Nicholas Harold Phillips
Encyclopedia
Nicholas Harold Phillips (23 August 1947 – 1 March 1991) was a British
landowner
in Hertfordshire
and Bedfordshire
with royal connections. As a descendant of Sophia, Electress of Hanover, he was in the line of succession to the British throne
.
Phillips was the son of Colonel
Harold Pedro Joseph Phillips, Coldstream Guards
, by his marriage to Georgina Wernher. He was educated at Eton
, the University of London
and the University of Lausanne
.
He had four sisters, who included Alexandra Hamilton, Duchess of Abercorn
and Natalia Grosvenor, Duchess of Westminster
.
On 18 October 1975, in Salzburg
, Austria
, Phillips married Countess Maria Lucia Czernin von und zu Chudenitz, daughter of Count Paul Otto Ernst Diepold Maria Czernin (1904–1955). They had two children, Charlotte Phillips, born 1976, and Edward Paul Phillips, born 1981.
In 1977 Phillips inherited the Luton Hoo
estate. In the late 1980s he embarked on developing a business park
called 'Capability Green', on land he owned near the access road between the M1 road and Luton Airport. The name was a reference to much of the estate's gardens having been laid out by Capability Brown
. The park is now billed by the Bedfordshire and Luton Economic Development Partnership as the "premier business park of the East of England."
Considerable debt was charged against the estate to build the park and during the subsequent property crash he committed suicide at the age of 43, on 1 March 1991.
, a younger daughter of Grand Duke Michael Mihailovich of Russia
, grandson of Emperor Nicholas I of Russia
by his morganatic wife Countess Sophie of Merenberg
, daughter of Prince Nikolaus Wilhelm of Nassau (himself a brother of Adolphe, Grand Duke of Luxembourg
) by his morganatic wife, the younger daughter of the Russian poet Alexander Pushkin.
Lady Zia's sister Countess Nadejda de Torby
(Nada) was the wife of George Mountbatten, 2nd Marquess of Milford Haven
, elder maternal uncle of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
. The Torby sisters were third cousins of the Duke through their common ancestor Nicholas I.
Through his Russian grand ducal
father Phillips was descended from Sophia, Electress of Hanover, and was thereby in the line of succession to the British throne
.
Phillips was also an indirect descendant of the Russian poet Alexander Pushkin. Through Pushkin, he was descended from his African great-grandfather, Abram Petrovich Gannibal
(otherwise Ibrahim Hannibal) who was Peter the Great's protégé.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
landowner
Landed gentry
Landed gentry is a traditional British social class, consisting of land owners who could live entirely off rental income. Often they worked only in an administrative capacity looking after the management of their own lands....
in Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...
and Bedfordshire
Bedfordshire
Bedfordshire is a ceremonial county of historic origin in England that forms part of the East of England region.It borders Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Northamptonshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the west and Hertfordshire to the south-east....
with royal connections. As a descendant of Sophia, Electress of Hanover, he was in the line of succession to the British throne
Line of succession to the British Throne
The line of succession to the British throne is the ordered sequence of those people eligible to succeed to the throne of the United Kingdom and the other 15 Commonwealth realms. By the terms of the Act of Settlement 1701, the succession is limited to the descendants of the Electress Sophia of...
.
Life
Colonel
Colonel , abbreviated Col or COL, is a military rank of a senior commissioned officer. It or a corresponding rank exists in most armies and in many air forces; the naval equivalent rank is generally "Captain". It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...
Harold Pedro Joseph Phillips, Coldstream Guards
Coldstream Guards
Her Majesty's Coldstream Regiment of Foot Guards, also known officially as the Coldstream Guards , is a regiment of the British Army, part of the Guards Division or Household Division....
, by his marriage to Georgina Wernher. He was educated at Eton
Eton College
Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....
, the University of London
University of London
-20th century:Shortly after 6 Burlington Gardens was vacated, the University went through a period of rapid expansion. Bedford College, Royal Holloway and the London School of Economics all joined in 1900, Regent's Park College, which had affiliated in 1841 became an official divinity school of the...
and the University of Lausanne
University of Lausanne
The University of Lausanne in Lausanne, Switzerland was founded in 1537 as a school of theology, before being made a university in 1890. Today about 12,000 students and 2200 researchers study and work at the university...
.
He had four sisters, who included Alexandra Hamilton, Duchess of Abercorn
Alexandra Hamilton, Duchess of Abercorn
Alexandra Anastasia "Sacha" Hamilton, Duchess of Abercorn OBE is the wife of James Hamilton, 5th Duke of Abercorn....
and Natalia Grosvenor, Duchess of Westminster
Natalia Grosvenor, Duchess of Westminster
Natalia Ayesha Grosvenor, Duchess of Westminster is the wife of Gerald Grosvenor, 6th Duke of Westminster.The Duchess of Westminster is the younger daughter of Lt.-Col. Harold Pedro Joseph Phillips and his wife, Georgina Wernher. Her elder sister is Alexandra, Duchess of Abercorn...
.
On 18 October 1975, in Salzburg
Salzburg
-Population development:In 1935, the population significantly increased when Salzburg absorbed adjacent municipalities. After World War II, numerous refugees found a new home in the city. New residential space was created for American soldiers of the postwar Occupation, and could be used for...
, Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
, Phillips married Countess Maria Lucia Czernin von und zu Chudenitz, daughter of Count Paul Otto Ernst Diepold Maria Czernin (1904–1955). They had two children, Charlotte Phillips, born 1976, and Edward Paul Phillips, born 1981.
In 1977 Phillips inherited the Luton Hoo
Luton Hoo
Luton Hoo straddles the Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire borders between the towns of Harpenden and Luton. The unusual name "Hoo" is a Saxon word meaning the spur of a hill, and is more commonly associated with East Anglia.- Early History :...
estate. In the late 1980s he embarked on developing a business park
Business park
A business park or office park is an area of land in which many office buildings are grouped together. All of the work that goes on is commercial, not industrial or residential....
called 'Capability Green', on land he owned near the access road between the M1 road and Luton Airport. The name was a reference to much of the estate's gardens having been laid out by Capability Brown
Capability Brown
Lancelot Brown , more commonly known as Capability Brown, was an English landscape architect. He is remembered as "the last of the great English eighteenth-century artists to be accorded his due", and "England's greatest gardener". He designed over 170 parks, many of which still endure...
. The park is now billed by the Bedfordshire and Luton Economic Development Partnership as the "premier business park of the East of England."
Considerable debt was charged against the estate to build the park and during the subsequent property crash he committed suicide at the age of 43, on 1 March 1991.
Ancestry
Phillips's maternal grandmother, known as Lady Zia Wernher, was born Countess Anastasia de TorbyAnastasia de Torby
Countess Anastasia Mikhailovna de Torby, CBE , also named Lady Zia Wernher, was the elder daughter of Grand Duke Michael Mikhailovich of Russia, a grandson of Tsar Nicholas I of Russia, by Countess Sophie of Merenberg.-Biography:Like her mother, Anastasia was born of a morganatic marriage, and was...
, a younger daughter of Grand Duke Michael Mihailovich of Russia
Grand Duke Michael Mihailovich of Russia
Grand Duke Michael Mikhailovich of Russia was a son of Grand Duke Michael Nicolaievich of Russia and a first cousin of Alexander III of Russia. He followed a military career, but was banished from living in Russia when in 1891 he contracted a morganatic marriage with Countess Sophie of Merenberg...
, grandson of Emperor Nicholas I of Russia
Nicholas I of Russia
Nicholas I , was the Emperor of Russia from 1825 until 1855, known as one of the most reactionary of the Russian monarchs. On the eve of his death, the Russian Empire reached its historical zenith spanning over 20 million square kilometers...
by his morganatic wife Countess Sophie of Merenberg
Sophie of Merenberg
Countess Sophie of Merenberg, Countess de Torby, was the eldest daughter of Prince Nikolaus Wilhelm of Nassau and Natalya Alexandrovna Pushkina.-Early life:...
, daughter of Prince Nikolaus Wilhelm of Nassau (himself a brother of Adolphe, Grand Duke of Luxembourg
Adolphe, Grand Duke of Luxembourg
Adolphe I, Grand Duke of Luxembourg was the last Duke of Nassau, and the fourth Grand Duke of Luxembourg.-Biography:...
) by his morganatic wife, the younger daughter of the Russian poet Alexander Pushkin.
Lady Zia's sister Countess Nadejda de Torby
Nadejda Mountbatten, Marchioness of Milford Haven
Nadejda Mikhailovna Mountbatten, Marchioness of Milford Haven was the second daughter of Grand Duke Michael Mikhailovich of Russia and his morganatic wife Sophie, Countess von Merenberg. She was a younger sister of Countess Anastasia de Torby.Her paternal grandparents were Grand Duke Michael...
(Nada) was the wife of George Mountbatten, 2nd Marquess of Milford Haven
George Mountbatten, 2nd Marquess of Milford Haven
Captain George Louis Victor Henry Serge Mountbatten, 2nd Marquess of Milford Haven , styled Earl of Medina between 1917 and 1921, was born the son of Louis Mountbatten, 1st Marquess of Milford Haven and Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine at Darmstadt, Hesse, Germany...
, elder maternal uncle of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh is the husband of Elizabeth II. He is the United Kingdom's longest-serving consort and the oldest serving spouse of a reigning British monarch....
. The Torby sisters were third cousins of the Duke through their common ancestor Nicholas I.
Through his Russian grand ducal
Grand Duke
The title grand duke is used in Western Europe and particularly in Germanic countries for provincial sovereigns. Grand duke is of a protocolary rank below a king but higher than a sovereign duke. Grand duke is also the usual and established translation of grand prince in languages which do not...
father Phillips was descended from Sophia, Electress of Hanover, and was thereby in the line of succession to the British throne
Line of succession to the British Throne
The line of succession to the British throne is the ordered sequence of those people eligible to succeed to the throne of the United Kingdom and the other 15 Commonwealth realms. By the terms of the Act of Settlement 1701, the succession is limited to the descendants of the Electress Sophia of...
.
Phillips was also an indirect descendant of the Russian poet Alexander Pushkin. Through Pushkin, he was descended from his African great-grandfather, Abram Petrovich Gannibal
Abram Petrovich Gannibal
Major-General Abram Petrovich Gannibal, also Hannibal or Ganibal or Ibrahim Hannibal or Abram Petrov , was brought to Russia as a gift for Peter the Great and became major-general, military engineer, governor of Reval and nobleman of the Russian Empire...
(otherwise Ibrahim Hannibal) who was Peter the Great's protégé.