Ex Le Mans winner Johnny Bute takes last chequered flag
He sold his ancestral home, dumfries House, to Prince Charles for £ 45 million and achieved fame as a Formula 1 driver and for winning the 24-hour race, le Mans.
Sadly, the Marquess of Bute aka John Crichton-stuart has gone to the great pit stop in the sky, having died aged 62 after a short illness.
For many years as he pursued his exhilarating racing career, Johnny Bute refused to use his official title and few people knew that he was the earl of dumfries, son of the Marquess of Bute. Instead, he was known by the understated moniker Johnny dumfries.
When he first arrived on the motor-racing scene, the scottish peer raised funds working as a painter and decorator, and as a van driver for the Williams team. He went on to partner Brazilian legend Ayrton senna in the F1 lotus team.
However, he struggled in senna’s shadow and was dropped at the end of one year, which would prove to be his only F1 season.
Grand Tour presenter Jeremy Clarkson said he was ‘saddened’ to learn of his death, and Perry McCarthy, the original ‘stig’ from Top Gear, hailed dumfries as ‘a very special man. shared a great day with him at home just last october. Quite simply he was one of my favourite people’.
The Marquess married former nanny Carolyn Waddell, with whom he had two daughters and a son. His second wife was fashion designer serena Wendell, with whom he had one daughter, the socialite and model lady lola Crichton-stuart. The family, worth £125 million, gave Cardiff Castle, part of the family’s estate, to the city, and Bute House in edinburgh to the National Trust — it is now the residence of the First Minister of scotland. After the death of his father in 1993, Johnny dumfries became the 7th Marquess of Bute, and ran the family’s Mount stuart estate on the Isle of Bute. He enjoyed living life in the fast lane to the end. last december, he and his daughter lady lola (left) were charged with breaching Covid- 19 regulations for allegedly travelling with others to their Isle of Bute home.