The £30m fall of the Glenconner empire
He was the Scots aristocrat and close friend of Princess Margaret who hosted lavish and hedonistic parties on his Caribbean island. When he died 13 years ago he left most of his luxury estate to his faithful servant – to the utter dismay of his family. Now, in a f inal bitter twist, his entire legacy has been put up for sale
HE arrived on the golden sands of St Lucia in 1987, the selfstyled ‘King of the Caribbean’. Riding his beloved pet elephant, Bupa, in a pristine white linen suit and trademark straw hat, Lord Glenconner was sure to make an entrance. After building a hedonistic haven for royalty and rock stars on his private island of Mustique, the 60-year-old had his sights set on something bigger and better.
The eccentric Scottish aristocrat, a confidante of Princess Margaret, hoped to live out the rest of his days in unparalleled luxury under the St Lucian sun.
Yet the grand plans of Colin Tennant, 3rd Baron Glenconner, failed to come to fruition a second time and he died in 2010 in an unfinished property, estranged from his long-suffering family, with just his manservant by his side.
Two decades on, the West Indies empire the controversial peer was so desperate to grow is soon to be confined to the history books – his ties to his island paradise gone for good.
The Scottish Mail on Sunday can reveal that Kent Adonai – the penniless valet bequeathed his boss’s entire multi-million pound St Lucian estate before a legal battle with the Glenconner family left him with just half – is to sell up and cash in on his ‘inheritance’.
Lord Glenconner’s eldest grandson Cody Tennant, 29, who now holds the title, put his share on the market for £19 million at the beginning of 2023.
A close friend of Mr Adonai, who grew up in a shanty town with little to no education, said the 59-year-old wanted to ‘cash in his reward’ and ‘leave behind the stress of recent years’.
Unbeknown to his family, Lord Glenconner changed his will shortly before his death in 2010 to leave the entirety of his overseas assets to his faithful Man Friday, Mr Adonai, who he originally employed to care for his Indian elephant.
The legacy was contested by his wife, Lady Mary Glenconner, who claimed her late husband had not been of sound mind when he made the contentious amendment.
In 2018, the acrimonious and lengthy legal case was settled in the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court, with parcels of land and shares divided up between the young lord and the former servant, signed by both men.
Mr Adonai received 27 acres of land and real estate valued at more than £20 million – but claimed at the time it was not a ‘fair’ split, with much of the land unprofitable without selling. He even suggested he would be forced to become a fisherman to pay for his seven children.
As well as his share of the St Lucian lot, Cody was also left a bizarre stone carving of a lingam, a Hindu representation of the phallus that symbolises the god Shiva.
The sale – which sources say is imminent – will mean the Glenconners have no remaining land or real estate on St Lucia.
Mr Adonai is understood to be speaking to a different estate agent and is hopeful he can sell his land in lots. Last night, a friend of Mr
Adonai told The Scottish Mail on Sunday: ‘He has put everything on the market and wants to do away with all the land Colin Tennant bequeathed to him.
‘It has not been easy for him since he inherited the property. There are lots of people after him. It is hard for him to trust people. It cannot be easy for him having been given all this land by the late peer.
‘Kent was there for Mr Tennant and took care of him like a son would do for a father. He nursed him and did everything for him. He looked after him until his death. Not many people would do that.
‘Kent is easy going and knew Mr Tennant well. He went all out to ensure he was well looked after. He treated him like a father and was full of respect for him.’
The source added: ‘Kent wanted to do the honourable thing after Glenconner’s wife appealed for him to do so and he did. He gave the family their share and he kept his. He is a good man and is well liked.’
The once grand Beau House and its 95-acre estate, now owned by Cody Tennant, is on the market for £19 million but as yet is unsold.
Aerial footage of the whitewashed property, which has lain empty for more than a decade, shows it in a state of disrepair with its gardens overgrown and untended.
The estate is offered as a whole or for sale by individual lots. The two-bedroom, 5,000 sq ft house alone, which Lord Glenconner designed and built, has an asking price of £4.33 million.
The listing on the Penny Strawson property consulting website states: ‘This is an exceptional opportunity to acquire land rich in history and enjoying unsurpassed views, in one of the most sought-after locations in the Caribbean. Beau Estate is a Caribbean idyll in a spectacular setting.
‘The 95 acres of land also includes Beau House, the former home of Lord Glenconner. Nestled between the two magnificent volcanic peaks of the awe-inspiring Pitons, Beau House offers breathtaking westward views of the Caribbean.
‘Despite some disrepair, it commands the best location on the entire island. This property sits alongside the exclusive five-star Sugar Beach resort, with its pristine white beaches and array of dining options.’
The late Lord Glenconner bought Mustique – which he is said to have named after mosquitos – for £45,000 in 1958, with the aim of turning it into a cotton plantation.
There were no roads, no jetties and no running water but, after scrapping his initial business plans, he set about creating a high society playground of bars, restaurants and private villas.
It was the place to be seen in the 1960s and 1970s and the largerthan-life nobleman hosted regular, debauched parties for A-list guests including Mick Jagger, Jerry Hall and Raquel Welch.
His friend Princess Margaret was
‘Kent took care of him like a son would do for a father. He looked after him until his death’
also a regular visitor to the foursquare-mile islet. He gave her a plot of land as a wedding gift when she arrived on the Royal Yacht Britannia during her honeymoon with Lord Snowdon.
She then built her own secluded holiday retreat, Les Jolies Eaux – where in 1976 she was famously photographed with her lover Roddy Llewellyn, while still officially married. The cost of running Mustique is said to have ‘significantly depleted’ Lord Glenconner’s fortune, so in mid-1980s he sold up and bought land on St Lucia, 100 miles away.
He hoped to create somewhere as spectacular as Mustique, but this time his venture failed.
He spent the rest of his days in the Caribbean, 4,000 miles away from his long-suffering wife, who split her time between family homes in the Borders and Norfolk. In his later years, suffering from ill-health, he is said to have been housebound with just one staff member, ‘estate manager’ Mr Adonai, who cared for him around the clock until he died of a heart attack aged 83.
In her memoir, released last year, Baroness Glenconner, 91, maid of honour at the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth in 1953 and Princess Margaret’s lady-in-waiting, opened up about her ‘abusive’ 50-year marriage to Colin Tennant – and admitted his time in the Caribbean saved them from divorce, because it kept them apart.
Lady Glenconner, who said her ill-tempered husband once beat her so badly it left her permanently disfigured, wrote: ‘From the earliest days of our marriage, everything went one way: from me to Colin. His own feelings took precedence in any and every situation. How exhausting and lonely it could be. I felt as though parts of me were dying with no one to nurture or cherish me when I needed it.
‘It was like having another child, but a particularly large, disruptive one. He shocked, offended and terrified other people most of the time and I had to sort out the results.
‘Too often I existed just as a buffer between him and everyone else.’
She continued: ‘He’d bought Mustique in 1958, spent a fortune developing it and was eventually living there more often than not.
‘Though we still spent a lot of time together, we no longer shared a permanent home. Even so, I looked after him as much as I could. I was still his wife and that meant being at his side in public at his extravagant parties in the West Indies.
‘Had I not been living independently in England, I would probably have had to leave Colin entirely. As it was, I was able to stay married. I got on with it, and paradoxically grew more confident. It was my choice, which I accept would not be everyone’s – but I don’t regret it.’
‘He shocked, offended and terrified other people most of the time’
Speaking following the end of the inheritance dispute in 2018, Lady Glenconner said: ‘I’m very fond of Kent. He looked after my husband very well and was well rewarded with quite a portfolio.
‘Kent was very happy with what he got and so was Cody.’
Cody Tennant has never spoken publicly about the will, his plans for Beau Estate, or what he intends to do with his fortune once it is sold.
Educated at Edinburgh Academy and Aberdeen University, he was brought up in Edinburgh by his mother Shelagh after his father Charles Tennant, a one-time heroin addict, died of hepatitis when Cody was six.
Unlike his showman grandfather, the 4th Earl keeps out of the spotlight – turning down invites to debutante balls and other society events. But it emerged he proposed to his university sweetheart, Rebeka McDonald, also from the Borders, last year.
The young peer has opted to hold a ‘lovely, quiet family wedding’ at his Scottish family seat, Glen House, known as ‘The Glen’, near Traquair in Peeblesshire, according to his grandmother.
Gone forever is the riotous Caribbean Glenconner legacy – and, for the new generation, it would appear to be a case of good riddance.