The troubled life and death of the Earl of Bristol

Cold, dark January. A 44 year old man dies in Little Horringer Hall, a rented cottage on the edge of the Ickworth Estate. The coroner will state that death was due to "multiple organ failure due to chronic drug abuse." The man has AIDS, and winter influenza has probably overwhelmed what meagre immune capacity remained. The man is Frederick William John Augustus Hervey, 7th Marquess of Bristol, Earl of Bristol, Earl Jermyn of Horningsheath in the County of Suffolk, and Baron Hervey of Ickworth in the County of Suffolk. Johnny, as he was known, had grown up far from the cottage where he died in unimaginable luxury in Ickworth House. Jessica Berens, in Johnny’s obituary in the Independent on 12th January 1999, wrote “The Marquess of Bristol had been dying in public for many years.” 

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To read on,  go to the March number of the Bury and West Suffolk magazine.