Earl attacks late stepmum for her ‘lack of standards’

EARL BAthuRst would seem to have the most enviable of inheritances: 15,000 Gloucestershire acres and a superb stately home, Cirencester Park, where Princes William and harry play polo.

Yet this magnificent setting is, I can disclose, the backdrop for a feud which even death cannot curtail.

Indeed, it is only now that Lord Bathurst, 57, who inherited the estate in 2011, has finally felt able to speak his mind about his American stepmum, the Dowager Countess Bathurst, who died last week aged 90.

‘It was no secret that my stepmother, Gloria, and I did not see eye to eye, despite a number of attempted reconciliations being made, all of which were thrown back in our faces,’ Allen Bathurst tells me.

Gloria brought a high Court action against him in 2017, as she unsuccessfully sought the ‘use and enjoyment’ of family portraiture and antiques worth an estimated £13 million.

With devastating candour, he claims Gloria traded on her aristocratic status after she became his father henry’s second wife in 1978. ‘having married into the family, she was happy to use the family name,’ Allen says. ‘It was just disappointing that she could not follow in the manners, standards and loyalty of the family of the past.’

Given that Gloria’s funeral is not until Friday, the earl’s comments might seem outrageous. But sympathy comes from those who knew Gloria and her late husband, who was known as ‘Barmy Bathurst’.

One family friend says: ‘I know one shouldn’t speak ill of the dead, but she was a very difficult woman — at all times, I’m afraid.’

Evidence supports that assessment. After Barmy’s death in 2011, Gloria declined to renew the lease on Cirencester Park Polo Club, before eventually relenting.

her husband had branded Prince William ‘some young yob in a beat–up car’ after his Land Rover was overtaken on an estate road by the Prince’s VW Golf.

And, in 2013, Gloria closed Cirencester hospital car park, situated on land she owned, causing her stepson — president of the Cirencester hospital League of Friends — acute embarrassment.