Felix Hope-Nicholson
British aristocrat and genealogist
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Charles Felix Otho Victor Gabriel John Adrian Hope-Nicholson[1][2] (21 July 1921 – 15 September 1990) was a British aristocrat and genealogist. The Herald of Scotland called him a "tall, imposing figure known as the Squire of Chelsea", and noted that after Eton College, Christ Church, Oxford,[3][4] and the war he had "dedicated his life to the greater glory of his ancestors, in particular the Linlithgow family and the Hopes of Hopetoun House."[5]
21 July 1921
Christ Church, Oxford
Felix Hope-Nicholson | |
|---|---|
| Born | Charles Felix Otho Victor Gabriel John Adrian Hope-Nicholson 21 July 1921 |
| Died | 15 September 1990 (aged 69) |
| Education | Eton College Christ Church, Oxford |
| Occupations | Aristocrat and genealogist |
| Father | Hedley Hope-Nicholson |
Biography
The son of Hedley Hope-Nicholson, a barrister, head of the Society of King Charles the Martyr and heir to a raincoat fortune,[6] in his young years Felix Hope-Nicholson was a notable figure in high society in London, and was often seen socialising at The Ritz.[7] During an air raid during World War II, in a drunken state, he tripped and fell on King Zog of Albania, who was staying at the hotel at the time.[8] By the 1970s he was described as "impoverished",[9] but successfully kept up the appearance of a "bachelor dandy".[10] He lived in the house in which he was raised, More House, 52 Tite Street.[2][10] Hope-Nicholson was a friend of Francis Bacon[11] and Hamish Erskine (son of the 5th Earl of Rosslyn),[12] a "notoriously vain, rather silly and extremely amusing" homosexual, unofficially ('listlessly') engaged to Nancy Mitford until Erskine ended the relationship.[13][14]