A VERY modern Marquess
HE is a far cry from the traditional image of a tweedy aristocrat. With a hipster beard, tattoos and thickrimmed glasses, Jack Dumfries is a self-confessed geek who likes indoor rock climbing and painting sci-fi figurines. Yet the 31-year-old has just inherited one of the grandest titles in Scotland – along with a stately home and a fortune of more than £100 million.
He is now officially recognised as John Bryson Crichton-Stuart, 8th Marquess of Bute.
He assumed the title last month following the death of his father, racing driver Johnny Dumfries, who was 62.
The new Marquess is cut from a very similar cloth to his famously modest father, who dropped out of private school education to follow his dreams.
Unmarried Dumfries does not appear to mix in celebrity circles – unlike his half-sister, Lady Lola Bute – and has only 250 followers on Instagram. He lives quietly in a London flat with his two dogs and seems to spend his evenings at home building and painting intricate resin and plastic Warhammer model kits. In a recent video shared on social media, he admitted to spending more than 20 hours on one 8in-high Chaos Knight figurine.
In another he showed off his living room, covered with modelling kit parts, alongside the caption ‘happy nerd’.
Other clips on his social media profiles show him playing with remote-control cars while exercising his dogs in London parks.
He describes himself as a ‘chef looking to make good food that’s good for you’ and likes to keep fit – before lockdown restrictions, he visited indoor climbing walls every week and enjoyed regular skiing holidays.
It is not yet known whether the new Marquess is planning to move north to his ancestral seat, Mount Stuart House on the Isle of Bute, Argyll, which is inhabited by his stepmother, Lady Serena Bute, mother of Lady Lola.
Dating back to 1880, the grand red sandstone mansion in the east of the island is a flamboyant example of Gothic Revival architecture.
It also features a striking marble chapel, where fashion designer Stella McCartney was married in 2003.
The house was built for the eccentric 3rd Marquess after the original building burned down in 1877, and is surrounded by a 300-acre estate of landscaped gardens and woodland.
The first home in Scotland to be lit by electricity, it holds the Bute Collection, a private trove of artwork and artefacts worth millions, and is said to have helped inspire Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in JK Rowling’s Harry Potter books.
Dumfries has not lived on the island since he was a young boy, but pictures on his public social media profiles show he regularly visited his father there. The pair shared a love of vintage cars and would drive around Bute together.
His father, John Colum CrichtonStuart, the 7th Marquess of Bute – best known as Johnny Dumfries – married his first wife Carolyn Waddell in 1984 and had three children – Lady Caroline, Lady Cathleen and John Bryson Crichton-Stuart, Lord Bute. The couple divorced in 1993.
The split meant the children divided their time between their parents’ two homes while growing up.
The Marquess later married fashion designer Serena Wendell, a friend of his sister, Lady Sophia CrichtonStuart, in 1999 and they had a daughter, Lady Lola Affrica Crichton-Stuart, in the same year.
He also became stepfather to Lady Serena’s children, Jazzy and Josh De
I’m a chef looking to make good food that’s good for you
Lisser. While Jack and his older sisters live out of the spotlight, society beauty Lady Lola, 21, who is with Elite Model Management, is a regular at celebrity parties and has more than 17,500 followers on Instagram.
She is frequently in Tatler magazine’s society pages and is close friends with celebrity offspring including Raff and Iris Law, children of actor Jude Law, and has been spotted out with singer Rita Ora.
The contrast is not lost on her big brother, who playfully teases her online for her ‘posing’.
In one Instagram post, he jokes that he is taking a ‘selfie’ in the mirror to copy one of her photos. She replies that she will teach him ‘some really good mirror angles’.
Dumfries posted on social media last month to thank people for their tributes to his late father.
He wrote: ‘To all the people who have reached out to me and my family over the past few days and to those who have supported us through the last year, thank you from the bottom of my heart.’
The Crichton-Stuart family issued a statement honouring a ‘devoted husband, father, brother, uncle, son and grandfather, loved by all’. It added: ‘The indomitable spirit and
With his tattoos, tracksuits and love of Korean food, ‘happy nerd’ Jack Dumfries, 31, has become the rather unconventional laird of Bute after his father’s death. But now the aristocrat, worth £100m, may also lay claim to another title: Scotland’s most eligible bachelor
energy which Johnny brought to his life will be greatly missed, and the immense warmth and love with which he embraced his family.
‘His heart was firmly rooted on the Island of Bute, where he spent much of his time.
‘He was a moderniser and an inspirational thinker, transitioning a family home to a progressive, working visitor facility and estate.’
Dumfries’s step-sister, Jazzy, also posted a heartfelt tribute, saying her stepfather had ‘always treated her as if she was his own’. She added: ‘You came into our lives when we needed you the most, you made us whole again, you gave us the most beautiful family, the most wonderful life.
‘I am so lucky to have had you as a father. I always said you were my guardian angel and now you really are. I can’t thank you enough for everything you did for us, your kindness knew no bounds.
‘You were the strongest man I have ever known and fought right till the end.’ Born into one of Scotland’s oldest and wealthiest ancestral families, Johnny Dumfries famously left his exclusive boarding school early to pursue his hobby of motor racing.
After spells as a painter and decorator and driver of the Williams team bus to earn cash, his perseverance was rewarded and he was given the chance to try karting in 1980 before graduating to Formula Three, winning the British Championship in 1984. He was a test driver for Ferrari when he was given his brief shot at F1 fame with Lotus in 1986, racing alongside teammate Ayrton Senna.
He won the Le Mans 24 Hour in 1988 before retiring from racing in 1991 due to the illness of his father, the 6th Marquess – who died from cancer at the age of 60.
He took over the family estate in 1993 but spoke of being ‘uncomfortable’ with his inherited wealth.
‘I desired above all else to excel at something through my own efforts,’ he said in 1999. ‘I suppose by going into motor racing, I put myself in a similar situation to that into which I was born – a small minority of single-seat drivers – but at least it was all my own energy that got me there.’
In 2007, he courted controversy by putting his second ancestral home, Dumfries House in Ayrshire, and its one-of-a-kind Chippendale furniture, on the market – before eventually selling it for £45 million to Prince Charles, who wished to ‘save it for the nation’.
It is not yet known how long the former racing driver was ill before his death last month.
But last summer he spoke movingly about coming to terms with death and loss in a book by his youngest daughter to help raise money for addiction and mental health services.
He revealed that Lady Lola’s ‘tragedy and pain became mine’ after her boyfriend, Kai SchachterRich, took his own life in 2019.
Opening up in the book, Loss and Hope, he admitted: ‘It is an unfortunate fact of life that loss is inevitable. We are in the hands of fate.
‘Maintaining hope following loss enables each of us to continue to thrive.
‘Loss must be counterbalanced with hope because life without hope is not an option.’