Getty ImagesLady Annabel Goldsmith, the socialite and campaigner who gave her name to a famous 1960s London nightclub, has died aged 91.
Lady Annabel was the mother of six children from her two marriages, including Zac, who was Conservative MP for Richmond Park for eight years and who ran for mayor of London in 2016.
Her youngest child Ben said she was “quite simply irreplaceable”.
He added: “We are bereft, not for her – because her life has been extraordinary and complete – but for us, because of the immense hole in our lives she leaves behind.”
Hulton Archive via Getty ImagesMr Goldsmith said: “I spoke to her every day for 45 years, she truly had my back and we loved each other very much. I will miss her terribly.”
Annabel’s, which was opened by her first husband in 1963 and was one of London’s first modern nightclubs, was named in her honour.
It was popular with the British aristocracy and celebrities in the 1960s and 1970s.
Born in London in 1934 into an Anglo-Irish aristocratic family, Annabel Vane-Tempest-Stewart was the daughter of Viscount Castlereagh, who later became The 8th Marquess of Londonderry.
She became Lady Annabel in February 1949, when her father became marquess.
Getty ImagesLady Annabel was the mother of Rupert, Robin and India Jane with her first husband, hospitality industry entrepreneur Mark Birley: they were married from 1954 to 1979.
She then married financier Sir James Goldsmith and they had three children: Jemima, Zac and Ben Goldsmith.
Jemima is the former wife of Imran Khan, an international cricketer who served as prime minister of Pakistan from 2018 to 2022.
Lady Annabel was a campaigner and advocate for a range of causes, including the countryside, animal charities and working to lessen the impact of HIV/AIDS on children in South Africa.
In 2004 she published her memoirs Annabel: An Unconventional Life, where she recalled her aristocratic childhood, glamorous social life in 1960s Swinging London to her role as matriarch and grandmother.
