{{Short description|British aristocrat, jazz pianist, and author (1932–1968)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox person | name = Robin Douglas-Home | image = | alt = | caption = | birth_name = Cecil Robin Douglas-Home | birth_date = {{Birth date|1932|05|08|df=y}} | birth_place = London, England | death_date = {{Death date and age|1968|10|15|1932|05|08|df=y}} | death_place = West Chiltington, West Sussex, England | other_names = | occupation = {{dotlist|Pianist|author}} | spouse = {{marriage|Sandra Paul|1959|1965|end=div}} | children = 1 | years_active = | parents = The Hon. Henry Douglas-Home<br />Lady Margaret Spencer | relatives = Alec Douglas-Home (uncle)<br />Charles Douglas-Home (brother) | known_for = | notable_works = }} '''Cecil Robin Douglas-Home''' (8 May 1932 – 15 October 1968) was a British aristocrat, jazz pianist, and author.
==Life== Robin Douglas-Home was the eldest son of the Honourable Henry Douglas-Home from his first marriage to Lady Margaret Spencer. His uncle was the former British Prime Minister Sir Alec Douglas-Home and his younger brother Charles Douglas-Home was the editor of ''The Times''. He was first cousin of John Spencer, 8th Earl Spencer, father of Diana, Princess of Wales. Douglas-Home attended Ludgrove School, where he was noted for his artistic talent.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Barber |first1=Richard |title=The Story of Ludgrove |date=2004 |publisher=Guidon Publishing |location=Oxford |isbn=0-9543617-2-5 |page=159}}</ref>
Douglas-Home was a jazz pianist and a leading society figure during the 1950s and 1960s. In the 1950s, he had a relationship with Princess Margaretha of Sweden but, according to the press, they were refused permission to marry by her mother, Princess Sibylla, notwithstanding a subsequent statement from King Gustaf VI Adolf saying, "The King has not imposed any ban on the marriage in question".<ref>{{cite magazine | title=The Princess & the Pianist | url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,809494,00.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110123224550/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,809494,00.html | url-status=dead | archive-date=January 23, 2011 | magazine=Time | date=20 May 1957 | access-date=25 April 2009}}</ref> However, Princess Margaretha's nanny and confidante Ingrid Björnberg states categorically in her memoirs that the breakup of the couple was not due to Princess Sibylla refusing to permit them to marry, but because Princess Margaretha did not wish to marry him.<ref>Björnberg, Ingrid. 1975. ''Dagbok från Haga och Stockholms slott''. Stockholm: Bonniers. p 163</ref>
Douglas-Home married the fashion model Sandra Paul in 1959 and they had a son in 1962, Sholto. The couple were divorced in 1965 coinciding with his romance with Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon. His divorce was the subject of a BBC television documentary by Alan Whicker.
Lady Cosima Vane-Tempest-Stewart (born 1961), second daughter of the 9th Marquess of Londonderry, claimed to be in fact a biological child of Douglas-Home, who was thought to have had a liaison with her mother, the Marchioness, who later married the singer Georgie Fame.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/06/27/style/noticed-blood-tells-so-does-burke-s.html|title=NOTICED; Blood Tells. So Does Burke's.|author=Mitchell Owens|date=27 June 1999|website=New York Times|access-date=1 March 2018}}</ref>
Douglas-Home was author of an authorised biography of Frank Sinatra (1962) and published four novels, including ''Hot for Certainties'' (1964) which won the Authors' Club Best First Novel Award. He also wrote a number of articles for journals and magazines such as ''Queen'' and ''Woman's Own''.
Douglas-Home committed suicide in 1968 at his country home in West Chiltington, West Sussex, aged 36, having suffered for some years from clinical depression.
==Bibliography== ===Non-fiction=== *''Sinatra'' (Michael Joseph, 1962)
===Fiction=== *''Hot for Certainties'' (Longman's Green and Co, 1964) *''When the Sweet Talking's Done'' (Leslie Frewin, 1968) *''The Faint Aroma of Performing Seals'' (Leslie Frewin, 1969)
==Ancestry== {{ahnentafel |collapsed=yes |align=center |boxstyle_1=background-color: #fcc; |boxstyle_2=background-color: #fb9; |boxstyle_3=background-color: #ffc; |boxstyle_4=background-color: #bfc; |boxstyle_5=background-color: #9fe; |1= 1. '''Robin Douglas-Home''' |2= 2. Hon. Henry Douglas-Home |3= 3. Lady Margaret Spencer |4= 4. Charles Douglas-Home, 13th Earl of Home |5= 5. Lady Lillian Lambton |6= 6. Charles Spencer, 6th Earl Spencer |7= 7. Hon. Margaret Baring |8= 8. Charles Douglas-Home, 12th Earl of Home |9= 9. Maria Grey |10= 10. Frederick Lambton, 4th Earl of Durham |11= 11. Beatrix Bulteel |12= 12. Frederick Spencer, 4th Earl Spencer |13= 13. Adelaide Seymour |14= 14. Edward Baring, 1st Baron Revelstoke |15= 15. Louisa Bulteel |16= 16. Cospatrick Douglas-Home, 11th Earl of Home |17= 17. Hon. Lucy Elizabeth Montagu-Scott |18= 18. Cpt. Charles Conrad Grey |19= 19. Caroline Nesbit Macan |20= 20. George Lambton, 2nd Earl of Durham |21= 21. Lady Beatrix Frances Hamilton |22= 22. John Bulteel |23= 23. Euphemia Emily Parsons |24= 24. George Spencer, 2nd Earl Spencer |25= 25. Lady Lavinia Bingham |26= 26. Col. Sir Horace Seymour |27= 27. Elizabeth Malet Palk |28= 28. Henry Baring |29= 29. Cecilia Anne Windham |30= 30. John Crocker Bulteel |31= 31. Lady Elizabeth Grey }}
==References== {{Reflist|2}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Douglas-Home, Robin}} Category:1932 births Category:1968 suicides Category:1968 deaths Category:20th-century British novelists Category:20th-century British pianists Category:20th-century Scottish musicians Category:History of mental health in the United Kingdom Category:Scottish biographers Category:Scottish novelists Category:Suicides in England Category:People educated at Ludgrove School Category:Male lovers of royalty Category:20th-century Scottish journalists