I thought it was time to try and accumulate a history of Tara Browne in
the printed media, so, starting in 1963 and continuing chronologically, here it
is;
Saturday, December
28, 1963
We begin with the birth of young Dorian Browne, photographed
in his Grandmother’s arms, recorded in the ‘William Hickey’ society gossip
column of the Daily Express. The column was named after an eighteenth-century
memoirist and was first launched in 1928 by Tom Driberg the homosexual Labour MP
and possible MI5 informant and KGB agent. Driberg kept many dubious friendships
including Aleister Crowley, the Kray Twins and Lord Boothby.
Driberg, however, had nothing to do with the column by the
sixties and in this article Tara talks of the christening held in Dublin:
“Everything went very well and Dorian behaved himself. I think he will have to
get used to travelling. He is so nice that we cannot bear to be parted from
him.”
Thursday, October 22,
1964
Saturday, March 6,
1965
Then along came Julian. Here we are told that: ‘“We’ll
all be going to Ireland soon” said Nicky. “I’ll probably get someone in to help
with the children. But I certainly shan’t have a nanny – I’m very anti them.”
Father Browne is
learning to become a racing-car mechanic at a Bayswater garage. He had his 20th
birthday on Thursday.’
Tuesday, March 16,
1965
You are going to have to take my word for this as even the
highest resolution scans have proved insufficient to retain a readable text,
but this advert from The Times of March 16, 1965 tells us that the Honourable
Tara is flogging off his finest furniture at an auction in Belgrave Square.
Now I don’t know about you, but when I was twenty years old
I barely had a pot to piss in let alone sufficient fine furniture to sell at
auction, so, was this his to sell? Is this sale relevant? We shall see.
Thursday November 18,
1965
Brings us another article about the fragrant Irish farmer’s
daughter – every article mentions that she is the daughter of an Irish farmer –
Nicky Browne, again in the William Hickey column.
Here, and just eight months after the birth of her second
son, Nicky is in Marbella, Spain arranging to screw two old locals out of their
property in order that she can open a boutique: ‘“It is a delightful old house” she said, “and the Spanish family are
really delighted to be moving into something more modern.”’
I’ll bet they were, I bet they were also “really delighted” at being patronised by
the rich, work-shy, foreigner as well.
Later the article adds: “While
she is in Marbella Mrs Browne will be looking at villas in and around the
village so that her two baby sons, Julian and Dorian, and her husband will have
somewhere to stay when they visit Marbella.”
Well, that seems only fair, after all these blue bloods
couldn’t possibly be expected to rough it in a hotel with the common people
could they?
All of which begs the obvious question, just who is looking
after the children? It certainly wasn’t the doting father Tara as he was
otherwise engaged in Paris shagging Amanda
Lear at the time. I doubt, likewise, that they will be with a nanny as Nicky has
already told us “I’m very anti them.” Be that as it may they would be bloody handy for palming
the kids off onto when one wishes to bugger off to Spain to open a boutique!
Just who is paying for the boutique and the villa, I wonder?
As well, of course, as Tara’s jaunts to Paris, his ‘garage in Bayswater’ his AC
Cobra, his Lotus, his tailoring business, Dandy fashions and a £20,000 house in
Belgravia?
Tara’s trust fund – because we all have one of those, don’t
we? – wasn’t due to pay out until he was 25 so did all this come from the
furniture sale or was young Tara accumulating a healthy debt?
We shall fast forward to October 66 – just two months before
his death – when things get really interesting.
Friday, October 14,
1966
Tara and the kids have gone AWOL.
It seems that Tara had taken the two boys off to Ireland for
a well-deserved holiday – because gallivanting around London and Paris in
fast-cars is such hard work! – when word got back to Nicky that the Oranmore
and Browne’s had sacked the nanny. Now, whilst Nicky may have been anti-nannies
she clearly had no objection to the kid’s grandparents employing one to do the
job she should have been doing herself.
Rather than going to the police and Interpol she does what
anyone would do in her situation, she engages the services of the celebrity
solicitor David
Jacobs. Jacobs, whose clients include Marlene Dietrich, Diana Dors and
Brian Epstein, would, like Epstein and Tara, fail to see out the decade, he
did, however, succeed in making the Browne kids ‘wards of court’. This means
that the children become guardians of the court and, as such, all decisions
concerning their upbringing are made by the court or its appointed
representative.
However, it turns out that the villain of the piece is not
Tara but his mother.
Saturday, October 15,
1966
None of this appears to have been resolved though when, on
December 18, 1966, tragedy strikes.
Monday, December 19,
1966
Transcript:
Tara Browne, heir to a
Guinness fortune, had everything in the world to live for.
He was tall,
fair-haired and handsome and his polite, gentle and unassuming manner made him
as popular as he was envied.
His wealth provided
him with the fast cars he loved and a £20,000 house.
He enjoyed the
friendship of the rich and the famous, he loved pop music, he loved visiting
his family’s lakeside mansion home deep in Ireland’s Wicklow hills.
But in his 21 years
Tara also knew unhappiness.
His mother, Lady
Oranmore and Browne, 56, has been married three times.
Her marriage to Tara’s
father, Lord Oranmore and Browne, was dissolved when Tara was only five.
Her third marriage, to
Cuban dress designer Miguel Ferraras was dissolved last year.
Tara fought bitterly
when he was thirteen against the wishes of his parents that he should attend
Eton. But he had to go.
And his own marriage
to Irish farmer’s daughter Nicky Macsherry collapsed earlier this year.
The couple had been
married secretly, in France in 1963. After the break-up Tara left his home in
Eaton-row, Belgravia and lived in hotels.
He was devoted to his
two children, Dorian, three and Julian, 18 months. Nearly every weekend he flew
to Ireland to visit them and his mother at the family home.
As a boy Tara loved
photography. One of his favourite tricks was taking pictures of celebrities at
his mother’s parties and selling them to newspapers for their gossip columns.
This summer his 21st
birthday party at the family home in Luggala was the sparkling social event of
the year.
His close friends Mick
Jagger and Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones were there. So was John Paul Getty
junior.
The Lovin’ Spoonful
group was hired for the night and hundres of guests danced to beat music until
six in the morning.
Tara, who was once
interested in being a racing driver, planned just before his death to open a
boutique in London.
Transcript
Tara Browne, the 21
year old Guinness heir killed in a car crash yesterday, may have died saving
the life of his girl companion – lovely photographic model Suki Potier.
Nineteen-year-old Miss
Potier, who played one of the girl friends of James Bond in the film “Casino
Royale,” had an amazing escape.
Mr Browne, due to
inherit £1 million in four years’ time, died soon after his 120 mile-an-hour
light blue Lotus Elan sports car hit the back of a parked van in Redcliffe
Gardens, Chelsea, London.
He had extensive head
injuries. The car was wrecked.
Last night as Miss
Potier recovered from shock at her home in Victoria Grove, Kensington her father
said: “I am sure this young man died saving my daughter’s life.”
Mr Gilbert Potier a 48
year-old chartered accountant said: “My daughter told me that Tara was not
going fast. Suddenly a white Volvo saloon shot across in front of them. My
daughter said Tara swerved to the right so that the impact would come on the
right-hand side of the car and not where she was sitting.”
He added: “It was a
most courageous thing to do. As far as we know the Volvo did not stop.”
It was the second time
in less than 10 days that one of Mr Potier’s daughters had had a fantastic
escape. His elder daughter, Sarah, 20, escaped without a scratch when her car
landed on its back in a field in Northern France after hitting a lorry.
Mr Potier said: “Suki
had known Tara for a couple of months. There was no romance.”
The first person at
the accident spot was Mrs Maggie Postlethwaite, a fashion model who lives in
Redcliffe Gardens.
With her children’s
Australian nurse, 25-year old Avis Becker she wrapped Mr Browne in travelling
rugs.
Mr Browne, who died
later in hospital, had lived for the last three weeks at the Ritz Hotel. The
gay, fun-loving heir was parted from his wife Nicky, whom he married secretly
in France in 1963. He loved fast cars, discotheques and parties – and had not a
care in the world, or so it seemed to the casual observer.
The son of Oonagh
Guinness and her second husband, Lord Oranmore and Browne, he wore his blond
hair long and turned up at important functions in exotic attire.
But at heart he was a
shy boy. People who met him in Ireland – on his rare visits there – were
impressed by his quiet spoken, modest manner.
Mr Browne had a garage
business in London and was also partner in a Chelsea boutique. He was busy
making arrangements to open another boutique.
But the boy who had
everything also had a secret sadness. A friend said: “He was very upset about
his marriage trouble. He worshipped his two children.”
Friday, December 23,
1966
Here the Irish Times provides us with some detail about
Tara’s funeral, news of which escaped the UK press. One can only imagine what
the conversations were when Nicky encountered Tara’s mum – ‘give me back my
f*****g kids’, or words to that effect – and Suki Potier – ‘were you shagging
my f*****g husband you bitch’ – sadly this was not reported!
The next detail we get comes from the inquest reports; the
very inspiration for the song ‘A Day in the Life’. The Irish Times provides the
most detail.
Thursday, January 5,
1967
Transcript
Blonde model Suki
Potier clasped dying Guinness heir Tara Browne in her arms.
And that was the first
she could remember after blacking out during a car crash, an inquest jury was
told yesterday.
But she could remember
incidents just before the crash – especially a mystery car “appearing from
nowhere.” Police have not been able to find the driver of the car, believed to
be either an E-type Jaguar or a Volvo, the jury was told at Westminster.
Tara Browne, 21, died
from brain injuries after his Lotus Elan sports car, in which Miss Potier was a
passenger, hit a stationary van in Redcliffe gardens, South Kensington on
December 18.
Blonde Miss Potier
said she and Tara left a restaurant at about 11.50 p.m. and drove “not very
fast” down Earls Court road into Redcliffe gardens.
“Suddenly I saw this
white car coming at the crossroads” she added.
“I think it was going
fairly fast and it did not seem to slow down at all. It went behind us. Tara
swerved to avoid the car, we hit something and I blacked out.”
She went on: “There
would have been a collision with the white car if Tara had not swerved – and I
think I would have been killed.”
Pathologist Dr Donald
Teare said that Mr Browne had drunk only from half-a-pint to a pint of beer.
The jury gave a
verdict of accidental death.
Wednesday, January
11, 1967
There was a memorial service held on this day for Tara.
Shortly after the memorial service we are able to pick up
the pieces of the missing Browne children.
Tuesday, January 17,
1967
Transcript
The two young children
of 21-year-old Guinness heir Tara Browne, killed when his sports car crashed in
London before Christmas, are to stay with their grandmother 56-year-old Oonagh,
Lady Oranmore and Browne.
A High Court judge
yesterday turned down a plea by the mother, 24-year-old farmer’s daughter Mrs
Noreen (Nicki) Browne, that she should have care and control of Dorian, aged
three, and Julian, 21 months.
But Mr Justice Cross
said “every effort should be made to let her play an increasing part in their
lives.” They should also remain wards of court.
Mrs Browne claimed the
children were “spirited away” by their grandmother three months ago and in
October made them wards of court and started an action to try and get them
back.
Tara, from whom she
was estranged, and his mother, who lives in Eire, were both named as
defendants.
The private hearing
was halfway through when Tara – due to inherit £1 million when he was 25 – was
killed.
Mr Justice Cross
decided that the hearing should continue and announced his judgement in a
statement to the press.
Now readers may have noted a soupcon of barely contained
contempt for the ‘farmer’s daughter’ running throughout this commentary
(frankly, if you hadn’t then this blog is clearly not for you!), however, to
lose your husband and then your children within the space of a month is simply
horrendous. So one wonders precisely what evidence was presented in order that
this judgement was arrived at. Clearly money talks and in this country, and
perhaps even more so in the sixties, so does your breeding, but for a judge to
think that these two young children would be better served remaining in the
care of a woman who effectively kidnapped them beggars belief.
However, we are not privy to the evidence, nor are we
granted an insight into the mental state of Nicky Browne at that time and so we
shall never know. One wonders if it may have been implied that Nicky had
something to do with Tara’s accident. For sure, she had a motive.
Whatever, by the end of the month she was leaving London,
and her kids, behind for the sunshine of Spain.
Monday, January 23,
1967
Monday, May 22, 1967
Perhaps emboldened by Nicky’s Spanish sojourn Granny
Guinness gets her face in the papers by parading young Dorian at a family
christening.
Wednesday, June 21,
1967
The ever informative Irish Times provides us with detail on
the size of Tara’s wealth at the time of his death. That family furniture sale
was clearly highly rewarding!
Perhaps buoyed by the information concerning his wealth we
find a Daily Mail article that reports that Nicky is planning on moving back to
London in order to obtain some of the Guinness loot.
Monday, December 9,
1968
Sadly you will not be able to read the print but,
essentially, it amounts to a plea to Oonagh for funds. The two boys by this
stage are being educated in Paris.
Fast-forward another two years and we find that not only was
Nicky successful on her trip to London in securing some dough but that she also
snared herself a new fella as well.
Wednesday, November
11, 1970
Monday, October 1,
1973
Sadly, the pursuit of Tara’s money rumbles on and on. By
1989 we find a court ruling finally granting Dorian and Julian access to the
trust fund that should have become their father’s in the early seventies, had
he lived.
Wednesday, November
22, 1989
It would appear that this was not the end of the matter
though. From 1991 we have this.
Wednesday, March 20,
1991
A year-and-a-half after the award was made to Julian and
Dorian they find that the fund that was worth £1 million in 1967 has dwindled
to some £30,000. The remainder apparently pissed away in a never ending spiral
of lawyer’s fees.
Whilst I can’t shed any tears at rich people wasting money I
couldn’t help but notice the mention the Castle Trust Company in the article. I
don’t think this has anything to do with the Bahamas based, CIA drug fund,
Castle Bank and Trust but one can never be sure!
Wednesday, February
19, 1992
These trust fund battles weren’t consigned merely to Tara
however, brother Garech seems to have had to fight the same battles himself. More
mentions here of Castle Trust Company.
Saturday, June 30,
2012
Back to the Irish Times for our finale and a wonderfully
detailed obituary to Nicky.
