Obituary: Sir Dai Llewellyn

Jan 20 2009 by David Charters, Liverpool Daily Post

HE DID Wales proud, the boyo. There could be no doubt about that. In a land of sheep, he was a ram, blessed with the name of a rugby prop forward, or maybe a tenor in one of those endless bow-tied choirs from the valleys – and he caroused through the gossip columns, pausing only to satisfy his appetites in pubs and boudoirs, though if there was a competition to decide which he favoured more, it would have been a close call.

Heroism was there, too, that stoical resignation of a man who accepts with equanimity that pain and a ruined body were the inevitable consequences of one of the most energetic sprees of the 20th century. A wink from his roguish, if essentially honest, face would signal the start of fun.

But, of course, he could afford the canapés and Champagne lifestyle, which so many on the pork pie and mild beer circuit envied.

David St Vincent “Dai” Llewellyn was the son of Sir Harry “Foxhunter” Llewellyn, the showjumping baronet. His younger brother was Roddy, the celebrity gardener and former paramour of Princess Margaret. Dai was born at Aberdare to a family lucky enough to find coal under their farm. His childhood was spent in Monmouthshire.

From Eton, he advanced to the University of Aix-en-Provence, where he studied philosophy, though his interests were rapidly embracing more immediate pleasures.

Despite his philosophical leanings, Llewellyn, who despite his desires admitted to never being a master of bra release mechanisms or garter snapping, became a salesman with Qantas, before working as a travel agent and in advertising.

But, in the late 1960s, be was appointed to the almost absurd post of social secretary at the Playboy club – an “upper class Redcoat” as he described it. His amorous adventures were the talk of London, and he once had to leave the company of a gossip columnist to fetch his secretary, who was tied up in a bath.

In 1980, he married Vanessa Hubbard, niece of the Duke of Norfolk. The marriage lasted seven years and produced two daughters. After succeeding his father in 1999, Sir Dai was seldom far from the bright lights.

Sir Dai Llewellyn, playboy;born April 2,1946, died January 13, 2009.