Stephen Tennant
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The Honourable Stephen Tennant |
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Stephen Tennant, photo by Cecil Beaton
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| Born |
Stephen James Napier Tennant 21 April 1906 Wilsford cum Lake, Wiltshire |
| Died | 28 February 1987 (aged 80) Wilsford cum Lake |
| Nationality | British |
| Known for | one of the "Bright Young People" |
| Partner(s) | Siegfried Sassoon |
| Parent(s) | Edward Tennant, Pamela Wyndham |
| Relatives |
Edward Tennant (brother) (brother) Stella Tennant (niece) |
Stephen James Napier Tennant (21 April 1906 – 28 February 1987) was a British socialite known for his decadent lifestyle. He was called "the brightest" of the "Bright Young People".
He was born into British nobility, the youngest son of a Scottish peer, Edward Tennant, 1st Baron Glenconner, and the former Pamela Wyndham, one of the Wyndham sisters and of The Souls clique. His mother was also a cousin of Lord Alfred Douglas (1870–1945), Oscar Wilde's lover and a sonneteer. On his father's death, Tennant's mother married Lord Grey, a fellow bird-lover. Tennant's eldest brother Edward – "Bim" – was killed in the First World War. His elder brother founded the Gargoyle Club in Soho.
During the 1920s and 1930s, Tennant was an important member – the "Brightest", it is said – of the "Bright Young People". His friends included Rex Whistler, Cecil Beaton, the Sitwells, Lady Diana Manners and the Mitford girls. He is widely considered to be the model for Cedric Hampton in Nancy Mitford's novel Love in a Cold Climate, one of the inspirations for Lord Sebastian Flyte in Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited, and a model for the Hon. Miles Malpractice in some of Waugh's other novels.
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