Chief Executive Officer Marquess of Ailesbury
In his youth, he attended Eton, but got into trouble, and left the school "under a cloud." (Wardens, page 310) He became a habitual gambler, forcing his grandfather to step in and pay hundreds of thousands of pounds to satisfy his creditors.
According to family records, he went by the name William, and was known informally as Willie. (Wardens, page 310 as "dear Willie" Wardens, page 312 as "poor, unfortunate Willie", cited from 3rd Marquess Ailesbury"s diary)
In the process of paying off certain creditors, the 3rd Marquess was forced to sell the family"s Yorkshire properties to raise the more than 175,000 GBP of debt Willie had amassed. (Wardens, page 318) During the legal proceedings in 1891, many offers were made to buy the great Savernake estates, including one by Edward Guinness, 1st Earl of Iveagh, then Chairman of the Board and former Chief Executive Officer of the Guinness Company.
(Wardens, page 321) After years of legal battles and appeals, Edward Guinness, by then known as Lord Iveagh, became impatient and withdrew his offer, after a 1 May 1893 deadline was not metropolitan
(Wardens, page 327) Not long after that, Ailesbury suffered an untimely death, brought about by a sudden illness, and due mainly to his excessive lifestyle. The April 1888 Vanity Fair caricature of William was originally published with a caption that is quoted, in part: "Lord Ailesbury is at bottom an excellently good creature.
But he can rarely remember not to forget himself." (Wardens, plate 14, facing page 316)
On 6 May 1884, Willie married the daughter of Thomas Haseley, an actress named Dorothy "Julia Haseley, better known to theatre-goers as Dolly Tester." (Wardens, page 312) But the marriage produced no children.
