. Roddy Llewellyn, Princess Margaret, Lady Anne and her son Charlie, 1976 Credit: Courtesy of Lady Anne Glenconner My husband Colin Tennant was a … a little bit of a rebel. Eventually, Tennant made significant improvements to the island. He had agreed to talk about his relationship with Princess Margaret, who was then seriously ill. As I had written a biography of his uncle Stephen, Glenconner told Brown he wanted me to conduct the interview. The pair were seen together constantly: he claimed to have been the first to take her out shopping by walking along Bond Street. Guest Services In … Michael qualified from Cambridge University and served as a Medical officer to the British Army for seven years. Glenconner fell easily into her circle: he was rich, good-looking and witty; an elegant dandy who once had a suit made without any pockets. . Macaroni Beach is perhaps the most famous of Mustique's beaches and is situated on the east coast of the island. Speculation about their relationship seems part of the smokescreen. In 1945 he served in the Irish Guards as a second lieutenant, joining because his aunt Clare had introduced him to the colonel-in-chief, who had greeted Colin from his bed, and "enlisted" him then and there. Glenconner installed two early 20th-century gingerbread cottages salvaged from elsewhere on the island, joining them together and furnishing them with an eclectic mixture of family heirlooms and Indian antiques. Watch the video to hear more about the history of the island and how it contributes to the region. Colin Christopher Paget Tennant (Lord Glenconner), landowner: born 1 December 1926; married 1956 Lady Anne Coke (one son, one daughter, and two sons deceased); died St Lucia 27 August 2010. Due to the sheer scale of this comment community, we are not able to give each post the same level of attention, but we have preserved this area in the interests of open debate. It was noted that the pair stayed at Glen, and were together at Balmoral for her birthday: Glenconner dreaded coming down to the newspapers at breakfast, with "announcements" of their engagement. ", Bang was popular with the passing cruise liner trade, although Glenconner would complain that no one interesting came, Yet he made a point of knowing their names, greeting every customer at the entrance to its surreal courtyard. There is an island pharmacy but we do advise guests to travel with essential medication. +1 784 488 8424, Sales & Reservations entertainment; celebrity life; celebrity kids; This is the villa on the Caribbean island of Mustique where they celebrated George’s 6th birthday. Rocky headlands, pristine beaches surrounded by palm trees, clear, turquoise water and steep hilltops are all you can see. Mustique has been a royal-approved getaway for decades, dating back to Princess Margaret's stays on the island in the 1970s, and it's little wonder why. But his eyes only really lit up when describing one of his Indian jewels, or showing a guest the fabulous new folly he was building. He was interested in modern art and literature, and could drop into conversation that his grandson's godfather was Guy Ritchie. Read our full mailing list consent terms here. Throughout the 1980s in particular it seemed as though Nigel Dempster had a hot line to Glenconner's bedside phone. In the unlikely event of an emergency, medical evacuation can be arranged and guests are taken to hospitals in either Martinique or Miami. He has spent the past 25 years running the island’s clinic, providing excellent health care to guests and the local community. Please be respectful when making a comment and adhere to our Community Guidelines. In 1976, Tennant sold the Mustique Company, which he'd founded to build the island, to Mustique's homeowners, who became shareholders. Colin's father, Christopher, was the second eldest son of Eddy and Pamela Glenconner. While driving to Scotland, he felt himself "dissolving into gold dust", and a car had to be sent to collect him, Blow recorded (although he in turn would be accused by Colin's half-sister, the novelist Emma Tennant, of fancifying his family's history). With his father's death in 1983 he became third Baron yet he felt obliged to disinherit his eldest son Charlie, a heroin addict, in favour of Henry – only for Henry, who was gay, to contract HIV, as did Charlie. Next door he established his fantastical beachside restaurant, Bang, (as in "bang between the Pitons"), based on Messel's stage designs for the 1950s Broadway musical House of Flowers. Their eldest son, Edward "Bim" Tennant, a budding poet, died during the First World War, leaving Christopher to inherit the title on his father's death in 1922, as well as the baronial pile, Glen, in Perthshire, and responsibility for the family business (the Tennants' wealth dated back to the Industrial Revolution and the discovery of a chemical formulation for bleach). She put them up in Kensington Palace when they were "homeless"; and, when they found a house, helped them move in. Our journalists will try to respond by joining the threads when they can to create a true meeting of independent Premium. He has spent the past 25 years running the island’s clinic, providing excellent health care to guests and the local community. pippa@mustique.vc A prime example: Mick Jagger, who owns a six-bedroom and five-bathroom beachfront compound on the pristine and private West Indies island of … Then in 1987 his youngest son Christopher was left partly paralysed by motorbike accident in Belize. Lord Glenconner's background provided ample genetic precedence for his eccentricities. Yet Glenconner would complain of her social tyranny, saying, "she hasn't got any real friends". Now, nearly a decade after Tennant died, one of his plush paradisiacal properties is being converted into a nail bar. These tragedies were invoked as "the Tennants' Curse". He lives in St. Lucia with wife Lady Anne Coke (herself an Earl's daughter and lady-in-waiting to Princess Margaret) and their sole surviving son, Christopher, disabled by an accident. The island of Mustique is part of a set of islands making up the nation of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, located in the Caribbean. In 1967, seeking refuge from the media and her own royal duties, she asked Glenconner if he had been serious about his wedding present. On the northwestern edge of the island stand Messel’s earliest Mustique creations, Clonsilla and Phibblestown, named for villages in Ireland by … Tennant had given up on life in England, later putting his 19th-century mansion Hill Lodge on the market for £6m. The Caribbean island of Mustique was his bolthole after he bought the whole thing in 1958, giving Princess Margaret a ten-acre plot as a wedding present (where she built her holiday retreat, Les Jolies Eaux). The founding manager of the Mustique Company, the company which owns the island, was the late Hugo Money-Coutts, Baron Latymer, who was … The things we like in an island are … The things we like in an island are … It all started with Colin Tennant, the 3rd Lord Glenconner, who purchased the undeveloped island in St. Vincent and the Grenadines in 1958. . Caribbean Islands - Mustique -- not so great - We just got back from a week in Mustique, and came away unimpressed. +44 207 201 6831, Sales & Reservations The existing Open Comments threads will continue to exist for those who do not subscribe to Independent Premium. Bupa died in 1994 after being fed dry buns which swelled in its stomach. It was an age when English aristocracy was diversifying to survive; and where the Baths of Longleat had their lions, Glenconner had his commodified paradise. She went out twice a year, in February and late autumn, presiding over a social set which sometimes lurched into loucheness, with characters such as the East End-criminal-turned-actor John Bindon. Michael qualified from Cambridge University and served as a Medical officer to the British Army for seven years. In March 1999 she was staying at the Jalousie Hilton when she scalded her feet in a boiling shower, an accident which seemed to precipitate her decline. 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