Benjamin Seymour Guinness

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Benjamin Seymour Guinness (18 November 1868 – 15 December 1947), jure uxoris Prince di Mignano, [1] was an Anglo-American businessman, lawyer and railway magnate.

Benjamin Guinness, by Arnold Genthe Guinness, Benjamin, Mr., portrait photograph LCCN2018708878.jpg
Benjamin Guinness, by Arnold Genthe

Born in Dublin, Ireland in 1868, into the "banking line" of the prominent Irish Guinness family, Benjamin Seymour Guinness was the fourth son of Richard Seymour Guinness and a grandson of Robert Rundell Guinness. He was commissioned as an officer in the Royal Navy in 1882. [2] He retired in 1892 with the substantive rank of Lieutenant. [3]

Based in New York, Guinness was a director of the New York Trust Company, Lackawanna Steel Company, Kansas City Southern Railway, Seaboard Air Line Railroad, Duquesne Light Company, and United Railroads of San Francisco. He was also a partner in Ladenburg Thalmann.

Mrs. Benjamin Guinness of New York, by Antonio Argnani Antonio Argnani - Mrs. Benjamin Guinness of New York.jpg
Mrs. Benjamin Guinness of New York, by Antonio Argnani

Guinness married, firstly, Bridget Williams-Bulkeley, sister of Sir Richard Williams-Bulkeley, 12th Baronet. Following her death in 1931, he remarried, in 1936, to Princess Maria Nunziante di Mignano, daughter and heiress of the Italian Duke of Mignano. By his first wife he had three children, including G./Capt. Loel Guinness and Meraud Guinness. [4] As the husband of an Italian noblewoman, Guinness was awarded the life-title—considered titular—of Prince by King Umberto II of Italy on 22 May 1946. Following his death in 1947, his widow and children were involved in a lengthy dispute over his estate. [3] [5] [6] [7]

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References

  1. Who's who in Commerce and Industry. Institute for Research in Biography. 1948. p. 631.
  2. The Royal Navy List. Whitherby & Company. 1884. p. 28.
  3. 1 2 Addison, Henry Robert (1947). Who's who. A. & C. Black. p. 1138.
  4. Fowler, Glenn (1989). "Loel Guinness, 82, R.A.F. Flier And a Socialite on 2 Continents". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2025-01-19.
  5. Mosley, Charles, ed. (2003). Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knighthood (107 ed.). Burke's Peerage & Gentry. pp. 1695–1696. ISBN   0-9711966-2-1.
  6. Who was who: A Companion to Who's Who, Containing the Biographies of Those who Died. A. & C. Black. 2002. p. 345. ISBN   978-0-7136-6125-5.
  7. "Local tie with Maria Guinness' trial". Daily Mirror. 1954.