A COUSIN of Winston Churchill has died, leaving the son he once described as a "black sheep" to inherit one of Britain's most prestigious aristocratic titles.
The Duke of Marlborough, who owned the opulent Blenheim Palace estate which is worth £100 million, died peacefully in his sleep at the age of 88.
His death prompted tributes, with Prime Minister David Cameron describing him as a "good man and friend" - but it also paves the way for his once-troubled eldest surviving son to inherit his title, and potentially his estate.
Jamie Blandford, 58, currently known as the Marquess of Blandford, will become the 12th Duke of Marlborough, a Blenheim Palace spokesman said. But he declined to comment on whether the marquess will now also inherit the palace and its lucrative estate. The marquess has waged a long and very public battle with heroin and cocaine which saw him splashed across newspaper front pages.
Dubbed by some as "the wayward peer", he spent £20,000 in just four months to pay for his drug binges.
He spent several spells in prison and was in and out of court throughout the late 1980s and 1990s.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article