7/9/2022

John Victor Aspinall

John Victor Aspinall 5,8/10 3671 reviews

John Aspinall (zoo owner) John Victor Aspinall (11 June 1926 – 29 June 2000) was an English zoo owner and gambling club host. From middle class beginnings he used gambling to move to the centre of British high society in the 1960s. He was born in Delhi during the British Raj, and was a. John Victor Aspinall was an English zoo owner and gambling club host. From middle class beginnings he used gambling to move to the centre of British high society in the 1960s.

Aspinalls zoo

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Why put Aspinall in this blog?

Well, as you will see his Clarmont club dealings with Billy Hill ( see the Billy Hill page) and the millions he cheated the members out of must rank as a ‘heist’

Early life

John Victor Aspinall, known to all his friends as ‘Aspers’, was born in Delhi, India, on 11 June 1926, the son of Dr Robert Stavali Aspinall, an army surgeon, and wife, whom he married before 1926, Mary Grace Horn (died 1987), daughter of Clement Samuel Horn, of . Years later, when he pressed his supposed father for money to cover his gambling debts, he discovered his real father was George Bruce, a soldier.

.He attended Felsted School in 1939, but after his parents divorced, his stepfather Sir George Osborne sent him to Rugby School. Expelled from Rugby for inattention, Aspinall later went up to Jesus College Oxford, but on the day of his final exams, he feigned illness and went to the Gold Cup at Ascot instead. As a consequence, he never earned a degree.

Gambling impresario

Aspinall became a bookmaker; at that time the only legal gambling in the UK was at racecourses and dog tracks (both cash and credit), credit betting via an account with a bookmaker, and betting on Football Pools. There was no legal casino gambling of any kind. Between races, he returned to London, and took part in illegal private gambling parties. Aspinall discovered that games of Chemin de Fer, known as Chemie (Chemmy), were legal, and the house owner made a 5% fee for hosting the event.

Victor

Aspinall targeted his events at the rich, sending out embossed invitations. Illegal gambling houses were defined then in British law as places where gambling had taken place more than three times. With his accountant John Burke, Aspinall rented quality flats and houses, never used them more than three times, and had his mother pay off local Metropolitan Police officers.

Among the gamblers were the Queen’s racehorse trainer Bernard van Cutsem who brought with him friends including the Earl of Derby and the Duke of Devonshire. The standard bet was £1,000, which would be £40,000 accounting for inflation in 2017 figures. Chemie games were quick and played every 30 seconds, with £50,000 changing hands per game. Aspinall made £10,000, a sum equivalent to £300,000 in 2017, on his first event.

In 1958, he lived at Howlett’s Zoo, Kent and at this point his mother had forgotten to pay off corrupt police officers, so they raided his game that night. He won the subsequent court case, the outcome of which is known as Aspinall’s Law. The win created a vast increase in Chemie games, during which:

  • The landowner the Earl of Derby lost over £20,000; and then returned on another night and lost £300,000, the equivalent of nearly £7.5 million in 2017.
  • The founder of the SAS Colonel Sir David Sterling lost £173,000 on Aspinall’s tables, writing out an IOU at the end of the night

In response to Aspinall’s legal win, the Government passed the The Betting and Gaming Act 1960, which allowed commercial Bingo Halls to be set up, provided they were established as members-only clubs and had to get their take from membership fees and charges rather than as a percentage of the gaming fees. Casinos were required to operate under the same rules, with a licence from the Gaming Board of Great Britain (now the Gambling Commission), and to be members-only. The passing of these laws brought Aspinall’s Chemie-based 5% business model to a close, and he had to find a new business.

Clermont Club

In 1962, Aspinall founded the Clermont Club in London’s Mayfair. The club was named after Lord Clermont, a well known gambler who had previously owned the building in Berkeley Square The club’s original members included five dukes, five marquesses twenty earls and two cabinet ministers.

But overheads were higher, and under the new laws Aspinall had to pay tax, only making a table charge which produced much smaller revenue for the house.

The club’s former financial director John Burke stated in his book and on a TV documentary that Aspinall employed gangster Billy Hill to employ criminals to cheat the players. Some of the wealthiest people in Britain were swindled out of millions of pounds, thanks to a gambling con known as ‘the Big Edge’. The scheme existed of three parts:

  • Marking the cards by bending them over a steel roller in a small mangle, and then repacking them.
  • Employing card sharps
  • Skimming the profits

On the first night of the operation, the tax-free winnings for the house were £14,000, or around £300,000 in 2016’s money, adjusted for inflation.

John Burke quit in late 1965, a year into the scam. He had been tipped off about an investigation but Aspinall was determined to carry on. However Aspinall no longer had someone to deal with “the dirty end” of the operation. After two years operation the Big Edge was closed. Hill respected Aspinall’s decision and the two parted.

Aspinall claimed that Lord Lucan, whose 1974 disappearance remains a mystery, had committed suicide by scuttling his motorboat and jumping into the English Channel with a stone tied around his body. According to the journalist Lynn Barber, in an interview in 1990 Aspinall made a slip of the tongue indicating Lucan had remained Aspinall’s friend beyond the date of the alleged suicide. On 18 February 2012, BBC News reported that John Aspinall’s ex-secretary (using the alias of Jill Findlay) had disclosed that she was invited into meetings where Aspinall and Goldsmith, the multi-millionaire businessman, discussed Lucan. ( Aspinall had stood for Parliament as a member of Goldsmith’s anti EU Referendum party in 1997) She further said, that on two occasions, between 1979 and 1981, Aspinall had instructed her to book trips to Kenya and Gabon for Lucan’s children. The arrangement was so Lucan could see his children from a distance, but he was not to meet them or speak to them.

The passing of the 1968 Gaming Act boosted profits, and he sold The Clermont in 1972.

The need for cash to fuel his zoos prompted him to return to running gambling clubs in London, and he set up two new successful ones in Knightsbridge and Mayfair. In 1983, he made $30 million from their sale, but a decade later he was in financial difficulties again, and in 1992 he set up yet another gambling spot, Aspinall’s presently run by his son.

Aspinall died of cancer, in 29 June 2000, aged 74 and the real truth about Lord Lucan probably dies with him although it is alleged that several Clarmont Club members were involved in Lucan’s escape.

Sonia Murjahn1

SoniaMurjahn is the daughter of GerhardMurjahn and PrincessHortenseKotchoubey de Beauharnais.1

Citations

  1. [S1175] Claudine Laguerre, 're: Claudine Laguerre,' e-mail message to Darryl Lundy, 22 September 2004. Hereinafter cited as 're: Claudine Laguerre.'

Aspinalls Zoo

Rory John Anderson1

Consanguinity Index=0.01%
Rory JohnAnderson was born on 2 November 1991.1 He is the son of James IanAnderson and Hon.Emily MaryAstor.1

Citations

  1. [S1122] Peerage News, online http://peeragenews.blogspot.co.nz/. Hereinafter cited as Peerage News.

Douglas Jowett1

DouglasJowett lived at North Carolina, U.S.A.G.1

Child of Douglas Jowett and Valerie(?)

  • Leslie KayJowett+1

Citations

  1. [S1122] Peerage News, online http://peeragenews.blogspot.co.nz/. Hereinafter cited as Peerage News.
Aspinall

Valerie (?)1

Valerie(?) lived at Connecticut, U.S.A.G.1 Her married name became Napoli.1

Child of Valerie (?) and DouglasJowett

  • Leslie KayJowett+1

Citations

  1. [S1122] Peerage News, online http://peeragenews.blogspot.co.nz/. Hereinafter cited as Peerage News.

John Victor Aspinall

John Victor Aspinall1

John VictorAspinall was born on 11 June 1926 at Delhi, IndiaG.2,3 He was the son of Dr.Robert StavaliAspinall and Mary GraceHorn.4 He married, firstly, Jane GordonHastings in 1956.3 He married, secondly, Belinda MaryMusker, daughter of MajorAnthony Dermot MelloneyMusker and Hon.Mary AngelaFitzRoy, on 13 December 1966.5 He and Belinda MaryMusker were divorced in 1972.5 He married, thirdly, LadySarah-MargueriteCurzon, daughter of Francis Richard Henry PennCurzon, 5th Earl Howe and Sybil BoyterJohnson, in 1972.1 He died on 29 June 2000 at age 74 at Westminster, London, EnglandG.2,3
He was educated in 1938 at Rugby School, Rugby, Warwickshire, EnglandG.3 He lived in 1958 at Howletts Zoo Park, Kent, EnglandG.3 He lived in 1980 at 64 Sloane Street, Knightsbridge, London, EnglandG.3 He lived at Noordhoek Manor, Cape Town, Cape Province, South AfricaG.4 He lived at Howletts, Kent, EnglandG.4 He lived at Port Lympne, Lympne, Kent, EnglandG.4

Children of John Victor Aspinall and Jane GordonHastings

  • John Damian AndroclesAspinall+4
  • AmandaAspinall+6 b. 1957, d. Jan 2019

Child of John Victor Aspinall and LadySarah-MargueriteCurzon

  • Bassa WulfhereAspinall+1 b. 1972

Citations

  1. [S37] BP2003 volume 2, page 1988. See link for full details for this source. Hereinafter cited as. [S37]
  2. [S4725] Ancestry.com, England & Wales, Death Index: 1984-2005 (n.p.: Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2007.Original data - General Register Office. England and Wales Civil Registration Indexes. London, England: General Register Office. © Crown copyright. Published by permission of the Cont, unknown publish date).
  3. [S4736] David Barttelot, online unknown url, David Barttelot (unknown location), downloaded 14 July 2010.
  4. [S1122] Peerage News, online http://peeragenews.blogspot.co.nz/. Hereinafter cited as Peerage News.
  5. [S37] BP2003. [S37]
  6. [S206] Announcements, The Daily Mail, London, U.K.. Hereinafter cited as The Daily Mail.

Jane Gordon Hastings1

Jane GordonHastings married John VictorAspinall, son of Dr.Robert StavaliAspinall and Mary GraceHorn, in 1956.2
From 1956, her married name became Aspinall.1

Children of Jane Gordon Hastings and John VictorAspinall

Foundation
  • John Damian AndroclesAspinall+1
  • AmandaAspinall+3 b. 1957, d. Jan 2019

Citations

  1. [S1122] Peerage News, online http://peeragenews.blogspot.co.nz/. Hereinafter cited as Peerage News.
  2. [S4736] David Barttelot, online unknown url, David Barttelot (unknown location), downloaded 14 July 2010.
  3. [S206] Announcements, The Daily Mail, London, U.K.. Hereinafter cited as The Daily Mail.

John Damian Androcles Aspinall1,2

John Damian AndroclesAspinall is the son of John VictorAspinall and Jane GordonHastings.1 He married Louise Elizabeth JuliaSebag-Montefiore, daughter of Peter Geoffrey Edmund NathanielSebag-Montefiore and Joanna Ethne JuliaPoett, in July 1987 at Westminster, London, EnglandG.2 He and Louise Elizabeth JuliaSebag-Montefiore were divorced.2 He married, secondly, Victoria M. A.Fisher, daughter of S. johnFisher, in August 2016 at Villa Cetinale, Tuscany, Italy.3
John Damian Androcles Aspinall usually went by his middle name of Damian.2

Children of John Damian Androcles Aspinall and Louise Elizabeth JuliaSebag-Montefiore

  • TansyAspinall1 b. 1989
  • ClaryAspinall1 b. 1992

Child of John Damian Androcles Aspinall and DonnaAir

  • FreyaAspinall1 b. Sep 2003

Citations

  1. [S1122] Peerage News, online http://peeragenews.blogspot.co.nz/. Hereinafter cited as Peerage News.
  2. [S206] Announcements, The Daily Mail, London, U.K., 20 July 2007. Hereinafter cited as The Daily Mail.
  3. [S466] Notices, The Telegraph, London, UK. Hereinafter cited as The Telegraph.

Freya Aspinall1

FreyaAspinall was born in September 2003.1 She is the daughter of John Damian AndroclesAspinall and DonnaAir.1

Citations

  1. [S1122] Peerage News, online http://peeragenews.blogspot.co.nz/. Hereinafter cited as Peerage News.

Donna Air1

Photograph by Richard Goldschmidt
Club

Child of Donna Air and John Damian AndroclesAspinall

  • FreyaAspinall1 b. Sep 2003

Citations

  1. [S1122] Peerage News, online http://peeragenews.blogspot.co.nz/. Hereinafter cited as Peerage News.
  2. [S130] Wikipedia, online http;//www.wikipedia.org. Hereinafter cited as Wikipedia.

Tansy Aspinall1

TansyAspinall was born in 1989 at Westminster, London, EnglandG.2 She is the daughter of John Damian AndroclesAspinall and Louise Elizabeth JuliaSebag-Montefiore.1,2

Citations

  1. [S1122] Peerage News, online http://peeragenews.blogspot.co.nz/. Hereinafter cited as Peerage News.
  2. [S206] Announcements, The Daily Mail, London, U.K., 20 July 2007. Hereinafter cited as The Daily Mail.