Former drug addict and ex-convict Jamie Blandford becomes 12th Duke of Marlborough after father dies

His father once regarded Jamie Blandford as such a lost cause that he went to court in an attempt permanently to disinherit him.

But today the convicted burglar, drug addict and serial prisoner became the 12th Duke of Marlborough and custodian of Blenheim Palace following the death of his father at the age of 88.

The Spencer-Churchill family announced “with great sadness” that the 11th Duke, John George Vanderbilt Henry Spencer-Churchill, “passed away peacefully” this morning. His funeral will be held next Friday.

David Cameron, a friend of the Duke as well as his local MP, said: “I am greatly saddened to hear of the death of the Duke of Marlborough. To me, he was not only the vice-president of my [Witney Conservative] Association but also a good man and friend.

“His grace will be deeply missed by all those he worked alongside at Blenheim and by the town of Woodstock where he played such a positive and active role in the community he loved.

“My thoughts and prayers are with all his family and friends at this sad time.”

The responsibility of maintaining one of Britain’s grandest country houses for future generations now passes to 58-year-old Jamie Blandford, as he is commonly known, following a remarkable turnaround in his relationship with his late father, who once described him as the “black sheep” of his family.

Blandford, or His Grace as he will now be formally addressed, has more than 20 convictions going back 30 years for drug offences, burglary, criminal damage, numerous driving offences and even punching a police officer.

His well-documented battle with heroin and cocaine addiction – he once admitted spending £20,000 on cocaine in four months – strained his relationship with his father to breaking point, and in 1994 the two men faced each other in court to fight out the future of the dukedom and the £100 million Oxfordshire estate.

The 11th Duke became the first aristocrat for more than a century to attempt to use the courts to deny his direct heir his eventual title, and was ultimately thwarted because the 1706 act of Parliament that gifted Blenheim to the 1st Duke of Marlborough forbade any intervention in the inheritance.

But Blandford’s father managed to persuade the High Court that it had a duty to protect the estate for future generations, and his son was forced to agree to an agreement that ceded all executive power to a board of trustees that look after the estate.

Two years ago it emerged during a Channel 4 documentary about the family that Blandford had stayed clean of drugs for several years, earning something of a reprieve from his father, who agreed that he should inherit overall charge of the estate, though with trustees retaining a power of veto.

The 11th Duke said at the time: “I am fully confident that James will be able to keep this place going. But over the top of him – and over the top of me – are trustees. You can’t predict the future.

“Trying to keep Blenheim going is a very important part of the family’s history and life at the present time, and so what we’re trying to do is ensure that Blenheim is kept for future generations.”

The 12th Duke, who lives in a farmhouse on the estate, has the right to take up residence in the Palace with his family, but a spokesman for Blenheim Palace said it was “too early to say” whether he will choose to live in the house, which is open to the public, or remain in his current home.

The 11th Duke, a cousin of Sir Winston Churchill and a distant relative by marriage of Diana, Princess of Wales, was married four times, and leaves five children. His most recent marriage, in 2008, was to Lily Mahtani, an Iranian-born mother-of-three who was 30 years his junior.