Stephen James Napier Tennant (1906 - 1987)

Born 21 Apr 1906 in Wilsford cum Lake, Wiltshire, England, United Kingdom

Ancestors

Died 28 Feb 1987 at age 80 in Wilsford cum Lake, Wiltshire, England, United Kingdom

Biography

Stephen James Napier Tennant was born 21 Apr 1906 in Wilsford cum Lake, Wiltshire, England, United Kingdom and and was the youngest son of a Scots peer, Edward Priaulx Tennant, Lord Glenconner (1859-1920) and the former Pamela Adelaide Genevieve Wyndham, who was also a cousin of Lord Alfred Douglas (1870-1945), On his father's death, his mother remarried to Lord Grey

He was a British aristocrat known for his decadent lifestyle.

During the 1920s and 30s, he was an important member of the "Bright Young Things". His friends included Rex Whistler, Cecil Beaton, the Sitwells, Lady Diana Manners and the Mitford girls - part of the set that made the Nordstrom Sisters popular at The Ritz in 1939. He is widely considered to be the model for Cedric Hampton in Nancy Mitford's novel "Love in a Cold Climate:; one of the inspirations for Lord Sebastian Flyte in Waugh's "Brideshead Revisited", and a model for Hon. Miles Malpractice in some of his other novels.

Also during that time he had an affair with Prince Philipp of Hesse-Kassel , and a longer one with the poet Siegfried Sassoon. Prior to this he had proposed to a friend, the novelist, Elizabeth Bowen, but had been rejected. (Hoare relates how Tennant discussed plans with Bowen about bringing his Nanny with them on their honeymoon.) His relationship with Sassoon, however, was to be his most important: it lasted some four years before Tennant off-handedly put an abrupt end to it. Sassoon was reportedly depressed afterwards for 3 months, until he married and became a father.

For most of his life, he tried to start or finish a novel, "Lascar".

It is popularly believed that he spent the last 17 years of his life in bed at his family manor at Wilsford, Wiltshire, England, which he had redecorated by Syrie Maugham. Though undoubtedly idle, he was not truly lethargic: he made several visits to the United States and Italy, and struck up many new friendships, despite his later reputation as a recluse. This became increasingly true only towards the last years of his life. Yet even then, his life was not uneventful: he became landlord to V. S. Naipaul who immortalised Tennant in his novel "The Enigma of Arrival".

The Honourable Stephen James Napier Tennant died on 28 February 1987 in Wilsford cum Lake, Wiltshire, England, United Kingdom.

Sources

• 1911/Apr/02 Census of Wilsford, Wiltshire, England;; @4yrs (son)

See also:

• 'Virginia Woolf' a biography by her nephew Quentin Bell, published by The Hogarth Press, Pimlico, London in 1996. ISBN 0 7126 7450 0, includes extensive family trees. Hundreds of friends, professional connections and people in the 'Bloomsbury set' are also mentioned in the text.'Virginia Woolf' a biography by her nephew Quentin Bell

Acknowledgements

• Tennant-830 was created on 11 Sep 2015 by Greg Slade through the import of Very cut down for Greg.ged