My Town Monday - Lord 'Charlie' Brocket!
Champagne Charlie Checking out Jordan!!
The Auberge Du Lac, Beautiful Restaurant.
The house and Champagne Charlie in Action!!
I have been absent for a couple of weeks mainly due to events happening on the weekend and not being organised enough to research and prepare beforehand.
This week I am going to tell you about another of our colourful characters, Lord Charles Nall-Cain, the 3rd Baron of Brocket. Known locally of Champagne Charlie.
Brocket's parents were Ronald Nall-Cain and Elizabeth Trotter. His father died when Brocket was nine years old. The title of Baron Brocket passed to him at 25 on the death of his grandfather, Arthur Nall-Cain, 2nd Baron Brocket, at which point he inherited Brocket Hall, which was in a bad state of repair. He converted his home into a hotel and conference venue. Today he still owns the hall in Hertfordshire through a trust which leases it to a German consortium. The lease expires after fifty years.(It is now being used as a very swish golf club with a gorgeous restaurant in the grounds)
Brocket, an Old Etonian, served in the 14th/20th King's Hussars as a Lieutenant in Cyprus and Northern Ireland. He became known as a playboy, and collected classic cars, once owning forty-two Ferraris. With the collapse of the classic car market in the mid 1990s, his vehicles were losing money, and he tried to offload them quickly. He became famous after being jailed for conspiracy to commit car insurance fraud in 1996, having dismantled and hidden four of the Ferraris, claiming them to be stolen.
Whilst in prison he was stabbed before being moved to Ford Open Prison. In 2004 he was a contestant on the third series of I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!. Finishing in fourth place, his new found fame made him a popular TV celebrity, making almost £1 million in offers. His autobiography, Call Me Charlie, was published in hardback in September, coming in the Top 10 best sellers.
Locally he is viewed as a bit of entertaining lovable 'plonker' !!!
7 comments:
Plonker? That must be an English term. Interesting chap.
It's always interesting to hear about the ups and downs of the local characters. Toronto had Lord Black, now languishing in a prison in the U.S. But, your Lord Brocket seems to have done rather well for himself after his hardships!
Nice to see you back.
Very interesting read!
Working hard to beat back my negative feelings for anyone with a title in front of his name, especially those who use it as he has. I would have sat and knitted at the French Revolution.
Good old Charlie has a lot of bounce back to him!
I love reading about characters like him.
Terrie
Fabulously entertaining. Thanks!
What is a plonker? History really IS the story of people, isn't it.
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