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Concept
Sir Alfred Beit, 2nd Baronet
Summary
Sir Alfred Lane Beit, 2nd Baronet (19 January 1903 in London; 12 May 1994 in Dublin) was a British Conservative Party politician, art collector and philanthropist and honorary Irish citizen.
His uncle was Alfred Beit, a South African mining millionaire, after whom he was named when he was born in London on 19 January 1903. His father Otto Beit (1865–1930) was awarded the in 1920 and was created a baronet in February 1924. His mother was Lilian, daughter of Thomas Lane Carter of New Orleans, US. On Sir Otto's death in 1930, Alfred inherited a large fortune as well as numerous works of art, including works by Goya, Vermeer, Rubens and Gainsborough. Having lived at 49 Belgrave Square, he bought a mansion on Kensington Palace Gardens (the most exclusive address in London), where these paintings were put on display.
Beyond personal wealth, by 1930 the Beit family had philanthropically supported primarily the Imperial College of Science and Technology, the Rhodes Trust and had established the Beit Memorial Fellowship for Medical Research, besides many smaller donations to other groups.
Known from 1930 as Sir Alfred Beit, he was elected Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for St Pancras South East at the 1931 general election and re-elected in the 1935 general election. When the Second World War started he joined the Royal Air Force serving in Bomber Command. In 1944 he was appointed PPS to Oliver Stanley, the Colonial Secretary.
Beit lost his seat in the 1945 general election. Disillusioned with British politics and strongly opposed to the new Labour government, he and his wife moved to South Africa. However they were appalled by the apartheid system that developed there after 1948, and soon returned to the UK.
In April 1939 he married Clementine Mabell Kitty Freeman-Mitford, born on 22 October 1915, who was the posthumous daughter of Major Clement Mitford (d.1915), a granddaughter of the 1st Lord Redesdale and a cousin of the Mitford sisters. Another first cousin Clementine Hozier had married Winston Churchill.
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