Lady Annabel Goldsmith, a celebrated figure in social circles and the muse behind a famous Mayfair nightclub, has passed away at the age of 91.
Emerging as a prominent personality in London’s vibrant 1960s scene, Lady Annabel was the younger daughter of the 8th Marquess of Londonderry.
The iconic club, Annabel’s, was established in 1963 by her first husband, Mark Birley, and quickly became one of the world’s most fashionable venues.
Her legacy includes six children, among them journalist and film producer Jemima Goldsmith and Zac Goldsmith, the former Conservative MP for Richmond Park, who reportedly expressed deep sorrow at her passing.
Despite her privileged background, Lady Annabel’s life wasn’t without hardship. She faced the loss of her first son, Rupert, in West Africa and endured a terrifying incident where her second son was attacked by a tiger.
Lady Annabel initially was the mistress and later became the wife of the charismatic businessman, Jimmy Goldsmith. They shared three children, and she remained with him even after his well-known remark: ‘If you marry your mistress, you create a vacancy.’
Of Annabel’s nightclub she once said: ‘The dance floor was one of the hottest six-foot-square pieces of ground in London.
‘I don’t remember seeing it empty. Everyone from the Kennedys to the Royal Family came, and I once found myself standing next to Frank Sinatra without realising it.’
Lady Annabel Goldsmith has died aged 91, it was announced today
Lady Annabel Goldsmith and Princess Alexandra attend the funeral of Mark Birley in 2007
Lady Goldsmith is pictured campaigning for the Conservatives with her politician son, Zac, and daughter, Jemima
Sir James Goldsmith and wife Lady Annabel, outside the front door of their home, with pet dog, Copper
Lady Annabel was pictured alongside her daughter Jemima at the wedding of her son Zac Goldsmith to Hum Fleming last month
Lady Annabel was born in London in 1934 into an Anglo-Irish aristocratic family as Annabel Vane-Tempest-Stewart.
She was the daughter of Robin Vane-Tempest-Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh, who would become the 8th Marquess of Londonderry, and Romaine Combe, who was the daughter of Major Boyce Combe, from Surrey.
She took on the title of Lady Annabel at just 15 in 1949, after her father became Marquess following the death of her grandfather.
Her mother died of cancer two years later, and tragically her father soon followed in 1955.
Such was her social standing even as a young woman that Queen Elizabeth II herself attended her ‘coming-out’ ball in 1952.
Lady Annabel married her first husband, Mark Birley, in 1954 and the couple had three children, Rupert, Robin and India Jane.
During her first marriage, which lasted 21 years, Lady Annabel gained notoriety in newspaper gossip columns due to her extra-marital affair with Sir James Goldsmith, who she would later marry.
After wedding Sir James in 1978, she had a further three children, Jemima, Zac and Ben.
Ben and Zac Goldsmith are pictured alongside their mother, Lady Annabel Goldsmith, at her book launch in 2009
Lady Annabel is supported by Princess Michael of Kent at a memorial service for her brother, Alistair Vane-Tempest-Stewart, 9th Marquess of Londonderry
She once quipped that she was ‘an incredible mother, rather a good mistress, but not a very good wife’.
Only last month Lady Annabel attended the society wedding of the year when her son Zac and Hum Fleming tied the knot at St James’s Church in Longborough in the Cotswolds.
She was still at the heart of some of the most exclusive society events in the country, six decades after a nightclub named after her first opened in Mayfair in 1963.
Annabel’s is a members-only venue in Berkeley Square that enjoyed the patronage of Prince Charles, the Duchess of Cornwall, Princess Anne, Richard Nixon, and Frank Sinatra.
Even the late Queen Elizabeth visited the club in 2003.
This is a breaking news story and is being updated.
