webofevil | Lord Moynihan

News item from 1965:

A young Malayan belly dancer became a peeress today with the death of Lord Moynihan, a former chairman of Britain's Liberal party.

The new Lady Moynihan is the former Shirin Berry, known professionally as Princess Amina, who was married in 1958 to Anthony P.A. Moynihan, the Baron's son, at a secret Moslem ceremony in Tangier, Morocco.

A year later they were married again in England. Mr Moynihan, a devotee of rock'n'roll, resigned his reserve commission in the Brigade of Guards and played the bongo drums at his wife's worldwide cabaret appearances. [The Times]

I recommend the noble Lord's Telegraph obituary in 1991:

If there was a guiding principle to Moynihan's life, it was to be found on the wall of his office in Manila, where a brass plaque bore the legend, “Of the 36 ways of avoiding disaster, running away is the best”...

After he succeeded his father in the peerage in 1965, Moynihan took the Liberal Whip in the House of Lords, where he was principally concerned in arguing that Gibraltar be given to Spain. The House was not impressed. In 1968 Lord Boothby interrupted one of Moynihan's speeches: “My Lords, the noble Lord has bored us stiff for nearly three-quarters of an hour. I beg to move that he no longer be heard”...

As the 1970s wore on Moynihan found employment in the narcotics trade, as well as in fraud and prostitution. The first hint of this came in 1980, when he was named by an Australian Royal Commission as an associate of Sydney's “Double Bay Mob”, engaged in the import of heroin from Manila. No charges were brought, however, and Moynihan continued his life as a Filipino pimp under the patronage of President Marcos—“my drinking chum”, as he called him. [Telegraph]