Desmond Guinness left a will after all – worth €26.5m
● When the Irish aristocrat died in 2020, it was thought he was intestate. But now a 2011 will has come to light
One of Ireland’s richest men, Desmond Walter Guinness, was believed to have died without leaving a will when documents were filed in Dublin’s Probate Office last January. But in an extraordinary turn of events, a will has now surfaced, detailing how the aristocrat dictated he wanted his estate to be divided.
The newly filed documents show Guinness, who died in 2020 aged 88, made a will in painstaking detail on May 17, 2011, and left €26.5m — almost double what was previously estimated his estate was worth.
The main beneficiaries are named as his wife Penelope, his son Patrick and his daughter Marina.
He also left a treasure trove of mementos and gifts from Leixlip Castle as well as sums of money to friends, grandchildren and employees of the castle, including a cook, gardeners and a personal secretary.
In his last will and testament, Guinness appointed his wife, son and daughter as executors.
For Penelope, he states: “I give and devise and bequeath to her Leixlip Castle, together with the contents thereof, and the lands of Leixlip Demesne on the Castle (north) side of the M4 Motorway, comprising approximately of 75 acres, with two lodges and a garden cottage, stable and farmyard for her life or for as long as she wishes to reside there.”
He says she “shall be entitled to sell or dispose of any of the contents of the castle during her tenure”. However, he states that “the large tapestry by Le Brun entitled Plenty shall not be sold and shall remain in situ”.
On the death of his wife, or prior to her death if she desires, he also gives Leixlip Castle, the contents and the lands comprising 75 acres to his son Patrick “for his own use and benefit absolutely”.
In the event that Patrick predeceases Penelope, he says she should have power to appoint Leixlip Castle, the contents and the land on the north side of the M4 motorway to one or more of her children and grandchildren.
In the event that his son succeeds to Leixlip Castle, and should he sell the castle, lands or any of the contents, then Guinness says: “I wish that half of the proceeds of any such sale shall be given to my daughter Marina or should she not be living at the date of any such sale, then to her children in equal shares.”
He also stated he would leave the lands of Leixlip Demesne on the far (south) side of the M4 motorway comprising approximately 85 acres to his trustees upon trust to sell the same or retain it on the following trusts: to divide the proceeds between his son Patrick, Patrick’s wife Louise, his daughter Marina, Marina’s three children: Patrick, Violet and Finbar, Anthony Cooper and Jasmine Guinness (Rainey) and his wife Penelope.
He also gave Glebe House, contents and garden with hall and stables to
He was known as one of the ‘great dandies of his generation’
his wife Penelope, and bequeathed her his leasehold interest in a flat on King’s Road in London and half his share of a property on Blenheim Crescent in London.
He stated that if his wife did not survive him, he wishes to give the same to his granddaughter Jasmine Guinness.
For his daughter Marina Guinness, he also left six drawings by William Acton of the Mitford sisters (1938); four paintings by William Acton;
The Newbridge Doll’s House and its contents; the ‘Volunteer Fabric’ print, which would be left in Leixlip Castle if it remains in his family after his death; an oil landscape of Moore Abbey by William Ashford; and portraits of Marina by Joan Cocheme and Bianca Juarez.
To his son Patrick, he left four oil paintings, including a work by Augustus John and Joan Cocheme.
To his granddaughter Jasmine Guinness, he also left €10,000 and a chaise longue in orange check and two companion chairs. To his granddaughter Celeste Guinness, he left €10,000 together with “the shell picture of the Connolly Folly” and four French porcelain plates.
To his grandson Tom Guinness, Desmond left €10,000 with two watercolours of Leinster House signed by IT Cunningham and dated 1790. He also left his grandchildren Lily Guinness; George Guinness; Patrick Copeland Guinness; Violet Ogden Guinness; Finbar Lavarack Guinness; his niece Camilla (Mrs Jasper Guinness) the sum of €10,000 each plus oil paintings, water colours and engravings from the castle.
To his niece Catherine Hesketh, he left a set of china wrapped and labelled ‘C Hesketh’ and the sum of €5,000.
To Louise (Mrs Patrick) Guinness, he left the sum of €25,000 and a set of china with her name on it.
To his great-grandson Arthur Elwood Rainey, he left €10,000 and four watercolours. To his great-grandson
Otis Rainey and granddaughter Ruby Rainey, he left the sum of €10,000 each. To his brother Lord Moyne, he left the portrait of Diana Mosley by Adrian Daintrey.
Guinness also ensured he would remember his team of trusted employees at Leixlip Castle in his last will, including a former secretary, named Audrey Emerson, whom he left the sum of €5,000; Eileen Byrne, a cook, whom he left the sum of €20,000; a former gardener named Joseph Price, whom he left €2,500; and the current gardener, whom he left the same sum.
He left the remainder of the estate to his wife Penelope.
Last January, the Sunday Independent reported how it was originally believed that he died intestate, meaning he left behind no legal instructions on who should be given his property following his death.
At the time, Dublin solicitor and probate expert Kevin O’Higgins said the move was “extraordinary” for a man of vast fortune.
But O’Higgins said it was highly unlikely that Desmond forgot to tie up his financial affairs.
For a man of such great wealth, his legacy “must have been a constant on his mind”.
The will — made over a decade ago — proves him right.
The Guinness brewing dynasty is thought to be worth more than €990m.
Desmond was a great, great, great, great grandson of brewery founder Arthur Guinness, who was born in Celbridge and introduced the world to his stout at the Salmon Leap pub in Leixlip.
Desmond was the second son of Bryan Guinness, 2nd Lord Moyne, and Diana Mitford, the English aristocrat, writer and Nazi sympathiser who later married the fascist Oswald Mosley. Mitford and Mosley were portrayed in the drama Peaky Blinders.
In Oxford in the early 1950s, Desmond was known as one of the “great dandies of his generation” and threw lavish parties at which he would wear leopard-skin trousers. His first marriage took place in Oxford in 1954 to the late Marie-Gabrielle von Urach, Countess of Wurttemberg, known as Mariga, and mother of Patrick and Marina Guinness.
Marina still lives in Ireland. Desmond and Mariga moved to Dublin, where he ran his father’s estates, and bought the 12th-century Leixlip Castle in 1958.
The couple were best known as founders of the Irish Georgian Society, fighting to preserve Mountjoy Square, Dublin, and acquiring Castletown House in Celbridge, probably the most important Georgian house in Ireland, which was then abandoned and semi-derelict.
He toured America, was friendly with the Kennedys and wrote books on Georgian architecture.
Desmond and Mariga later divorced. In 1984, he married Penelope ‘Penny’ Cuthbertson, who had modelled nude for Lucian Freud. Desmond, Penny and Mariga continued to live on and off in Leixlip Castle.
Guests there had included Princess Margaret and then husband Lord Snowdon as well as Mick Jagger and Marianne Faithfull, who had a room in the tower “when she wanted to get away from it all”.
Desmond once said he regretted he could not persuade the Rolling Stones to do their first Irish gig at Leixlip Castle. They chose Slane Castle instead, although he did host concerts with The Boomtown Rats and others.