Jonathan Guinness, 3rd Baron Moyne

Jonathan Guinness, 3rd Baron Moyne
Born	(1930-03-16) March 16, 1930
Occupation(s)	Nobleman, entrepreneur, author, merchant banker, politician
Known for	Member of the Guinness family; non-executive director at Guinness plc; chairman of the Conservative Monday Club

Jonathan Bryan Guinness, 3rd Baron Moyne (born 16 March 1930) is a British nobleman, entrepreneur, and author. As a member of the Guinness family, he is the eldest son of Bryan Guinness, 2nd Baron Moyne and Diana Mitford (later known as Lady Mosley). Prior to retirement, he held a position as a non-executive director at Guinness plc and was engaged in merchant banking with Messrs Leopold Joseph.

Early life

Guinness received his education at Eton College followed by studies at the University of Oxford. He initially pursued a career in journalism before transitioning into merchant banking. From 1970 until 1974, he served as a member of the Leicestershire County Council.

Conservative Party

Guinness made two unsuccessful attempts to enter Parliament as a candidate for the Conservative Party, standing in the 1973 Lincoln by-election and later in the 1976 Coventry North West by-election.

Monday Club

Joining the Conservative Monday Club in its early days in 1968, Guinness took on multiple committee responsibilities and was appointed to its executive council in 1971, where he chaired the 'Action Fund'. In 1972, he authored an article for Monday World discussing the club’s future direction. On 5 June 1972, he was elected national chairman, an outcome described by The Guardian and The Times as a triumph for right-wing elements. He successfully retained this role in 1973, winning over George Kennedy Young by a margin of 30%.

A vocal advocate for Rhodesia, Guinness addressed a Monday Club gathering on the topic in 1974 alongside John Stokes and Lord Barnby. At the Conservative Party Conference in October 1989, he chaired a Young Monday Club fringe event titled The End of the English? – Immigration and Repatriation, featuring MPs Tim Janman and Nicholas Budgen.

In his capacity as chairman of the club’s Race Relations & Immigration Committee, he encouraged members to back government efforts to resist modifications to the British Nationality Act 1981 that would have granted residency rights to more than three million British passport holders from Hong Kong. He stressed that passports function as travel documents rather than residence permits and raised concerns about housing availability.

Guinness remained Vice-Chairman of the Club until late 1990 when MP Andrew Hunter succeeded him.

Trustor

Lord Moyne became involved as a nominal director in the financial controversy surrounding Trustor, a now-defunct Swedish investment firm. Accusations surfaced alleging that £50 million vanished from Trustor’s accounts; however, £35 million was subsequently located still held within Trustor AB’s bank account. Lord Moyne denied any misconduct, claiming he had been "stitched up." During legal proceedings, Swedish authorities froze his remaining assets, but he was ultimately cleared by the Swedish judiciary.

Support for Falun Gong

Following China’s prohibition of Falun Gong in 1999, Lord Moyne has openly expressed support for the movement, as recorded in parliamentary documentation.

Director of Guinness plc

From 1960 through 1988, Lord Moyne acted as a non-executive director of Guinness plc, the company founded by his family. His book Requiem for a Family Business offers an insider’s account of the events leading up to the Guinness share-trading fraud scandal.

Personal life and family

Lord Moyne fathered eight children through two marriages and a prolonged extramarital relationship.

His initial marriage, spanning from 1951 to 1963, was with Ingrid Wyndham, resulting in three offspring: Hon. Catherine Ingrid Guinness, Hon. Jasper Jonathan Richard Guinness (1954–2011), and Hon. Valentine Guy Bryan Guinness, who is the designated successor to the Barony of Moyne.

In 1964, he entered into matrimony with Suzanne Lisney (deceased 2005), and together they had two children: Hon. Sebastian Walter Denis Guinness and the socialite Hon. Daphne Suzannah Diana Guinness.

From his relationship with Susan "Shoe" Taylor (1944–2003), Lord Moyne had three children: Diana Guinness, Aster Guinness, and Thomas Guinness-Taylor. To address potential controversies related to this liaison, he authored Shoe – The Odyssey of a Sixties Survivor in 1989.

In 2003, both Lord Moyne and his daughter Daphne publicly challenged historian Andrew Roberts regarding his remarks about Lady Mosley, Lord Moyne’s mother. His younger sibling, Desmond Guinness, died in August 2020.

References

• Copping, Robert, The Story of The Monday Club – The First Decade, April 1972, Current Affairs Information Service, Ilford, Essex.
• Copping, Robert, The Monday Club – Crisis and After May 1975, Current Affairs Information Service, Ilford, Essex.
• Hansard

Bibliography

• Guinness, Jonathan, with Jeremy Harwood and John Biggs-Davison, M.P., Ireland – Our Cuba?, The Monday Club, London, 1970.
• Guinness, Jonathan, Arms for South Africa – the Moral Issue, The Monday Club, London, 1971.
• Courtney, Anthony T, OBE, RN (Retd), [M.P., for Harrow East 1959–1964], The Enemies Within, Foreword by Hon. Jonathan Guinness, The Monday Club, London, 1972.
• Guinness, Jonathan, with Catherine Guinness, The House of Mitford, Hutchinson & Co., London, 1984.
• Guinness, Jonathan, Marx, the False Prophet, in Marx Refuted, edited by Ronald Duncan and Colin Wilson, Ashgrove Press Ltd., Bath, 1987.
• Guinness, Jonathan, Shoe – The Odyssey of a Sixties Survivor, Hutchinson, London, c1989.
• Guinness, Jonathan, Requiem for a Family Business, Macmillan, London 1998.