Raymond Richard Guest
OBE
United States Ambassador to Ireland
In office
March 11, 1965 – June 7, 1968
PresidentLyndon B. Johnson
Preceded byMatthew H. McCloskey
Succeeded byLeo J. Sheridan
Member of the Virginia Senate
from the 24th district
In office
January 14, 1948 – January 29, 1953
Preceded byJ. A. Garber
Succeeded byGeorge S. Aldhizer
Personal details
Born(1907-11-25)November 25, 1907
New York, New York, U.S.
DiedDecember 31, 1991(1991-12-31) (aged 84)
Fredericksburg, Virginia, U.S.
Political partyDemocratic
Spouses
Elizabeth Polk
​
​
(m. 1935, divorced)​
    Ellen Tuck French Astor
    ​
    ​
    (after 1953)​
      Princess Caroline Murat
      ​
      ​
      (m. 1960)​
      Children5
      Parent(s)Frederick E. Guest
      Amy Phipps
      RelativesWinston Guest (brother)
      1st Viscount Wimborne (uncle)
      Henry Phipps, Jr. (grandfather)
      1st Baron Wimborne (grandfather)
      EducationPhillips Andover
      Alma materYale College
      OccupationSoldier, businessman, statesman, polo player, racehorse owner/breeder
      Military service
      AllegianceUnited States United States of America
      Branch/service United States Navy
      Rank Commander
      UnitOffice of Strategic Services
      Battles/warsWorld War II
      AwardsBronze Star
      Legion of Merit
      Croix de Guerre

      Raymond Richard Guest OBE (November 25, 1907 – December 31, 1991) was an American businessman, thoroughbred race horse owner and polo player. From 1965 to 1968, he was United States Ambassador to Ireland.[1]

      Early life

      Guest was born on November 25, 1907, in Manhattan to Frederick Edward Guest (1875–1937), a British Cabinet minister and his American wife, Amy Phipps (1873–1959). Guest's siblings were Winston Frederick Churchill Guest (1906–1982), also a polo-player whose second wife was C. Z. Guest (1920–2003), the actress and socialite, and Diana Guest Manning (1909–1994). He attended Phillips Andover and graduated from Yale in 1931.[1]

      His maternal grandfather was Henry Phipps, Jr. (1839–1930), Andrew Carnegie's business partner in Carnegie Steel Company.[1] His paternal grandfather was Ivor Guest, 1st Baron Wimborne[2] (1835–1914) and his great-grandfather was John Spencer-Churchill, 7th Duke of Marlborough, therefore, making Guest a first cousin once removed of Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

      Career

      Military career

      During World War II he served with the United States Navy. He served on mine sweepers and was made head of the Navy section of the Office of Strategic Services in London, England. By the time he left the military in 1946, he had risen to the rank of Commander. He was awarded the Bronze Star and a Legion of Merit, both with combat devices; the Croix de Guerre with star; the Order of the British Empire; the Norwegian Cross, and the Danish Defense Medal.

      Political career

      Guest was a member of the Senate of Virginia from 1947 to 1953, and served as the United States Ambassador to Ireland from 1965 to 1968.

      Thoroughbred racing

      In the United States, members of his mother's family have been major figures in the sport of thoroughbred racing for many decades. In England, Raymond Guest's sister, Diana Guest Manning, owned and raced a horse she named Be My Guest who was a conditions race winner in England and Ireland as well as the Leading sire in Great Britain and Ireland in 1982. Raymond Guest also owned thoroughbreds which he raced in England, Ireland, France and the United States. In Ireland his flat racehorses were trained by Vincent O'Brien and his National Hunt horses by Dan Moore. His racing colours were chocolate, pale blue hoops and cap. Guest is one of only four owners to win both The Derby and the Grand National, the others being King Edward VII, when Prince of Wales, Dorothy Paget and Jim Joel.

      The British flat racing Champion Owner in 1968, among Guest's successful horses in flat racing were Larkspur, winner of the 1962 Epsom Derby; Sir Ivor, winner of the 1968 2,000 Guineas, Epsom Derby and the Washington, D.C. International.

      Raymond Guest also owned steeplechase racers. His most outstanding was L'Escargot, a National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame inductee who was voted the 1969 U.S. Steeplechase Horse of the Year and who then raced in England where he won the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 1970 and 1971 and the Grand National in 1975.

      In the United States, Raymond Guest was a member of The Jockey Club and voted President of the Virginia Thoroughbred Association in 1958. The best horse to carry his Powhatan Stable colours in American flat racing was Tom Rolfe, winner of the 1965 Preakness Stakes who earned American Champion 3-Year-Old Male Horse honors.

      Both he and his brother Winston Frederick Churchill Guest were polo players. Raymond Guest twice won the U.S. Open as part of the Templeton team, and was posthumously inducted into the Museum of Polo and Hall of Fame in 2006.

      Personal life

      In 1935, he married first to Elizabeth ("Lily") Polk of Dark Harbor, Maine, the daughter of Frank Polk and a relative of U.S. President, James K. Polk,[2] with whom he had three children:

      In 1953, he married Ellen Tuck French Astor (1915–1974),[6] who had previously been married to John Jacob Astor VI from 1934 to 1943.[7] She was the elder daughter of Francis Ormond "Frank" French II (1888–1962) and Eleanor Livingston Burrill (1891–1974),[8] and was a first cousin of Rhode Island Governor William Henry Vanderbilt III (1901–1981).[9] Ellen and Raymond later divorced and she died in 1974.[10]

      In 1960, married for the third and final time to Princess Caroline "Caro" Cécile Alexandrine Jeanne Murat (1923–2012),[11] daughter of Prince Alexandre Murat (1889–1926) and granddaughter of Joachim Napoléon Murat, 5th Prince Murat (1856-1932),[12] She was previously married to American Capt. August Van Hartz in 1945.[13] Together, they had two children:[1]

      • Achille Murat Guest,[14] who married Capucine Motte and Judith Wall[15]
      • Laetitia Amelia Guest (Oppenheim)[14]

      He died of pneumonia on December 31, 1991, in Mary Washington Hospital in Fredericksburg, Virginia.[1]

      References

      1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Raymond Guest, 84, Ambassador, Polo Player and Breeder of Horses". New York Times. January 1, 1992. Retrieved 2011-04-13.
      2. 1 2 "Elizabeth S. Polk and Raymond Guest, Poloist, Wed in Heavenly Rest Church". The New York Times. June 26, 1935. Retrieved 5 August 2016.
      3. ↑ "ELIZABETH GUEST IS WED IN CAPITAL; Escorted by Her Father at Marriage to Edward Beach Condon, T.W.A. Official". The New York Times. March 8, 1958. Retrieved 15 April 2017.
      4. ↑ Times, Special To The New York (6 July 1965). "Mrs. Elizabeth Guest Condon Married to George Stevens Jr". The New York Times. Retrieved 15 April 2017.
      5. ↑ "Paid Notice: Deaths GUEST, RAYMOND R. (ANDY)". The New York Times. 19 April 2001. Retrieved 15 April 2017.
      6. ↑ "R. R. GUEST MARRIES MRS. ELLEN T. ASTOR". The New York Times. May 2, 1953. Retrieved 5 August 2016.
      7. ↑ Times, Special To The New York (21 May 1943). "DIVORCES JOHN J. ASTOR; Former Miss Ellen Tuck French Gets Decree in Reno". The New York Times. Retrieved 15 April 2017.
      8. ↑ "Francis Ormond FRENCH/Eleanor Livingston BURRILL". pennock. Archived from the original on 2013-09-21. Retrieved 2017-04-15.
      9. ↑ Porter, Russell B. (16 August 2004). "JOHN JACOB ASTOR WEDS ELLEN FRENCH". Encyclopedia Titanica. New York Times.
      10. ↑ Times, Special To The New York (7 September 1974). "Ellen Tuck French Guest Dead; Wife of J. J. Astor 3d for 9 Years". The New York Times. Retrieved 15 April 2017.
      11. ↑ Paulick Report Staff (14 June 2012). "Princess Murat, widow of Thoroughbred owner Raymond Guest, dies at 88". Horse Racing News Paulick Report. Retrieved 5 August 2016.
      12. ↑ Times, Wireless To The New York (17 July 1946). "PRINCESS MURAT MARRIED IN PARIS; Notables Attend Her Wedding to Lieut. Charles Russell Codman Jr. of Boston". The New York Times. Retrieved 15 April 2017.
      13. ↑ "CAPT. VON HARTZ WEDS; U.S. Officer Marries Princess Caroline Murat in Paris". The New York Times. 26 July 1945. Retrieved 15 April 2017.
      14. 1 2 The King George Journal staff (June 20, 2012). "Caroline Murat". The King George Journal. Retrieved 5 August 2016.
      15. ↑ Hofheinz, Darrell (October 3, 2013). "Beyond the Hedges: Australian Ave. townhome sells for $2 million". Palm Beach Daily News. Retrieved 5 August 2016.
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