Baronet offers his oak trees to Notre-dame to ‘make amends’

AN ECCENTRIC aristocrat is joining a legion of British stately homes pledging to help rebuild Notre-dame, saying he feels guilty for his ancestor’s role in beating Napoleon.

Sir Benjamin Slade, 72, says he feels compelled to help rebuild the stricken cathedral to “make amends’’ after years of his ancestors battling nobility in France and ‘’killing French people’’.

He said he will now ship 50 oak trees from his 2,000-acre estate at Maunsel House in Somerset to Notre-dame.

One of his ancestors, Sir Thomas Slade, used English oak to design HMS Victory.

Sir Benjamin, who is descended from George IV, said: “I was shocked at the news about Notre-dame and I feel a bit guilty about how my family has treated the French over the centuries, especially as one of my ancestors designed Nelson’s ship the Victory and built it out of English oak, so I thought this gesture might help to make amends.”

A spokesman for the aristocrat added: “When once asked by an American visitor to Maunsel House what his family’s main line of business over the centuries consisted of, he replied ‘mainly killing the French’.”

Sir Benjamin recently publicised his search to find a wife who could provide him with two sons. The aristocrat, who made his fortune as a shipping magnate, also made headlines in 2012 after police raided his home, charging him with possessing a firearm without a certificate and breaching a shotgun certificate by leaving a weapon unsecured. He said he used it to shoot foxes.