Sale may end family curse

THE auction of treasures from the Harlech family estate, Glyn Cywarch in North Wales, has caused a howl of anguish from Saffron Rainey, grandson of David Ormsby-Gore, 5th Lord Harlech. ‘The library had 500 years’ worth of items. Those items were irreplaceable,’ says Rainey, 50.

His cousin, Jasset Ormsby-Gore, 30, 7th Lord Harlech, sanctioned the sale, to finance the renewal of Glyn Cywarch. But Rainey concedes it may end a ‘50-year cycle of tragedy’.

David Ormsby-Gore and wife Sissie died in separate road accidents, a daughter died of a heroin overdose, one son shot himself and the other died at 61, after years of drug abuse.