John Crichton-Stuart, 7th Marquess of Bute


John Colum Crichton-Stuart, 7th Marquess of Bute, styled Earl of Dumfries before 1993, is a Scottish peer and a former racing driver, most notably winning the 1988 24 Hours of Le Mans. He does not use his title and prefers to be known solely as John Bute, although he had previously been called Johnny Dumfries before his ascension to the Marquessate. The family home is Mount Stuart House on the Isle of Bute. He attended Ampleforth College, as had his father and most male members of the Crichton-Stuart family, but did not finish the normal five years of study.

Racing career

Born in Rothesay, Argyll and Bute, into one of Scotland's oldest aristocratic families and the descendant of a British Prime Minister, Bute was heir to a large fortune. He turned his back on an expensive education at Ampleforth College and set about pursuing a career in motor racing.
In 1984, Bute, then known as Johnny Dumfries, was the sensation of the F3 season, scoring 14 race victories on his way to winning, and completely dominating, the British Formula 3 Championship for Team BP. He also finished runner-up to Ivan Capelli in the European Formula Three Championship that year. In 1985, he graduated to the newly created FIA International Formula 3000 Championship, initially competing for Onyx Race Engineering before switching to Lola Motorsport. It was a disappointing season, with a sixth-place finish in Vallelunga being the highlight of the year.
In he made his breakthrough into F1, and raced a single season for the JPS Team Lotus. He was a late addition to the team, apparently as a result of Ayrton Senna not wanting Derek Warwick as a teammate. He competed in 15 Grands Prix for Lotus, which used the turbocharged Renault engines and scored 3 championship points.
He was replaced for by the Japanese driver Satoru Nakajima as part of Lotus's deal to use Honda engines from that season onwards. During the most part of the season, he was usually one of the midfield drivers, on par with the Tyrrell drivers Martin Brundle and Philippe Streiff.
In 1988, Bute scored the biggest racing victory of his career when he won the Le Mans 24 Hours, driving a Jaguar XJR-9 for Tom Walkinshaw's Silk Cut Jaguar Team alongside Dutchman Jan Lammers and Englishman Andy Wallace.
Bute also participated in the 1-hour endurance race in the 1988 British Touring Car Championship at Donington Park with fellow ex-F1 Briton Guy Edwards for Andy Rouse's Kaliber Racing team in Ford Sierra RS500, finishing third overall and in Class A.

Wealth

He ranked 616th in the Sunday Times Rich List 2008, with an estimated wealth of £125m. In the 2006 list, he ranked 26th in Scotland with £122m.
He lives with his family in London and at the ancestral seat Mount Stuart House, south of Rothesay on the Isle of Bute. In 2007, the other family home Dumfries House in Cumnock, Ayrshire, was sold to the nation for £45 million.

Marriages and children

In 1984, he married Carolyn, daughter of Bryson and Rose Waddell. They were divorced in 1993. They have three children:
He married secondly Serena Solitaire Wendell, daughter of Major Jac Wendell and former wife of Robert De Lisser, in 1999. They have one child:
As Marquess of Bute, he also holds the subsidiary titles of: Earl of Dumfries, Earl of Bute, Earl of Windsor, Viscount of Kingarth, Viscount Mountjoy, Baron Cardiff, and Lord Mount Stuart. His son and heir apparent, John Bryson Crichton-Stuart, uses his subsidiary title Earl of Dumfries as a courtesy title.

Ancestry

Lord Bute is the son of the 6th Marquess of Bute and his former wife Beatrice Weld-Forester. On his father's side, he is a male-line descendant of King Robert II through an illegitimate line, and a female-line descendant of King William IV and his mistress Dorothea Jordan through their daughter Elizabeth Hay, Countess of Erroll. As William IV was Queen Victoria's uncle, the Marquess of Bute is a sixth cousin, once-removed of Queen Elizabeth II. On his father's side he is also a descendant of Bernard, Earl of Granard and Beatrice Mills Forbes, an American socialite who was the daughter of Ogden Mills and Ruth "Tiny" Livingston Mills, a descendant of the Livingston family and the Schuyler family from New York.
On his mother's side, he is twice descended from King Charles II through his eldest illegitimate son, James, Duke of Monmouth.

Racing record

Complete International Formula 3000 results

YearEntrant123456789101112Pts
1985Onyx RacingSIL
Ret		THR
7		EST
Ret		NÜR
C		VAL
6		PAU16th1
1985Lola MotorsportSPA
Ret		DIJ
10		PERÖSTZANDON16th1
1988GEM MotorsportJERVALPAUSILMNZPERBRHBIRBUGZOL
Ret		DIJ
13		NC0

Complete Formula One results

Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results

Complete British Touring Car Championship results

YearTeamCarClass12345678910111213DCPtsClass
1988Kaliber RacingFord Sierra RS500SILOULTHRDON
3‡		THRSILSILBRHSNEBRHBIRDONSIL43rd416th

‡ Endurance driver.