[1] Born in the parish of St George Hanover Square, Westminster, his father Robert Charles Bentinck (1875–1932) died when he was aged twelve.

Wounded twice, then a prisoner of war until 1945, Bentinck rejoined his regiment at Trieste, later being appointed OStJ and Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur.

Bentinck moved to Devon in 1974 with his second wife Jenny Hopkins to run a self-sufficient organic smallholding and guest-house for six years.

Later he struck up a close friendship with James Lovelock, the creator of the Gaia hypothesis, and published Life is a Sum Humanity Is Doing Wrong.

The title of Graf Bentinck was created by the Holy Roman Emperor in 1732 being approved in 1886 by Royal Licence for United Kingdom usage with the style of Count.