John Hervey, 7th Marquess of Bristol

Frederick William John Augustus Hervey, 7th Marquess of Bristol ( "Harvey"; 15 September 1954 – 10 January 1999), also known as John Jermyn and John Bristol, was a British hereditary peer, aristocrat and businessman.

Although he inherited a large fortune, he died almost penniless from funding a chronic and persistent drug addiction.

John was the eldest child of the 6th Marquess of Bristol.

He was distant from his father, who treated him harshly, and did not get on well with him, though he was close to his first stepmother, Lady Juliet.

Frederick William John Augustus Hervey was born on 15 September 1954, five years into the marriage between Victor Hervey, Earl Jermyn, the heir to the Marquessate of Bristol, and Pauline Bolton, daughter of a Kent businessman.

He was their only child and his parents divorced when he was five years old in 1959.

He grew up in the family home, Ickworth House, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, and was a ward of court for some time after his mother left Ickworth.

In April 1960, his father inherited the Marquessate of Bristol following the death of the 5th Marquess; John Hervey in turn gained the courtesy title of Earl Jermyn.

The 6th Marquess, who had been jailed for jewel theft in his youth, behaved harshly towards his eldest son, according to friends of the family.

He did not show John love or affection, and was strict to the extent that John was required to wear long white gloves during dinner.

"He treated his son and heir with indifference and contempt," said Anthony Haden-Guest.

Jamie Spencer-Churchill, a school friend, summed up the relationship: "Victor created the monster that John became."

His mother remarried giving him Teddy Lambton, a Newmarket racehorse trainer, for a stepfather, and then a half-brother, George, who became a Conservative councillor.

In 1960, his father married secondly Lady Juliet Wentworth-Fitzwilliam, the only child of Peter Wentworth-Fitzwilliam, 8th Earl Fitzwilliam.

One son, Lord Nicholas Hervey, was born to this marriage.

John Hervey was close to both his step-parents, whom he later recalled as being warm and generous.

After spending time in London, Monte Carlo, Paris and New York in the 1970s, he settled in part of the family seat, Ickworth House in Suffolk, becoming the 7th Marquess in 1985.

Despite inheriting a large fortune of up to £35 million, the Marquess spent most of it during his lifetime.

He struggled with addiction to cocaine and other drugs, serving several jail sentences for possession, and was known for his flamboyant lifestyle and homosexuality.

His father's final marriage was to his private secretary, Yvonne Marie Sutton, in 1974, giving him three more half-siblings: the incumbent Frederick Hervey, 8th Marquess of Bristol, media personality Lady Victoria Hervey, and Lady Isabella Hervey.

John Hervey did not get on well with Yvonne, whom he referred to as "Miss Crimplene", and he reportedly hurled a glass at the wall when he received a telegram from his father announcing the marriage.

Around this time, his father attempted to prove that John was an illegitimate child, so could not inherit his titles and estates, but was unsuccessful.

He also stripped Ickworth House of its contents while John was away, and he came home one weekend to find everything suddenly missing.

Along with his half-brother Nicholas, Earl Jermyn attempted to sue his father's estate after Yvonne and her children were named the principal beneficiaries in the 6th Marquess's will, but failed.

The Earl was educated at Harrow School and the University of Neuchâtel.

He modelled himself on Oscar Wilde and began to use drugs and alcohol; the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography designates him a "wastrel".

He inherited a million pounds when he was 16 years old, and another four million five years later.

He eventually acquired a personal fortune worth up to £35 million, including oil wells in Louisiana and a 57000 acre sheep farm in Australia.

In his early 20s, he lived in a small flat and sold second-hand Bentley cars; friends recall he was at his happiest during this time.

He moved to Monte Carlo shortly after his father had relocated there in 1975 as a tax exile, but did not enjoy living there and moved to Paris, settling in a flat on the Rue de Bellechasse.

While there, he became openly gay and had a partner, which was picked up by the tabloid gossip columns.

He had moved to Manhattan by the end of the decade, and enjoyed throwing parties.

The Earl was frequently depicted in the British tabloids for his drug use, wild parties and homosexuality.

His brief marriage in the mid-1980s did not last because of this, and he became increasingly depressed as he lost money and faced bankruptcy, culminating in the sale of the remainder of Ickworth House to the National Trust.

In May 1983, he was arrested on suspicion of trafficking $4 million of heroin and moved from New York back to Ickworth House.

While there, on at least one occasion, the Earl piloted his helicopter without radar while snorting cocaine off the map he was using for navigation.

On another, while accompanying his secretary Angela Barry, he crash-landed the helicopter in a field, and walked to the nearest farmhouse, demanding to use the phone while leaving mud everywhere.

He became known for his dark sense of humour; on one occasion he allowed a young woman to ride a rubber dinghy into the middle of the lake at Ickworth and then shot at it with an air rifle, sinking it.

On another, he was accused of opening a fridge door to retrieve a bottle of champagne by blasting it with a shotgun.

He died in early 1999 of complications resulting from his drug addiction, and was succeeded by his half-brother, Frederick Hervey, 8th Marquess of Bristol.