Anthony Marreco, Friends & Acquaintances - Short - v1

Anthony Marreco (26th August 1915 – 4th June 2006 aged 90)

When growing up, I knew the Islandmore or Corkan Island as 'Marreco's Island', named after Anthony Freire Marreco who was a British barrister and who had maintained a Georgian house at Porthall, (Porthall House) near Lifford, Co. Donegal, on the banks of the River Foyle overlooking the island.

 

Anthony Blechynden Marreco was born in Leiston, Suffolk, England on 26th Aug 1915 where his father's regiment was stationed at the time, the only child of Geoffrey Algernon Freire Marreco (b.25 Feb 1882 d.15 Sept 1969) of The Old Court House, St Mawes, Cornwall and his wife, née Hilda, Gwendoline Beaufoy Francis (b.15 Dec 1887 d.9 June 1967) born Greenford, Middlesex.

 

The Freire Marreco’s were of Portuguese origin; Anthony's great-grandfather, Antonio Joaquim Freire Marreco (b.1787 d.1850) was born in Penafiel in Northern Portugal. Antonio established himself in business in England in the early 19th century and in 1834 married Anna “Annie” Laura Harrison (b.1806) of Newcastle, the daughter of his English business partner William Harrison, at St Botulph's Church, Aldgate in London. Antonio became a naturalised British subject. Freire was the original Portuguese surname, Marreco was added by the grandfather after a trip to Brazil were at that time it was popular to add the names of a flower or bird, Marreco being a type of duck.

Geoffrey, Anthony’s father worked for Richard Garrett & Sons a manufacturer of agricultural machinery, steam engines and trolley buses, the factory was located in Leiston, Suffolk, England.

 

Education

Anthony initially attended a private school in Woking, Allen House School, before attending the Royal College of St Peters, Westminster from 1929 to 1934 where his lifelong interest in human rights began. His headmaster, Dr. Crossley-White had invited leading personalities of the day to dinner, so at the age of 17, Marreco met his childhood hero, T.E. Lawrence (b.1888 d.1935), English playwright, composer, director, actor, and singer and also Mahātmā Gandi (b.1869 d.1948) Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethicist.

 

Stage Career

In 1934 he joined the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), he won a scholarship in 1935 however he later expelled after being spotted by the principal's wife at the Epsom Downs Derby, when he should have been attending classes. From 1935 to 1937, he began a career on the stage, playing in Shakespeare and forming friendships with figures such as Noel Coward (b.1899 d.1973) and Johnny Weismuller (b.1904 d.1984). He joined Northampton Repertory and was stage manager at Crewe Repertory and later the London shows at His Majesty's, Daly's, the Arts Theatre and the Royal Theatre.

 

Olympic Games – Germany 1936

Anthony received an invitation from Otto Christian von Bismarck (b.1987 d.1975) who was counsellor at the German Embassy in London (1928-1937) to attend the 1936 Summer Olympic games in Germany as part of an official party. He attended the games in the company of, John Beverley Nichols (b.1898 d.1983), English author, playwright, journalist, composer, and public speaker and Henry Hector Bolitho (b.1897 d.1974), a New Zealand writer, novelist and biographer. There was a mix up with their seats and it look like they would not get in, however a German SS officer frantically beckoned them upstairs to some fine seats. Minutes later Adolf Hitler (b.1889 d.1945), Hermann Göring (b.1893 d.1946) and Joseph Goebbels (b.1897 d.1945) along with their respective wives arrived and took up seats directly in front. The Nazi party was in the charge of Ernst Hanfstaengl (b.1887 d.1975), nicknamed "Putzi", who was a German-American businessman who became an intimate friend and confidant of Adolf Hitler who enjoyed listening to "Putzi" play Wagner on the piano when he could’nt sleep. Hitler was the godfather of Hanfstaengl's son, Egon (b.1921 d.2007).

Marreco witnessed Hitler’s display of fury when Jessie Owens (b.1913 d.1980) won the 100 meters (Owens won four gold medals in the long jump, 200 meters, 4 x 100-meter relay and 100 meters). Marreco also remarked how “Leni” Riefenstahl, Helene Bertha Amalie (b.1902 d.2003), German film director, actress and Nazi sympathiser jumped up with her camera and filmed Hitler from every conceivable angle every time he spoke. She was commissioned by the German Olympic Committee to film the Games for $7 million and directed the Nazi propaganda films “Triumph des Willens” (Triumph of the Will) and “Olympia” (video documentary of the games). The movies are widely considered two of the most effective, and technically innovative, propaganda films ever made. Adolf Hitler was in close collaboration with Riefenstahl during the production of at least three important Nazi films during which they formed a friendly relationship. Some have argued that Riefenstahl's visions were essential to the carrying out the mission of the ‘Final Solution’.

 

Naval Career

In 1940 Anthony joined the Royal Navy as rating; Commission, Sub-Lieutenant (A) Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNVR) and when the Admiralty learned that he had a pilot's licence, Certificate No:14851, issued on 24 April 1937 by the Great Britain, Royal Aero Club Aviators at Airwork School of Flying, Heston Airport, Hounslow, Middlesex which he had taken on an Avro Club Cadet Gipsy Major 130 aeroplane, he was commissioned to fly a Fairey Swordfish, a biplane torpedo bomber.

He received his wings on 6th October 1940 and was appointed to train observers at the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS), Arbroath, Scotland also know as HMS Condor, now know as RM Condor.

 

In 1941 he was temporarily released from Naval duties on appointment as Assistant Counsel to legal department of Industrial Export Council and was later promoted to Lieutenant, appointed RNAS at Yeovilton, Somerset, Instructor, Fighter Direction School.

 

In January 1942 he was appointed Fleet Fighter Direction Officer, Staff Commander-in-Chief, Home Fleet, H.M.S. King George V (41) the flagship of both the British Home Fleet and the Pacific Fleets which was involved in the hunt for and pursuit of the German battleship Bismarck.

 

April 1942, Marreco was lent to aircraft carrier, USS Wasp (CV-7) as Flight Deck Officer (FDO) to fly Spitfires to Malta (Wasp was sank on 15 Sept 1942 in the Coral Sea after being struck by 3 torpedoes from a Japanese Type B1 submarine I-19).

 

In June 1942 he was appointed to the Naval Night Fighter Development Unit as specialist unit primarily focused on developing and testing naval night fighter tactics and aircraft capabilities, operated from HMS Daedalus, a Royal Naval Air Station located near Lee on the Solent.

 

In June 1943 he was appointed Flight Deck Officer (FDO) on an American built HMS Attacker (D02) escort aircraft carrier, which took part in “Operation Avalanche”, the codename for the Allied landings near the port of Salerno executed between 9-12 Sept 1943, part of the Allied invasion of Italy.

December 1943 he was appointed Flight Deck Officer (FDO) of the American built aircraft carrier, USS Pybus (CVE-34) rename by the Royal Navy, HMS Emperor (D98).

 

In January 1944 Marreco was promoted to Lieutenant Commander and Flight Deck Officer (FDO) of the Belfast built aircraft carrier HMS Formidable (67) under the command of Captain Philip Ruck-Keene (b.1897 d.1977) which was involved in Operation Goodwood, a number of attacks on 22, 24, and 29 Aug 1944 on the German battleship Tirpitz, she was finally sank during air ‘Operation Catechism’ in the Norwegian Tromsø Fjord, on 12 Nov 1944 when Lancaster bombers dropped 12,030-pound "Tallboy" bombs designed by Sir Barnes Wallis (who previously developed the bouncing bomb) capable piercing the Tirpitz's double layer of armour plating.

 

Formidable sailed to the Far East on 16 Sept, however was stationed at Gibraltar between 21 Sept 1944 till Jan 1945 to begin a refit. She finally joined the British Pacific Fleet on 16 April 1945 in place of HMS Illustrious (87) which was in poor mechanical shape. Subsequently, Formidable took part in air strikes against the Japanese island, Sakishima Gunto between April-May 1945. Marreco was also engaged in the Battle of Okinawa, codenamed Operation Iceberg between 4-9 May 1945, as part of Task Force 57. During the Battle of Okinawa, Formidable was hit by Kamikazes, yet was able to operate her aircraft within a few hours of the attack, her aircraft later on 14 July 1945, took part in air strikes against Japanese home islands.

 

June 1945, Marreco was discharged for passage back to London to take up an appointment at the Admiralty as advisor on Kamikaze suicide fighters, in preparation for the final assault on Japan, on 14 July 1945, aircraft from Formidable took part in this assault. This is when Marreco heard the war was over.

 

Marreco states, “I left my ship, just before entering Tokoyo Bay for the surrender ceremony and flew to Sydney, Australia and I spent a couple of weeks there. I received a signal from the Admiralty saying, the war is over, this officer no longer needed, send him back the slowest and cheapest means you can possibly find, which they did. I was Senior Naval Officer on board a very old P&O liner called the Rangitiki which had been built for 400 passengers but we had nearly 1,000 eldery people on board they’d been in POW camps, Japanese camps, they were in a terrible state, we sailed for England”.

Marreco describes part of his job onboard, “As Senior Naval Officer I had to get up at 5.00am in the morning, every morning to bury my brothers and sisters who had not survived the night, every night elderly people fell and hit their head on the taps and that kind of thing, we would form-up a little procession along the allyways in the bowels of the ship and make our way to a door in wall of the ship and commit them to the deep”.

 

RMS Rangitiki was NOT a P&O liner, I found the following detail of a voyage from Sydney to Southampton shortlly after peace was declared. It’s likely this is the return journey Marreco describes. Rangitiki and two other sister ships the Rangitata and Rangitane was ordered in 1927 to be built by John Brown Co, Glasgow. On the 4 March 1946 the Rangitiki arrived Sydney, prior to sailing for London nearly 18,000 bags of food parcel mail were loaded onto the Rangitiki, which left Sydney on the 8 March. Shipping companies think this is a record consignment for any one passenger ship. The Rangitiki also carried almost 800 passengers, which is understood to be the largest complement of civilians to leave Australia since before the war. The vessel would also embark a further 80 passengers at Fremantle on 15 March, also in port at the same time were seventeen Allied warships. Many Australian warbrides were on the ship headed to England. By 7 April, Port Suez had been reached, by 14 April the Rangitiki had docked at Southampton without the aid of tugs. 120 tugmen were on strike, their 14 tugs were not available for duty. According to one of the passengers the ship had broken down with engine trouble several times on the trip.

 

In 1946, Marreco was demobilised and return to civvy street, he later accepted an offer to attend the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal as part of the British delegation where he spent a number of months.

 

Legal Career

Having passed his first Bar Examination in 1938, he was called to the Bar (Inner Temple) in 1941 during his absence on war service.

He continued his law studies and took his Bar Finals in a military nissan hut at RNAS Twatt, HMS Tern which was in operation from 1940–1949 on the Orkney Islands. The examination was invigilated by a chief petty officer.

 

In Sept 1945 after returning to England after the war Marreco was later a pupil of the distinguished Irish lawyer Brian McKenna KC (b.1905 d.1989) in Walter Monckton's chambers in the Temple, 2, Paper Buildings, London. He never returned to the Bar, and instead went on to become a human-rights advocate, helping co-found Amnesty International.

 

Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal (1945 - 1949)

Marreco takes up the story. "I had returned from the Navy and I was back in my London chambers when one day in March 1946 after coming out of the dining hall of the Inner Temple, about three months into the trial, Hartley Shawcross (b,1902 d.2003), the Chief Prosecutor Attorney-General fell into step beside me. He was a sailing acquaintance of my father and he said,”Good to see you Marreco, how are getting on? I’m fine”, and then he asked,”Would you like to go to Nuremberg”? Marreco replied “Give me 24 hours”, he went back to his chambers (Walter Monckton's) and discussed the proposition with his colleagues who advised him to go. Marreco arrived in Germany, 2 weeks later on 18 March 1946, just as American lawyer Robert H. Jason (b.1892 d.1954) is cross-examining Hermann Göring. Marreco was briefed by the Deputy Chief Prosecutor of the British team, Sir David Maxwell Fyfe, 1st Earl of Kilmuir (b.1900 d.1967).

Members of the British Prosecuting Counsel at Nuremberg included: Leading Council: Mr. Geoffrey ('Khaki') Dorling Roberts (b.1886 d.1967), Junior Council: Major J. Harcourt Barrington (b.1907 d.1973), Major Frederick Elwyn Jones (b.1909 d.1989), Mr Edward George G. Robey (b.1900 d.1983), Lieut Col. John Mervyn Griffith-Jones (b.1909d d.1979), Colonel Henry Josceline Phillimore (b.1910 d.1974), Airey Middleton Sheffield Neave (b.1916 d.1979), Sir Clement Raphael Freud (b.1924 d.2009), & Peter John Ambrose Calvocoressi (b.1912 d.2010).

 

In all, six organisations, including the SS, the Gestapo and the high command of the German army were also accused. 199 defendants were tried, 161 were convicted and 37 were sentenced to death, including 12 of those tried by the International Military Tribunal (IMT).

 

From March to Sept 1946 Marreco was Junior Counsel of the British Delegation his first task was to join a subsidiary tribunal to sort out the witnesses, convened under Airey Neave who was the first British officer to successfully escape from Oflag IV-C at Colditz Castle on 12 May 1942. The defence called more than 400 witnesses, and Marreco was present when they made their depositions and cross-examined them on behalf of the prosecution. He also describes how he helped draft the trials' forensic closing speech delivered by the head of the British team Sir Hartley Shawcross.

 

Marreco recalls, "In the six months I was in Nuremberg, I got to know each of the Nazi defendants, and with one notable exception, I never liked any of them. Particularly, Joachim von Ribbentrop (b.1893 d.1946), the former ambassador to Britain who sat ashen-faced and was the most unpalatable character. Wilhelm Frick (b.1877 d.1946) was a horrible little man; Walther Funk (b.1890 d.1960) was another dirty little shit”. He loathed Rudolf Höss (b.1901 d.1947), he was commandant of Auschwitz whom he vividly remembered being "brought into the courtroom clanking in chains" and who paced up and down, giving the impression of a madman. But with Hermann Göring (b.1893 d.1946), Hitler's number two, there was something about his attitude and the way he took charge of all the defendants, that was for me, totally compelling. Göring, who sang-froid throughout the judicial process and on one occasion when a particularly attractive military wren was standing next to the dock, Göring reached out and pinched her bottom. She was so incensed and complained to the judge, who asked her to say outside the courtroom until she was able to go directly to her seat, but Göring knew he was going to die and he didn't care".

 

Britain’s legal team was tiny compared with the 300-plus American team, Maxwell Fyfe told Marreco that the Americans had got bogged down because the German defence counsel had surprisingly called more than 400 witnesses, many of them SS guards who had previously been at the extermination camps of Auschwitz and Belsen.

 

The International Military Tribunal (IMT) announces its verdicts on November 1946. It imposes the death sentence on 12 defendants, Göring, Ribbentrop, Wilhelm Keitel (b.1882 d.1946), Ernst

Kaltenbrunner (b.1903 d.1946), Alfred Rosenberg (b.1892/1893 d.1946), Hans Frank (b.1900 d. 1946), Wilhelm Frick (b.1877 d.1946), Julius Streicher (b.1885 d.1946), Fritz Sauckel (b.1894 d. 1946), Alfred Jodl (d.1890 d.1946), Arthur Seyss-Inquart (b.1892 d.1946) and Martin Bormann (b.1900 d.1945). 3 are sentenced to life imprisonment, Rudolf Hess (b.1894 d.1987), Walther Funk (b.1890 d.1960), and Erich Raeder (b.1876 d.1960). The only one of them to serve their entire life in prison was Rudolf Hess. 4 receive prison terms ranging from 10 to 20 years, Karl Dönitz (b.1891 d.1980), Baldur von Schirach (b.1907 d.1974), Albert Speer (b.1905 d.1981), and Konstantin von Neurath (b.1873 d.1956). The court acquits 3 defendants, Hjalmar Schacht (b.1877 d.1970), economics minister, Franz von Papen (b.1879 d.1969), German politician who played an important role in Hitler's appointment as chancellor, and Hans Fritzsche (b.1900 d.1953), head of press and radio.

The death sentences were carried out on 16 October 1946, with two exceptions, Göring who made an appeal asking to be shot as a soldier instead of hanged as a common criminal, but the court refused. He committed suicide, taking a potassium cyanide capsule on 15 Oct 1946, the night before he was scheduled to be hanged. Martin Bormann remained missing however in absentia he was sentenced to death by hanging on 1 October 1946. The other 10 defendants are hanged, their bodies cremated at Ostfriedhof, Munich, and the ashes deposited in the Iser River.

 

Marreco believed devoutly in the conventions established at Nuremberg that the conspiracy or common plan to make aggressive war was a criminal offence. Under this convention, he said, not only Saddam Hussein, but arguably also British prime minister Tony Blair and US president George W Bush could be tried in the International Court at the Hague.

 

Appointment in Germany

October 1946 he takes his new appointment in Germany arranged by Sir Patrick Henry Dean (b.1909 d.1994) who had been legal adviser to the British Foreign Office but was now head of the German Political Department 1946 to 1949. He asked Marreco if he would like to go to Berlin. He would be assistant to what Marreco described as a political commissar, Austin Albu (b.1903 d.1994) who was Deputy President of the Governmental Sub-Commission of the British Control Commission during the Allied occupation following the war. Marreco was appointed his Chief Assistant and in April 1947 was appointed Director of the same. His spent approx. 2 year with the commission involved in the creation of new institutions for law and democracy in Germany. During December 1948 he resigned from the Control Commission.

 

Publishing

In the 1950s he was a director of Weidenfeld & Nicolson, established 1949, a British publisher of fiction and reference books. He also worked as an investment banker for SG Warburg & Co founded in 1946 by Siegmund George Warburg (b.1902 d.1982) and Henry Grunfeld (b.1904 d.1999).

 

Political Career

Marreco contested Wells in Somerset as a Liberal candidate in the 1950 general election obtaining 9,771 votes however, he was unsuccessful being beaten by the Conservative representative Dennis Boles (b.1885 d.1958) with 20,613 votes. Again, in Goole in the West Riding of Yorkshire in the 1951 general election he obtaining 17,073 votes being beaten by the Labour representative George Jeger (b.1903 d.1971) with 26,088 votes.

 

Amnesty International

In 1960 Flora Solomon (b.1895 d.1984), his neighbour in Shepherd Street, told Marreco that her son, Peter Benenson aka Peter James Henry Solomon (b.1921 d.2005) was founding an organisation which was later to become Amnesty International. Marreco, who had twice stood as a Liberal candidate for Parliament, supported him vigorously.

 

In 1968, Marreco became Honorary Treasurer and set up an Amnesty International Development Inc. (AID Inc.) in 1970 in the United States, which was totally separate from Amnesty International and which could send funds to families of Greek prisoners. This was strongly opposed by Amnesty International USA.

Outspoken in all his opinions, Marreco conducted several investigations for Amnesty, notably during the regime of the Greek Colonels, when he went to Athens to interview Stylianos Pattakos (b.1912 d.2016), one of the junta leaders of 1967–1974, about allegations of torture and the curtailing of civil liberties.

 

In 1971, Marreco investigated allegations of torture by British troops in Northern Ireland and subsequently resigned. He said, “Amnesty refused to go to Belfast and even see these people"; he added that “it was also a bizarre circumstance" that Amnesty's chairman, Sean MacBride (b.1904 d.1988), was the leader of Clann na Poblachta (Irish republican political party) from 1946 to 1965 and was a former Chief of Staff of the IRA from 1936 to 1939. He also implied that he had received treats from the IRA when living at Porthall, Co. Donegal, Republic of Ireland.

 

Mother & Fathers Deaths

Anthony’s mother, Hilda Gwendoline Marreco dies on 9th June 1967 and is buried at St. Lucadius Church of Ireland, Clonleigh Parish, Lifford, Co. Donegal, Ireland.

 

Anthony’s father, Geoffrey Algernon Freire Marreco dies on 15 Sept 1969 is buried with his wife at St. Lucadius Church, Lifford, Co. Donegal.

 

Mayfair Residents Association

For 13 years he was chairman of the Residents Association of Mayfair (RAM), steering it through turbulent times when it was opposed by the Association of Residents of Mayfair (ARM). When the two merged in 2004 he was appointed Honorary President of the Residents’ Society of Mayfair and St James’s. He was also a member of the Royal Institute of International Affairs (an independent policy institute based in London) and the Garrick Theatre, the Royal Thames Yacht Club and a familiar figure at the Beefsteak Club. There the late Alastair Forbes (b.1908 d.2001)

paid him a backhanded compliment. "Everything still working famously well - below the Plimsoll line?" he boomed across the club table.

 

Institute of International Criminal Law

In 1983 he proposed setting up an Institute of International Criminal Law, to be established in association with the Irish Universities, Trinity & Queens. He offered Port Hall to the Irish government as a study centre, where "the hideous violations of human rights, which had disfigured the 20th century" could be researched. His ambition was to set up a television archive of the Nuremberg Trials to be used by lawyers and peace researchers from all over the world.

The Institute never came to fruition, it was too isolated and also possibly because Marreco also remained energetically committed to sorting out the legal and domestic problems of the Mayfair intelligentsia.

 

In his last years Marreco retired to Greenhill Bank Cottage, Aldbourne, in Wiltshire, with his wife, Gina, who was a brilliant hostess and an unforgettable cook.

 

Relationships

Anthony Marreco was married four times, but to only three women and had numerous affairs with other women but he had no children.

 

Lady Ursula Isabel Manners (18 Nov 1916, 2 Nov 2017)

Lady Ursula Isabel Manners was the elder daughter of five children of John Manners, 9th Duke of Rutland (b.1886 d.1940), by his wife the former Kathleen Tennant (b.1894 d.1989) aged 95.

She was a English socialite and aristocrat and as a 20-year-old she acted as one of Queen Elizabeth's train-bearers in Westminster Abbey and received international media attention after a photograph of her from the coronation on 12 May 1937, standing alongside the British royal family on the balcony of Buckingham Palace which was circulated in the news. The reports, focused on her beauty and distinctive widow's peak, leading to her being nicknamed "the cygnet" by Winston Churchill (b.1874 d.1965) while she accompanied the king and queen on a royal tour in France in 1938.

 

On 25 July 1943, Lady Ursula married Anthony Marreco in the chapel at Belvoir Castle, Grantham, Leicestershire, a man she barely knew and who threatened to commit suicide if she refused to do so. The swiftness in which the wedding was organised prompted the minister to place a chair for her to sit on at the altar as he assumed, she was pregnant, this she admitted, had infuriated her.

Marreco left her to serve in the British Armed Forces in Asia and lost communication with her until 1946. During this time she had entered a brief relationship with the Maharaja of Jaipur, Man Singh II (b.1912 d.1970), whom she met through her friend Jawaharlal Nehru (b.1889 d.1964).

Lady Ursula and Marreco divorced in 1948.

 

She resumed her maiden name, and secondly married, 22 Nov 1951, Robert Erland Nicolai d'Abo (b.1911 d.1970), eldest son of Gerard Louis d'Abo (b.1819 d.1905) and Muriel Molesworth Kindersley (b.1880 d,1921) and by whom she had issue, two sons and a daughter.

 

In 2014 she published her memoir titled “The Girl with the Widow's Peak: The Memoirs”.

 

Lady Ursula died on 2 November 2017, aged 100, she was one of the last surviving aristocrats to have participated at the Coronation of King George VI & Queen Elizabeth on 12 May 1937.

 

Maria Louise Lévêque de Vilmorin (4 Apr 1902, 26 Dec 1969)

Marreco also became involved with Louise de Vilmorin through the late 1940s until 1951 who was a French novelist, poet and journalist. Born in the family château at Verrières-le-Buisson, Essonne, a suburb southwest of Paris, she was heir to a great French seed company fortune, that of Vilmorin.

She was afflicted with a slight limp the result of childhood Tuberculosis of the hip, however she compensated for her frailty with a flamboyant personality. She was a spellbinding talker who craved the limelight that she once flung a butterball to the ceiling when another guest at a dinner party wouldn’t allow her to tell a story.

 

De Vilmorin was never wholly sure of Marreco's devotion, as in Venice July 1950 her doubts were realised when Marreco went in successful pursuit of the somewhat unstable Queen Alexandra of Yugoslavia (b.1921 d.1993) who fell madly in love with him and who then took an overdose after de Vilmorin removed him to Sélestat in France at the end of the holiday.

 

De Vilmorin's diaries are peppered with references to him. She was much taken by his style of dress, on one occasion a shirt with narrow blue and white stripes, a black silk tie with white spots, a black jacket and waistcoat, and spongebag trousers, black leather ankle boots. When he went out, he perched his bowler hat at a rakish angle, and carried a furled umbrella.

Above all, she was impressed by Marreco's Adonis-like looks, impressed that he could return from a fashionable ball at six in the morning, neither drunk nor tired, but invigorated with life, talking of beautiful women, fortune, society and success. "Beauty likes to shine, to dazzle," wrote de Vilmorin, "and above all to be recognised!" She was deeply saddened when he left in the New Year of 1951, she was conscious that she was 13 years his senior and that his career might place demands on him that would take him away from her so of these concerns were evident as Marreco at this time had political aspirations.

 

Again, De Vilmorin's fears were realised while she was staying with Paul-Louis Weiller (b.1893, d.1993) at his villa, La Reine Jeanne, France with Marreco in tow. She awoke one morning and found him gone. He had set off to Brazil in pursuit of Lali Horstmann, whose book had recently been published to great acclaim.

 

Vilmorin's first husband was an American real-estate heir, Henry Leigh Hunt (b.1886 d.1972), the only son of Leigh S. J. Hunt (b.1855 d.1933), a businessman who once owned much of Las Vegas, Nevada and his wife, Jessie Nobel (b.c.1862 d.1960). They married in 1925 (1924 according to other sources), moved to Las Vegas, and divorced in the 1930s. They had three daughters: Jessie, Alexandra, and Helena.

For a number of years, she was the mistress of Alfred Duff Cooper, (b.1890 d.1954) British ambassador to France. Louise spent the last years of her life as the companion of the French Cultural Affairs Minister and author George André Malraux (b.1901 d.1976), calling herself "Marilyn Malraux". She died on 26 Dec 1969 aged 67 and is burial in Verrières-le-Buisson (Essonne) cemetery, France, also the initial resting place of André Malraux.

 

Lali Horstmann (7 Mar 1898, 10 Aug 1954)

While serving in Germany, Marreco, then aged 36, became the lover of Lali Horstmann, a German writer and salonnière who came from a distinguished German banking family, the von Schwabachs, her father was the banker and historian Paul von Schwabach (b.1867 d.1938).

She was the widow of Alfred (Freddy) Horstmann (b.1979 d.1947) who was the head of the English department at the German Foreign Office, and an art collector.

 

Freddy resigned in 1933, the year Hitler came to power, rather than work for the Nazis. He was taken away one spring night in 1946 by the Russian Secret Police, having refused to leave his estate in Kerzendorf, East of Berlin, on account of his fabulous collection of art and porcelain.

Two and a half years later Lali learned, almost by chance, that Freddy had died of starvation in a Russian concentration camp only a few miles from their home.

Lali later wrote a moving account of her search for him, Nothing for Tears (1953), which has been described as "one of the most remarkable personal documents to come out of Germany at the end of the war".

Marreco relationship ended in Berlin, but they remained friends, both in Berlin and later when Lali moved to London.

 

They met again in 1954 in Brazil only when Lali made her first trip to Brazil to meet friends who had settled in Paraná in the south of the country. Lali asked Anthony to drive her from Rio to Paraná; they stopped overnight in São Paulo, where Lali was found unconscious in her hotel room the following morning, having suffered a massive heart attack. She was rushed to hospital where she died the next day, aged 56. Lali Horstmann was buried in São Paulo.

 

Marreco inherited part of her substantial fortune, derived from her ownership of real estate in Berlin and her late husband's family interest in the daily newspaper, Frankfurter General-Anzeiger. As a result of this Marreco bought Port Hall in Lifford, Co Donegal in 1956 where he lived and farmed until 1983 when he sold the house as his money was running out.

 

Loelia, Duchess of Westminster (6 Feb 1902, 1 Nov 1993)

Marrero was subsequently the lover of Loelia Mary Lindsay (née Ponsonby), Lady Lindsay of Dowhill, Duchess of Westminster who was a British peeress, needlewoman and magazine editor.

Loelia was the only daughter of the courtier Sir Frederick Ponsonby (b.1867 d.1935), later 1st Baron Sysonby, and Victoria Lily (Kennard), Lady Sysonby (b.1874 d.1955) the well-known cook book author. Loelia spent her early years at St James's Palace, Park House at Sandringham and Birkhall. One of the Bright Young People, she met the twice divorced Hugh Grosvenor, 2nd Duke of Westminster (b.1879d.1953). They were married on 20 February 1930 in a blaze of publicity, with Winston Churchill as the best man, but were unable to have children. Her marriage to the enormously wealthy peer failed and was dissolved in 1947 after years of separation.

 

Loelia private diaries were likewise filled with anxious questions as to his love and loyalty. She encouraged Marrero to invest in Weidenfeld & Nicolson Ltd, and for some years in the 1950s he was a financial supporter of George Weidenfeld (b.1919 d.2016).

 

Regina de Souza Coelho (1927 - ?)

In 1954 Marreco went to Brazil for S G Warburg & Co investment bankers and while in Brazil he met Regina (Gina) de Souza Coelho, only daughter of Dr. Roberto and Roberto de Souza Coelho of Rio de Janeiro.

He consummated his second marriage to Gina on 19th November 1955, but the marriage was dissolved in 1961.

 

Anne Wignall, née Acland-Troyte (12 June 1912, 23 June 1982)

Daughter of Major Herbert Walter Acland-Troyte (b.1882 d.1943) and Marjorie Florence Pym (b.1891d.1977). Anne was born in Kensington, London, and had one younger brother, John Acland-Troyte (b.1914 d.1988). She was an English socialite and author known as Alice Acland and Anne Marreco.

 

She firstly married, Robert Egerton Grosvenor (b.1914 d.1957), 5th Baron Ebury, son of Francis Egerton Grosvenor, 4th Baron Ebury (b.1883 d.1932) and Mary Adela Glasson (b.1883 d.1960), on 1 July 1933. She and Robert Egerton Grosvenor were divorced in 1941. A keen racing driver, Lord Ebury died in an accident at Prescott, Gloucestershire on 5 May 1957, aged 43, while driving a Jaguar C-type - XKC 046 (Registration MVC630).

 

Children to Robert

Francis Egerton Grosvenor, 8th Earl of Wilton (b.1934)

2. Hon. Robert Victor Grosvenor (b.1936 d.1993).

 

Her 2nd marriage on 23 December 1941 was to, Henry Peregrine Rennie Hoare (b.1901 d.1981) son of Henry Hoare (b.1866 d.1956) and Lady Geraldine Mariana Hervey (b.1869 d.1955). She and Henry were divorced in 1947.

 

Her 3rd marriage on 13 November 1947 was to, Lt.-Col. Frederick Edwin Barton Wignall (b.1906 d.1956) was the son of Frederick William Wignall (b.1872 d.1939) and Edith Marguerite née Tate Wignall (b.1878 d.1958). He gained the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in The Life Guards and died 9 November 1956.

 

Anthony marries for the 3rd time on 25 September 196, Anne Acland-Troyte who is marrying for the fourth time as Anne Marreco. She was the biographer of “Constance Markievicz - The Rebel Countess” (1967). She changed her name back to Wignall by deed poll in 1969 and died on 23 June 1982 in Tiverton, Devon. She is buried in the churchyard at All Saints Church, Huntsham, close to her father's ancestral seat, Huntsham Court.

Anne Wignall wrote 11 books under two different names, as Alice Acland and as Anne Marreco.

 

 

Regina de Souza Coelho

Anthony and Gina resumed their relationship in 1990, buying a cottage in Aldbourne, Wiltshire in 1997 and re-marrying in 2004. Very little is known about Regina (de Souza Coelho) Marreco.

 

Port Hall House

At Porthall Marreco bred a fine herd of Charolais cattle and was immediately accepted by that flamboyant section of Irish society known as ‘the Donegal Group’. Anthony was a convivial host, a considerable raconteur, his hospitality was legendary being a generous host at Porthall, with its spacious library and hand-painted wallpaper and at his summer house parties in Greece and in his book-lined flat in Shepherd Market in Mayfair, London.

His guests ranged from Henry Plumer MacIlhenny (b.1910 d.1986), millionaire owner of Glenveagh Castle, Co. Donegal to historian Robert Brendan McDowell (b.1913 d.2011), who for 13 years (1956–1969) was dean of discipline at Trinity College, Dublin.

 

Port Hall house was owned by Anthony Marreco from 1956 until the 1983. He had a strong interest in building conservation and carefully repaired and conserved Port Hall during the 1960s. This important building is one of the most significant elements of the built heritage of Donegal, and forms the centrepiece of a group of related structures along with the warehouses to the rear, the walled garden to the south, and the other surviving elements to site.

Porthall House was built in 1746 on the banks of the River Foyle, for Judge John Vaughan (b.1603 d.1674) also of Buncrana Castle, who served as a Grand Juror for County Donegal which was based at Lifford a short distance to the south-south-west of Port Hall. The design is attributed to Michael Priestley (d.1777), an architect who was also responsible for the designs of the Old Courthouse in Lifford’s Diamond (were John Half-Hung MacNaghten was held) Prehen House, Derry (home of Mary Ann Knox who was murdered by MacNaghten) and alo Strabane Canal.

Marreco also developed a craft centre at Bunbeg, Gweedore, Co Donegal and strenuously opposed salmon poaching, then running at a value of £1 million salmon per year. He became chairman of the Foyle Fisheries Commission (now known as the ‘Loughs Agency’) and immersed himself in every aspect of Ireland's cultural and political life.

In the last years of his life, he had wished to make his own documentary, The Rule of Law, tracing the development of international law from the time of Grotius, the 17th century philosopher, to the present day.

 

Anthony Freire Marreco died on 4th June 2006 aged 90 years. A service held in St. Michael's Church, Aldbourne, Wiltshire, England and he was buried in the adjoining graveyard. Donations were requested for the RSPCA.

 

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