Colin Tennant, 3rd Baron Glenconner

The Lord Glenconner
Lord Glenconner and Stefan Szczesny in front of Glenconner's statue at Mustique
Born	December 1, 1926(1926-12-01)
Died	August 27, 2010(2010-08-27) (aged 83)
Tenure	c. 1983 - 27 August 2010
Other titles	4th Baronet (Tennant Baronetcy)
Successor	Cody Tennant, 4th Baron Glenconner (grandson of Colin Tennant)
Spouse(s)	Lady Anne Coke
Issue	Hon. Charles Edward Pevensey Tennant Hon. Henry Lovell Tennant Hon. Christopher Cary Tennant Hon. Flora Tennant Hon. Amy Tennant
Parents	Grey Tennant, 2nd Baron Glenconner Pamela Winefred Paget

Colin Christopher Paget Tennant, 3rd Baron Glenconner (1 December 1926^[1] – 27 August 2010) was a Scottish noble. He was the son of Christopher Grey Tennant, 2nd Baron Glenconner and Pamela Winefred Paget. Furthermore, he was the nephew of Edward Wyndham Tennant and Stephen Tennant, and the brother of novelist Emma Tennant.

Before succeeding the peerage, he had been a great traveller, most notably in India and the West Indies. He was a close friend of Princess Margaret, to whom his wife was a lady-in-waiting, and an avid socialite. In 1958, he bought the Island of Mustique in The Grenadines for $45,000.

Mustique

He built a new village for the island's inhabitants, planted coconut palms, vegetables and fruit and developed the fisheries.

In 1960 the British Royal yacht Britannia was sailing the Caribbean with newlyweds Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon on board. The royal couple went ashore on Mustique to accept a wedding gift from Tennant, a plot of land, where Princess Margaret was to build her holiday retreat "Les Jolies Eaux".

The cost of running Mustique depleted Glenconner's family fortune and he took on business partners. Eventually, he went into exile on St. Lucia, where he ran for many years the "Bang Between the Pitons" restaurant (now sold to the adjacent Jalousie Plantation hotel).

In 2000 a documentary by Joseph Bullman was made about Lord Glenconner entitled The Man Who Bought Mustique. It chronicled Glenconner's first visit back to Mustique since his exile.

Further life

On 21 April 1956, he married Lady Anne Coke, daughter of Thomas Coke, 5th Earl of Leicester. At the wedding the also present Princess Margaret met for the first time Tony Armstrong-Jones (later her ex-husband), who was hired to take wedding pictures.

The Lord and Lady Glenconner had five children:

1. Hon. Charles Edward Pevensey Tennant (b. 15 February 1957 - d. 1996) - his eldest son became the next baron
2. Hon. Henry Lovell Tennant (b. 21 Feb 1960 - d. 1990)
3. Hon. Christopher Cary Tennant (b. 1967) - current heir presumptive to the barony
4. Hon. Flora Tennant (b. 1970)
5. Hon. Amy Tennant (b. 1970)

He inherited the peerage title and the Tennant Baronetcy, along with the family's Scottish estate of The Glen, in 1983, on the death of his father.

The couple came to divide their time between their house on St. Lucia and their home in England.

Together with his daughter May and her husband Anton, Glenconner began to develop the Beau Estate property between the Pitons.

As his eldest son Hon. Charles Edward Pevensey Tennant (1957–1996) predeceased him, Glenconnor was succeeded by his grandson, Cody Charles Edward Tennant (b. 2 February 1994).

In December 2009, Tennant, then aged 83, learned that he was also father to London psychotherapist Joshua Bowler. Bowler's mother, the artists' model and bohemian Henrietta Moraes, had become pregnant following a weekend spent with Tennant after the New Year's Eve 1954 Chelsea Arts Club Ball. However, she never told Tennant about the pregnancy, and married the actor Norman Bowler seven months later; the couple divorced two and a half years after that. After Moraes' death in 1999, Bowler decided to investigate his parentage, and wrote to Tennant after a mutual friend recalled seeing the young Tennant and Moraes leave the 1954 ball together. A paternity test revealed that Tennant was indeed Bowler's father, news that Tennant looked upon as “quite magical.”^[2] Tennant later hosted a family party to welcome and introduce Joshua Bowler to the Glenconner clan,^[3] and announced his intention to recognise him in his will.^[4]

Notes

1. ^ The Peerage profile Accessed 17 November 2009
2. ^ Driscoll, Margarette (10 January 2010). "Joshua Bowler: the daddy of all Mustique secrets". Times (London). http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/men/article6982385.ece. 
3. ^ "Glenconner parties with his lovechild". Daily Mail (London). 20 July 2010. http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Glenconner+parties+with+his+lovechild-a0232053556. 
4. ^ "Glenconner recognises his illegitimate son Joshua in his will". Daily Telegraph (London). 29 August 2010. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mandrake/7970427/Glenconner-recognises-his-illegitimate-son-Joshua-in-his-will.html. 

External links

• Colin Tennant interview, Daily Mail, 27 December 2009
• Cotton House Hotel on Mustique
• Beau Estate
• The Man Who Bought Mustique
• The Mustique Company
• Firefly Hotel on Mustique
• St. Lucia Calling
• Stefan Szczesny

Peerage of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Christopher Tennant	Baron Glenconner 1983–2010	Succeeded by Cody Tennant

Persondata
Name	Tennant, Colin Christopher, 3rd Baron Glenconner
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1 December 1926
Place of birth
Date of death	27 August 2010
Place of death