Maurice de Forest

Maurice Arnold de Forest (9 January 1879 – 6 October 1968) was an early motor racing driver, aviator and Liberal politician in the United Kingdom.

[7][8] In the following year, he was naturalised as a British citizen, and was authorised to bear the title Baron de Forest by royal licence.

[10] He resigned his commission on 20 June 1903,[11] but this was later cancelled[12] and he became second lieutenant in the Staffordshire Imperial Yeomanry (Queen's Own Royal Regiment) on 4 July 1903.

[21][22][23][24] In 1909 he offered the Baron de Forest Prize of £2,000 to the first Englishman who could fly across the English Channel in an English-built aeroplane.

[26] De Forest was active in the Liberal Party, and at the January 1910 general election stood as parliamentary candidate at Southport.

Despite the support of Churchill, De Forest was defeated by his Conservative opponent, Major Godfrey Dalrymple-White in a campaign marred by racist slurs.

In his election address he stated that he was in favour of land nationalisation, Irish Home Rule, revised licensing laws, female suffrage and equality of religion in education.

[1] With the outbreak of war with Germany and Austro-Hungary in 1914, attempts were made to prosecute de Forest as an enemy sympathiser.

He initially refused to do so, but finally relented, and a royal warrant was issued on 16 January 1920 that relinquished "the rights and privileges" granted to him "in consideration of the fact that the said foreign titles of nobility appertain to Countries now or recently at war with Us".

He maintained a villa at Cap Martin, on the French Riviera, and Château de Beauregard, which contained an animal sanctuary.

Their children included Simon Frederick de Bendern, Emma Magdalen de Bendern, who married firstly journalist Nigel Dempster, secondly Giles Trentham and thirdly Prince George Galitzine,[citation needed] and Caroline de Bendern, who married firstly saxophonist Barney Wilen[34] and associated with Olivier Mosset, Amanda Lear, Salvador Dalí,[citation needed] Andy Warhol and Lou Reed.

[34] On 13 May 1968, during the protests in Paris, Caroline de Bendern was photographed by Jean-Pierre Rey sitting on the shoulders of painter Jean-Jacques Lebel waving a North Vietnam flag.