About two years into my research I subscribed to newspapers.com and found this article.

It was written by society columnist Jody Jacobs and published in the Los Angeles Times, Oct. 10, 1973.

Jacobs worked in this position for many years.

Ironically, this story involves another newspaper society columnist, Beverley Jackson of Santa Barbara, she is pictured to the left of Mrs. Louis-Dreyfuss.

I was able to email with Beverly Jackson a few years before she passed away at age 91 in 2020. Jackson had yet another career as a scholar and author on Chinese culture and fashion, along with working as a curator at the Santa Barbara Art Museum.

She did remember Desmond, but not Paige.

Beverley Jackson volunteered without my prompting, that “Desmond was always very discreet in these matters.”

What you see above, is the only mention of Paige Young in this article, besides her photo.

It’s chilling to know that Paige had only 6 months to live when this article appeared.

The rest of the Jody Jacobs article, discusses the many Santa Barbara society VIPs who attended this party for Desmond Guinness.

After reading the article I thought, who is this Desmond Guinness?

attending a party in his honor given by a Who’s Who of Santa Barbara?

I found his name most often written as “the Hon. Desmond Guinness.”

There is plenty of information about his family.

 

Let’s start with his family of origin.

*Please note: What I have written is a brief overview. The story of Desmond’s maternal side is the stuff of books. I will recommend a few for in-depth history.*

Hon. Desmond Guinness, as his last name indicates, is an heir to the famous Guinness brewery fortune.

Desmond’s mother was a controversial woman named Diana Mitford, from the equally controversial English society family of 6 eccentric, beautiful, intelligent, gracious and scandal prone sisters, 2 of them followers of Hitler and other fascists. The family was cash-poor and title-rich, something not uncommon then from what I understand.

There are several books published about the Mitford family, the sisters in particular.

One was a main source I used for this chapter Diana Mosley: Mitford Beauty, British Fascist, Hitler’s Angel by Anne De Courcy. The family photo is scanned from the book.

Desmond and his brother didn’t grow up with their mother Diana; she divorced their father when the boys were toddlers.

She met Sir Oswald Mosley and was smitten. Diana Guinness soon asked Bryan Guinness for a divorce.

Mosley was an aristocrat and served in the British House of Commons from 1918-1931. He ran as a Conservative, an Independent and then Labour Party. He was finally defeated when he ran with his “New Party.“

Oswald Mosley founded the British Union of Fascists (BUF) in 1932, after visiting with Mussolini.

He organized his own version of the fascist Blackshirts of Italy when back in England.

“Organized along paramilitary lines, they wore black shirts and patrolled cities to fight socialism and communism by violent means. In 1921 they were incorporated into the Fascist Party (see fascism) as a national militia.” Oxford Reference

The BUF was banned by the British Government in 1940.

When Diana Mitford Guinness and Oswald Mosley met through mutual social circles in 1932, he was already married to wealthy society woman Lady Cynthia Curzon since 1920.

Tom Mosley and Cimmie had 3 children, the youngest born in 1932.

Mosley was a philanderer and an ambitious one at that.

He had affairs with both Cimmie’s sister and their stepmother.

Apparently he was irresistible to women? The answer is yes according to historians.

 

Mosley declared to Diana that he would not divorce his wife, yet Diana went ahead and filed for divorce from husband Bryan, Lord Moyne, who adored her. As Cimmie did of her nicknamed “Tom.”

Diana asked Bryan for only enough money to live on.

She returned the Guinness family jewels and kept only the jewels Bryan had gifted her during their marriage.

And just like that Diana became Mosley’s mistress.

Diana did see her Guinness sons on a fairly regular basis and apparently was a decent enough mother when she was with them.

Cimmie was increasingly stressed because she felt threatened by Diana’s divorced, unattached status, and all the time she was spending with her husband.

What Diana did not understand was that Cimmie had realized that her husband’s feelings for Diana were more profound than any other liaison…and that Cimmie would be sharing him on the deeper level which she had assured her was hers alone.

Apparently Diana and Mosley were pretty brazen about appearing in public together.

This affair was gossiped about amongst the titled crowd.

“From Diana’s point of view, Mosley had been unfaithful from the start of his marriage and even if she gave him up would continue to have liaisons with other women. If Cimmie had come to terms with all the affairs, she reasoned, why should she not do so with Diana? from the book Hitler’s Angels.

Many of Diana’s old friends, family members and acquaintances shunned her, yet she kept a group of loyal supporters. This included several male admirers, due to her renowned beauty and charming personality. including Brideshead Revisited author Evelyn Waugh.

Cimmie conveniently died in 1934 following a bout of peritonitis, allowing Diana and “Kit,” as she called Oswald, to marry in 1936. Mosley decided to wait 2 years after his wife’s death so as not to appear vulgar. Diana went along.

Hitler attended the secret wedding of Mitford and Mosley and the reception took place at the home of Joseph Goebbels.

Within the Hitler circle, Diana hit it off in particular with Magda Goebbels, wife of Joseph.

 

Unity Mitford shot herself in the head when Britain declared war on Germany. She survived but had limited mental capacity until meningitis killed her in 1948. 

There is a recently published biography by author Lauren Young: Hitler’s Girl: The British Aristocracy and the Third Reich on the Eve of WW2.

During WW 2, Mitford and Mosley were considered a threat and placed under British house arrest; 3 years in Holloway Prison followed by house arrest until 1949.

Diana Mitford Guinness Mosley gave birth to 2 more sons, Max and Alexander, with Mosley.

Desmond and Jonathan Guinness did visit their mother in prison, and apparently got along fine with their stepfather. 

These would be the circumstances the Guinness and Mosley boys would experience their mother for a long stretch of their childhoods.

 The Mosley boys had financial struggles that the Guinness sons just did not. Mosley was tight fisted with money when it came to his sons with Diana.

And Diana didn’t have much money independently of her husband. She did have some steady income from Guinness and shared it with her sons.

The couple lived out their years in France and Ireland after the war as they were highly disliked in England.

I have no idea why a dramatic series or feature film about the Mitford sisters and their parents, hasn’t yet been produced. The storyline provides all the elements of high melodrama: birth, death, war, marriage, divorce, innocent children, betrayal, treason, political intrigue, adultery, scandal, high society, wealth, royalty, and eccentric English personalities. (Not all the sisters were Nazis. One was a Communist and 2 were writers. One sister had a tragic love life)

The BBC series Peaky Blinders features Oswald Mosley and Diana Mitford in a storyline.

See interview with “Lady Mosley” on Thames TV youtube channel. Recorded in the 1970s.

END

1954: Desmond Guinness

has grown up and gets married to the beautiful Hermione Maria-Gabrielle Von Urach, who had German royalty and titles on her father’s side. Her English mother was institutionalized when “Gabrielle” was only 6 years old. At age 18, Gabrielle became known as “Mariga.”

This beautiful young couple shared a love of architecture, history and had no need to work for a living.

 

Desmond and Mariga purchased the decaying Leixlip castle of Ireland, restored it and made it their primary residence.

Leixlip village was established by the Vikings and Adam de Hereford, a follower of Strongbow, built the castle. It is located in County Kildare and has an interesting history.

The plasterwork in the Library dates from the mid 18th Century. The carpet is French Savonnerie. A treat in the Drawing Room is the large 18th century Dolls House that originally came from Newbridge House and drawings of the six Mitford sisters by William Acton

The couple were known for giving fabulous high society parties in Leixlip. The couple produced two beautiful children Marina and Patrick, evidenced in a famous photo taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, seen below.

Features of Leixlip Castle include, The Front Hall, which boasts a 17th century Brussels tapestry depicting Theodotus offering the head of Pompey to Caesar. The Dining Room is furnished with Chippendale Chairs and Bavarian tapestries. From DiscoverIreland.

Together the couple founded the Irish Georgian Society (IGS) in 1957/58, dedicated to preservation of Irish Georgian castles and Irish castles in general.

Mariga and Desmond were able to restore several more historic castles and published books on the topic.

I found in my research that Desmond toured the US extensively to fundraise for the IGS from about the mid– 1960s through the 1980s. I read dozens of articles about his visits in the newspaper archives.

Desmond was warmly welcomed at numerous US high society and historical society gatherings; he would present lectures and slideshows to promote his books about Irish architecture, history, design, and of course to support the IGS.

His visits were covered by local newspaper society columnists who would write about the society folk’s attendance at either a lecture, party, luncheon, cocktail party, dinner, or some combination of, in honor of the Hon. Desmond Guinness.

I’m including a only a few of many newspaper examples from 1969.

I picked 1969

out of the many years Desmond travelled the US because it’s the same year Paige Young was touring the US and Canada for Playboy promotion.

Desmond visited towns one may not have expected him to: Des Moines, Shreveport, and the Corning Glass Center in Ithaca, New York.

“Suzy”

aka Suzy Knickerbocker, was a syndicated society columnist for over 50 years and worked for many different newspapers.

The following article from 1969 informs the reader about her interesting career climb.

Suzy owned her specialty: European society types, with or without titles, Royals and would-be Royals.

Suzy K. wrote adoringly about Desmond (mainly) and Mariga several times.

Desmond Guinness had a busy schedule of traveling to fundraise for IGS for decades.

Return to 1973 Santa Barbara

Desmond had already been the houseguest of Douglas Campbell in Los Angeles for 2 weeks when:

Paige appeared as the date of Desmond Guinness at a series of high society parties over a weekend in Santa Barbara.

It was described by LAT society writer Jody Jacobs as a season of cloudy, grey and rainy weather.

This Suzy syndicated column below, appeared just 2 days later on October 12.

The timing is intriguing to say the least, Desmond is seen out with a date, Paige Young, and his divorce is announced in these Suzy articles only two days later.

.

Was Desmond feeling unencumbered that evening in Santa Barbara, knowing his pending divorce would soon be newsworthy?

1973 before the separation:

Desmond and Marina appeared in Raleigh, NC on or around March 28th, 1974, see article below. And Desmond was in Miami just on the 19th.

In the lower 2nd column, writer describes Marina’s lovely velvet and brocade dress. This is the dress she is wearing in the LAT photos with Beverly Hills designers and art patrons Beegle and Tony Duquette, seen below.

This article is unusual because it brings up the uncomfortable subject of Desmond’s mother Diana Mitford and step-father Oswald Mosley.

Notice the comment and story about Stanley Kubrick!

Raleigh News and Observer March 29, 1974.

Desmond was in LA around this time too so he would have been cross country traveling frequently.

Desmond is back in Los Angeles, this time with his daughter Marina. This visit coincides with the time Paige Young was contemplating suicide.

It is interesting that Desmond visited Los Angeles twice, 6 months apart.

The following article by Suzy, was published 10 days before Paige’s suicide. Desmond in bold.

According to Paige’s neighbor Melanie, Paige was afraid of a sex tape/film being seen by certain people or a certain person, and that “Cici Huston’s brother,” was a phrase Paige threw around a lot in connection to the tape. (David Shane) He had possession of the tape and would not hand it over to her.

I have to wonder if at least one person in Paige’s mind was Desmond Guinness (and his crowd?)

He was photographed with Paige in Santa Barbara in October of 1973.

Desmond and his number to Leixlip Castle and his brother Jonathan Guinness were listed in Paige’s phonebook found at the time of her suicide.

This indicates she saw Desmond outside of the their dates in Santa Barbara.

See chapter on Paige’s phone book.