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Cliveden and the Profumo Affair
Any history of Cliveden would not be complete without reference to the Profumo affair, which mired the House in scandal during the 1960’s in the same way it had been 300 years earlier. The seeds that triggered a series of unhappy events were sown in July 1961, when Bill Astor invited a group of guests to stay that included John Profumo, British Secretary of State for War. Other guests were Lord Mountbatten of Burma and the president of Pakistan.
Elsewhere on the estate, Stephen Ward, a society osteopath and friend of Bill’s, was staying at Spring Cottage with his guests including Christine Keeler, who was a girl of just nineteen and Captain Yevgeny Ivanov, an assistant Soviet naval attaché who was also a spy.
Reputedly one of the hottest weekends of that summer, Ward and his party were noisily enjoying the Astors’ outdoor swimming pool, which still exists today. Drawn by the commotion, Bill and his dining companions strolled out of the House to the pool, where (the married) Profumo and Keeler met for the first time.
It was a fateful encounter, sparking an extra-marital affair between the two which went on for some months afterwards. Moral questions were joined by those of national security when it became clear, after Keeler had sold her story to the papers, that she had also been sleeping with Ivanov at the same time as seeing Profumo.
The press had a field day, prompting Profumo to make his biggest political mistake in March 1963, when he gave a false statement to the House of Commons denying any impropriety in his relationship with Ms. Keeler. A scapegoat was made of Stephen Ward, who was tried on trumped up charges relating to immoral earnings and who tragically killed himself during the court case.
Profumo’s career lay in tatters and the whole sorry episode is thought to have factored heavily in the defeat of the then Conservative government in 1964, supposedly exhausted by scandal.
More History ...
The 2nd Duke of Buckingham
The First Earl of Orkney
Frederick, Prince of Wales
Three Countesses of Orkney
Second Fire and Rebirth
Cliveden's 'golden age'
Nancy, Lady Astor
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Christine Keeler by Stephen Ward
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