The £40m legacy of colourful earl who married a shopgirl
Fortune including share of Glamis goes to family
Known as the head of the Queen’s Scottish family, he was as famous for his colourful personal life as his Royal blood.
Lord Strathmore had a series of chequered relationships and battled with alcohol, ultimately finding contentment with his third wife – who managed a shop he owned – before he died last year.
Yesterday it emerged his widow Karen will be one of the beneficiaries of his remarkable £40million fortune after details of his will were revealed.
The 18th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, Michael Fergus BowesLyon, died aged 58 in February last year following a long battle with cancer.
The former Scots Guards captain – known to friends as Mikey – walked behind Prince Charles and Prince william at the Queen Mother’s funeral.
His 14th century family seat, Glamis Castle, in Angus, was the Queen Mother’s childhood home.
But at his Holwich estate in County Durham, he was found with three prostitutes following an alcohol binge.
Lord Strathmore’s recently published will revealed he had a fortune valued at £39,388,550.
His wealth included his £14million share of the Glamis estate and the £20million Holwick estate. other assets included around £60,000 held with the Queen’s bank Coutts and a £1million share in a wind farm firm based in Lanarkshire.
The Eton-educated Earl, the Queen’s first cousin once removed, instructed his estate should go to his widow and his children.
He had three – Simon, who succeeded him as the 19th earl, John and George – with first wife Isobel weatherall whom he married in 1984. However, after 20 years, the marriage broke down. The earl turned to drink and in 2004 was found with the £100a-night call girls at Holwick. During a four-day ‘sex marathon’ he is alleged to have boasted of his royal bloodline while engaging in sexual acts.
After the revelations, he expressed his regret, saying it had happened during ‘an extremely difficult phase’ in his life. while married to Isobel, he began a relationship with Damaris Stuartwilliam, whom he met on the orient Express.
They had a child in March 2005, Toby, now 11, and were married eight months later. The marriage broke down in 2008. He married divorcee Karen Baxter in August 2012. She managed his ironmonger’s shop in Forfar, Angus. He was said to have finally found ‘complete contentment’ with her and as a ‘loving stepfather’ to her daughters, Chloe and Kristen.
In a statement after his death, his family said: ‘Michael will be greatly missed, not only by his family but by those who lived and worked on the estates.’
‘Complete contentment’