11th Earl of Shaftesbury (2005-2005)
Born 1977 Died 2005
Born on the 24th June 1977, Anthony Nils Christian Ashley-Cooper was the eldest son of Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 10th Earl of Shaftesbury by his second marriage to the Swedish-born Christina Eva Montan. He became the 11th Earl of Shaftesbury earlier this year as a result of the discovery of his father's body at the bottom of a ravine in Theoule-sur-Mer, on the outskirts of Cannes in the south of France.
Unlike his father, who pursued the hedonistic lifestyle of an international playboy, Anthony Nils appears to have led a far more sedate and ordinary existence, living quietly at his flat at Earl's Court in London where he was employed as an accountant. He was reportedly looking forward to getting to grips with the task of managing the family's estates at Wimborne St Giles in Dorset after enjoying a short holiday in the United States where he was visiting his younger brother Nicholas who worked as a Disk Jockey in New York. And it was in New York that the 11th Earl suddenly died after an apparent heart attack on the morning of Sunday, the 15th May 2005 some six weeks after assuming the title.
The family issued a statement issued through Sussex Police which said that;
The 11th Earl of Shaftesbury died suddenly and unexpectedly on 15 May in New York. He suffered a heart attack, although the precise cause of death has not yet been identified and the coroner's study is ongoing. Following some press speculation, the family is keen to stress that there is every reason to believe that Lord Shaftesbury died of natural causes.
The office of the chief medical officer in New York, confirmed that Anthony had died at St Vincent's Hospital in Manhattan, adding that the cause of death was still under investigation; "It's still being studied. We are still doing tests, it will be at least another week before we can confirm anything."
The late Earl's younger brother Nicholas Edmund Anthony Ashley-Cooper succeeded as the 12th Earl of Shaftesbury.
The 10th Earl is believed to have died shortly after his disappearance from the Noga Hilton Hotel in Cannes on 6th November 2004 but his death was not confirmed until the discovery of his body on the 7th April 2005. Whether the 11th Earl should be treated as having succeeded to the title in November 2004 or April 2005 is a curious but ultimately pointless question.
SOURCES
- The Herald, Web Issue 2271 May 20 2005
http://www.theherald.co.uk/features/39658.html
- BBC NEWS: Earl, 27, dies after heart attack Thursday, 19 May, 2005,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/4560495.stm
- Daily Telegraph: Murdered earl's heir drops dead at age of 27,19 May, 2005,
http://portal.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/05/19/nshaft19.xml