a viscount and his vices

A VISCOUNT
AND HIS VICES
Michael Pearson’s love of fast cars, faster
women, flying machines and gambling lit up
London in the 1970s. But then he found Buddha,
reformed his life and retired to the country. So
why, despite his vast fortune, has he now put the
family pile up for sale? Christopher Silvester
investigates the Cowdray conundrum
L
ast year, the news that Lord
Cowdray had decided to downsize by selling off his family seat
of Cowdray Park, while retaining the bulk of the 17,000-acre
West Sussex estate in which it
lies, came as a shock to many observers of
the lifestyles of the super-rich. After all, Lord
Cowdray and the Pearson family still own a ten
per cent stake in Pearson, the media conglomerate, as well as other assets that amount to a
fortune of £850 million and gave them a ranking
of 68th in this year’s Sunday Times Rich List.
But when Cowdray Park finally went on the
block at the beginning of August, with a price
tag of £25 million, the reality began to sink in.
The Pearson family’s direct line are abandoning
their home of a hundred years. ‘It’s a huge
decision,’ says former gossip columnist Richard
Compton Miller. ‘It must be as big a wrench for
Lord Cowdray as it was for Lord Hesketh when
he decided to sell Easton Neston.’
Now, it must be said that Cowdray Park is
decidedly not one of the great stately homes
of England. Although the parkland dates back
to medieval times and contains the ruins of
an older manorial residence, the house is a
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Clockwise from right:
Michael Pearson
with his girlfriend, the
model Barbara Ray, on
board The Hedonist in
1970; Pearson assists a
model trying on a shirt
designed by his friend
Patrick Lichfield in
1968; a scene from his
hit film Vanishing Point
(1971); the Cowdray
family crest
25
From left: Dai
Llewellyn at The
Berkeley Square Ball
in 1979; Minah Bird in
1976; Weetman John
Churchill Pearson, 3rd
Viscount Cowdray, at
Cowdray Park in 1952
neo-Gothic Victorian pile, built in the 1870s
by the 7th Earl of Egmont, with various faux
medieval and Tudor flourishes, which was
acquired by Lord Cowdray’s great-grandfather,
the 1st Viscount, at the beginning of the last
century. Assuming that the property is sold in
the near future, the September 2009 wedding
of Cowdray’s 21-year-old daughter Eliza to
Richard Branson’s 31-year-old nephew Ned Abel
Smith (who had changed his name by deed poll
to Ned RocknRoll) was the last great Pearson
family occasion to be held at the house.
The Pearson family fortune initially derived from
a Yorkshire brick-making
business. The 1st Viscount,
Weetman Pearson, expanded into engineering
and built the first Blackwall
Tunnel, tunnels under the
East River in New York, and Dover harbour. same team as Prince Philip. Known in the City
In Mexico he developed coal and oil fields, as the one-armed bandit because he had lost
drained the capital, and crisscrossed the an arm at Dunkirk – after having the limb
country with oil interests. As a Liberal MP, amputated, he is reputed to have said, ‘Thank
before being made a peer, he was referred to as God, now I won’t have to play golf any more’ –
hen Michael Pearson, the the Member for Mexico. By the time Michael’s John Pearson doughtily continued to play polo
4th Viscount Cowdray, father John inherited the title in 1933, his estate, (with reins tied to a hook), shoot game with
and his wife Marina after death duties, included land in Scotland specially rebalanced guns, and cast and reel in
moved to Cowdray Park and Rhodesia as well as the Cowdray estate. a fishing line with his one good arm.
in 1995, following the Over the next 60 years, the 3rd Viscount
Although he went on to become a business
death of Michael’s father, the bill for rewiring acquired an 805,000-head cattle ranch in Texas titan, John Pearson had not done a stroke of
the house came to £1 million. ‘A house this size and Château Latour in Bordeaux. At the same work until he was 28, so he can’t have been too
is a hell of a responsibility,’ Michael has said of time, the Pearson family business moved into dismayed by his son’s antics. By the age of
his decision to sell, one with which he does not merchant banking through Lazard Brothers, 24, Michael had served as a trooper in the Life
wish to burden his son and heir Peregrine, 15. book publishing with Longman and Penguin, Guards, done a stint in the family business, and
‘In the years we have been here, I have worried and media via the Financial Times, the a spot of farming on the Cowdray estate, but
whether I will be leaving Perry with a wonder- Westminster Press local newspaper group, he was more interested in making money
ful asset or a noose around his neck. I fear it is and stakes in The Economist and Investors from business ventures that dovetailed with
likely to be the latter.’ Freed from responsibility, Chronicle. S Pearson and Son was floated as his pleasure-loving lifestyle. He started backwill Peregrine be able to enjoy a similarly a public company in 1969, midway through ing films, putting up £500,000 for a couple of
hedonistic lifestyle to that which his father led John’s tenure as chairman.
forgettable releases. Noting that it was costing
in the 1960s before settling down or will he be
His other notable achievement was the post- him £10,000 a year to eat out in London, his
a more driven figure like his grandfather?
war revival of British polo at the
financial advisers told him it
Michael was educated at Gordonstoun, Cowdray Park Polo Club, which Inheriting
would be cheaper to buy a
which another old boy of the school, Anthony is separate from, though adjacent
so that’s what he
£7 million aged restaurant,
Haden-Guest, recalls as being ‘sort of an upper- to, the property that is for sale.
did, paying £15,000 for a French
class Borstal’. Having inherited £7 million on Although Michael never sought 21, he acquired a
bistro in Belgravia, Le Coq au
his 21st birthday, Michael acquired a Ferrari, a polo glory after a fall from a horse Ferrari, a white
Vin, in 1968. He had an interest
white Rolls-Royce and a helicopter, in which at the age of 13, his father was
a New York boutique, an
Rolls-Royce and in
he would whisk girls off to Bardsey, his private always a keen player, having won
apartment development in the
island off the Welsh coast. He also had an 84ft an Oxford Blue and played on the a helicopter
Bahamas, and within a couple of
yacht, worth £100,000 according
years he had a hit film on his
to a 1969 estimate, which he called Cowdray Hall
hands – a cult road movie called
The Hedonist. In its day, it was the
Vanishing Point, from a screenheight of chic, sleeping eight plus a
play by the Cuban-born novelist
crew of four, with air conditioning,
Guillermo Cabrera Infante, in
a deep freeze, and a stereophonic
which a delivery driver speeds
sound system. He later acquired a
across the country in under 15
house in The Boltons, Chelsea,
hours for a bet, in defiance of
which, in addition to its six
traffic cops and guided by ‘Super
bedrooms, boasted a swimming
Soul’, a blind black DJ with a
pool, disco, private cinema, and a
police radio scanner.
shooting range. On one occasion in
Resolutely bearded from
the 1960s he won £32,000 off Lord
his early twenties onwards,
Lucan in a game of backgammon.
Michael’s face fungus was no
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daughter, Marina Cordle, who
subsequently bore him three
daughters and two sons, and who
shares his ecological and spiritual
interests. ‘They’re really ecominded, but then they can afford to
be,’ says Seward. ‘He’s not a weirdo.
He’s a very chilled person now. He
From left: Ned RocknRoll and Eliza Pearson at the 2009 Veuve Clicquot
doesn’t drink, he doesn’t smoke,
Gold Cup final at Cowdray Park; the Pearsons, (from left) Montague, Emily,
he doesn’t do anything wild, but
Peregrine, Marina, Eliza and Michael, at the same event
he’s still fun. I think his gentle
side has come out during his
marriage to Marina.’ To celebrate
impediment to his amorous pursuits. He dated fortune in an Irish sweepstake. Michael the millennium, he built a Buddhist temple in
a string of debutantes, models and actresses. financed Mim to go round the world and the grounds of the estate.
His three-year relationship with English model record interesting music – to make “the world’s
If the bohemian aspect of his personality
Barbara Ray yielded a son, Sebastian, born greatest album”.’
remains ingrained, so does his respect for his
out of wedlock though proudly recorded by
Ingrid Seward, who went on to edit Majesty father. One friend says: ‘Michael is just a reMichael in Debrett’s. He and Ray have a lasting magazine, first got to know Pearson when she action to his dad. His dad was driven, ambitious,
friendship, with Barbara later remodelling his was fresh out of secretarial college and work- tough – the man who made Pearson the
London home and Michael helping to finance ing as a PR for the Playboy casino empire: ‘I corporate beast it is today. He also resurrected
her interior design business. Sebastian, now remember lunches and dinner at his home in polo in this country after the war. He was a
40, is a photographer and a keen polo player. The Boltons. There were parties every night.’ close friend of the Queen, and at one time,
After Barbara, there were affairs with Emma His was a very fast-moving set that included apart from her and the Duke of Westminster,
Chetwode, niece of the Earl of Minto; a Anthony Bamford of the JCB family, George de he was Britain’s wealthiest person – a massive
Spanish model, Maria Perez; a Nigerian model, Vere Drummond of the banking family, the figure. So I think Michael said to himself right
Minah Bird; and Miranda Quarry, ex-wife of controversial asset-stripper John Bentley and from the start, “Well, I’m not going to match up
Peter Sellers.
the artist Willy Fielding, famous for his erotica, to that, so I’m not even going to try.” ’ Last year
who painted trompe l’oeil murals for Michael. he opened a 16-acre arboretum in honour of his
e’s the last of that generation ‘They’re still his close friends,’ says Seward.
father at Benbow Pond on the A272, which will
of 1960s ravers,’ says Compton
While his long hair and ample beard gave not be included in the sale. Two of his children,
Miller. ‘Every summer that him a hippyish air, he was nonetheless serious Sebastian and Eliza, were married in open-air
boat would sail around the about wanting his business ventures to suc- pagan rituals, officiated by druids, around a
Mediterranean with a growing ceed. ‘I doubt if Michael would sleep rough at modern mini-henge of foot-high stones beneath
list of beautiful women on board.’ Michael a rock festival in the rain,’ says Haden-Guest. Cowdray Park’s avenue of Wellingtonias.
started sporting a Hussar suit, open-neck (Michael is not the only member of the family
Today, Pearson remains a slightly bohemian
shirts or dragon ties ‘of shrieking green’ and a to eschew the conventional. In the late 1980s his figure, with shorter, thinning hair, but still
Wild West belt. Many of his gang of lotus-eater half-sister Rosie married a Rastafarian reggae sporting the beard of his youth, though it is
friends are either dead, like Patrick Lichfield musician, Palma Taylor, the son of a Tube now more salt than pepper. He resembles that
and Dai Llewellyn, or living extremely quietly, driver, who she had met while working as inner- other bearded aristo Prince Michael of Kent.
some of them suffering from ill-health. Michael cities correspondent on The Independent.) One ‘Michael has an enquiring mind, he always
still owns a portrait of himself from this period, indication of his more serious side came in wants to know more about life,’ says Seward.
painted at one of Dai Llewellyn’s nightclubs, 1974 when he declined a
‘He’s an incredibly deep-thinking
Wedgies. ‘Pearson is a Sixties survivor. He £10,000 wager to streak An indication of
and kind person. I think Cowdray
turned over a new leaf in the mid-1970s, gave from Tramp in Jermyn
is just a very big, draughty
Michael’s serious Park
up being a playboy, had children, and rejoined Street to Belgravia. The
house to him.’
the human race – instead of being the raver following year, when side came in 1974
He and Marina are moving back to
that we’d all slightly wanted to be if we’d had the Labour government when he declined
the cottage where they lived before
the money to afford it. He certainly had a won- started to ‘soak the
his father died, on the northern
a £10,000 wager
derful time auditioning future Lady Cowdrays,’ rich’, Pearson moved to
boundary of the Cowdray estate. It
continues Compton Miller.
California, put his yacht to streak from
is a modest residence compared to
The gossip columnists in the late 1960s and and his private island up Tramp to Belgravia Cowdray Park itself, with its 16
early 1970s always referred to him as a playboy, for sale, and spent the
bedrooms (excluding the attic
but that isn’t strictly accurate. ‘I think the word remainder of the decade living as a tax exile, rooms). Merely insulating the house costs a
playboy is putting it a bit strongly,’ says Haden- darting between an apartment in Monte Carlo king’s ransom, whereas their new old home
Guest, who is several years older than Pearson and a home in Ibiza. In 1977 he married is a model of ecological sustainability, with a
but a good friend. ‘A lot of rich kids of a mildly German model Ellen ‘Fritzi’ Erhardt, the biomass boiler fuelled by wood chips from
hippyish disposition at that time would back a daughter of a German industrialist. The the estate, and its own water supply. The
play or rock band or club or restaurant or film, dancing at their Bavarian lakeside wedding 4th Viscount Cowdray has said that he is ‘not
or something of that nature. He was very much went on until 6am and an island-hopping the sort of person who feels hugely attached
of that genre. Also, he had a kind of entourage. Caribbean honeymoon followed. But the to things’, but he will doubtless miss the
There was a chap called Bones and Mim Scala, marriage only lasted seven years and in 1987 Wellingtonias, the pond he and Marina
a young Italian hippie whose dad had won a he was married again, this time to a Tory MP’s created, and that Buddhist temple.
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