Christopher Beaumont is attempting to buy up abandoned hotels and other buildings owned by Telegraph billionaires
Christopher Beaumont’s ancestors ruled the tiny island of Sark as a feudal state for 443 years until, in 2008, the billionaire Barclay brothers “forced democracy on the island”, as he puts it.
Now Beaumont, 66, is leading a charm offensive to attract new members of the global super-rich to help fund a takeover of the Barclay family’s string of abandoned hotels and other buildings on the island to create a tax- and car-free “biodiverse utopia”, 111 nautical miles from Southampton.
David Barclay – the elder of the identical twins by 10 minutes – died unexpectedly in 2021 throwing up questions about the line of succession and issues of shared ownership of assets with his brother Frederick, including Brecqou and those on Sark. His body is believed to be buried in a crypt in a private chapel on Brecqou.
Frederick has faced a potential jail sentence over claims of contempt of court for not paying his wife part of a £100m divorce settlement.
Frederick sued David’s family over alleged “commercial espionage on a vast scale” that included the bugging of thousands of private conversations at their five-star Ritz hotel in London. A settlement was reached.
The Telegraph newspapers and Spectator magazine, which the brothers bought for £665m in 2004, are expected to be imminently auctioned after its lender Lloyds called in a near £1bn debt and removed Aidan and Howard Barclay as directors.
