THE owner of one of the world’s great art collections left diaries containing secrets apparently so explosive that his widow ordered their suppression for 21 years after the death of the Queen.

A special clause in the last will and testament of the socialite Clementine Beit, published by the Probate Office of the Irish Republic in Dublin, has revealed that she was so concerned by the contents of the diaries of her late husband, Sir Alfred Beit, and their potential consequences for the Royal Family, that they are to remain under lock and key until 21 years after the Queen’s death or 70 years after Lady Beit’s death, whichever is sooner.

Sir Alfred, who inherited a diamonds, gold and fine art fortune from his South African uncle, known as the “Randlord”, lost his Tory Commons seat in the Labour landslide of 1945 and moved with his wife to South Africa. They then made their home in Ireland after buying Russborough House, a Palladian mansion in Co Wicklow.

Before their withdrawal to Ireland, the couple had lived at the heart of London society, with a home on “Millionaires’ Row” in Kensington Palace Gardens. In the 1930s Lady Beit had visited Germany and, with her cousins Nancy and Unity Mitford, met Adolf Hitler.

Clues to what Sir Alfred’s diaries conceal that could be so damaging are scarce. There was speculation in Dublin yesterday that a decision of the Beits to sever their London links after the death of George VI in 1952 could hold the key to the mystery.

Sir Alfred would have had access to the royal court throughout the 1920s and 1930s, during the abdication crisis in 1936 of Edward VIII and his replacement by George VI, the Queen’s father. He and his wife were not just the richest but were thought to be the most handsome couple in London during this period.

“The only conclusion that can be drawn from Lady Beit’s will is that the diaries have been suppressed to avoid causing [the Queen] embarrassment during her lifetime,” said the Sunday Independent, the Irish newspaper that broke the story yesterday.

The diaries are to be kept strictly private by the trustees, Dublin solicitors Paul Guinness and Paula Fallon. There is also provision for new trustees to be appointed if necessary to accommodate the full period stipulated by the will.

When the “trust period” expires, Sir Alfred’s diaries are to be handed to the National Library of Ireland.

The Beits gifted Russborough House to the Republic of Ireland in 1976, two years after an IRA gang led by Rose Dugdale, an Englishwoman, attacked the couple and stole 19 paintings.

LONDON’S MOST HANDSOME COUPLE

Clementine Beit, 1915-2005.
She was described by her cousins the Mitford sisters as one of London’s ten most elegant women. A granddaughter of the 1st Lord Redesdale, she was asked by Unity Mitford to “waggle a flag” as “the darling Führer” passed in the street on their visit to Berlin. Her husband proposed to her under Francisco Goya’s Portrait of Doña Antonia de Zárate. Decades later the couple were tied up beneath the portrait as a Republican gang led by Rose Dugdale ransacked their home, Russborough House.

Sir Alfred Beit, 2nd and last Baronet (1903-1994).
A Conservative MP for St Pancras and PPS to the Secretary of State for the Colonies who inherited a South African diamond and gold fortune when he was 27. Left England after the 1945 Labour landslide and flirted with a political career in South Africa, a country that he abandoned with the introduction of apartheid. The couple moved to Co Wicklow in Ireland and he later bequeathed his art collection to the Republic.

The Mitford Sisters
David Freeman-Mitford (later Lord Redesdale) and his wife Sydney had six daughters. Jessica was a Communist who eloped to Spain during its civil war; Deborah became the Duchess of Devonshire; Nancy was a bestselling novelist; Diana married the British fascist Sir Oswald Mosley; Pamela was adored by John Betjeman; and Unity Valkyrie was born in Swastika, Alaska, and became obsessed with Adolf Hitler. She shot herself in the head when war was declared.

Rose Dugdale
An upper-class Englishwoman who robbed her father on behalf of the IRA, she was part of a gang that broke into Russborough House in 1974. She served half of an 18-year sentence.

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