Toffs’ guide chairman with links to Putin’s top sport
AFTER being out of print for nearly two decades, the once-revered aristocratic guide Burke’s Peerage may no longer be required reading in the country’s stately homes – but the name is still a powerful calling card.
Its chairman William Bortrick is a familiar figure in London’s private clubs and dining rooms and can often be seen hovering in the background at many of the functions and ceremonies attended by society fixer Michael Wynne-Parker.
He is also a member of the founding board of the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society, which is chaired by Mr Wynne-Parker and has faced disputed allegations that it is a front for Russian influence.
Mr Wynne-Parker has dismissed such claims as ‘crazy’ and insists the society is a religious and cultural organisation.
Mr Bortrick is also an adviser to the Commonwealth Sambo Association, which champions a Russian martial art and combat sport which may feature in the 2028 Olympics and is strongly backed by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The fighting techniques were developed by the Soviet Red Army in the early 1920s to improve unarmed combat.
Mr Wynne-Parker is president of the association and regularly presides over combat events.
The links between the two men are under scrutiny following claims that donations
Claims that donations could be sent through a Burke’s account
for The Prince’s Foundation could be sent through a Burke’s Peerage bank account.
Mr Bortrick has denied any wrongdoing and that the proposed arrangement, revealed in an email written by Mr Wynne-Parker and published last weekend by The Mail on Sunday, was ever discussed with him.
He said if he had been told about it, he would have ‘hit the roof’ because it was so inappropriate.
Burke’s Peerage was established by the genealogist John Burke in 1826, expanding over the years into various editions.
The firm was chaired from 1974 to 1983 by the entrepreneur Jeremy Norman, who founded the gay nightclub Heaven and established the fitness chain Soho Gyms.
The title was bought by Mr Bortrick in 2013, who now runs it with the Canadian investor and entrepreneur Sam Malin.
Irene Major, who is Malin’s wife and lives with him in a Gothic mansion in Kent, wrote on her Instagram page last week: ‘I’m not involved in selling access to Prince Charles and resent any implication that I am; any involvement I have with the Royal Family is for charity purposes.’
Burke’s Peerage says on its website that it intends to publish further editions, but is still in the process of updating records. The last printed edition was in 2003.
One of the companies in which Bortrick is a director, Burke’s Peerage Enterprises, had net assets of just £3,797 at the end of last March, while another, Burke’s Peerage, had net assets of £1.9million.