An aristocrat who once advertised for a ‘castle-trained’ non-communist lady to give birth to his heir is locked in a High Court fight with his ex-wife over her £1.2million trust fund.
Sir Benjamin Slade, 7th Baronet of Maunsel, appealed publicly in 2017 for a wife during an appearance on ITV‘s This Morning, saying she could not be from a country beginning with an ‘I’ or with green in its flag.
He added she could not be Scots, Scorpio or lesbian and must be a ‘good breeder’ to provide him with ‘an heir and a spare’.
Sir Benjamin was previously married to Lady Pauline Slade for 12 years before they divorced in 1994 – he later said he became frustrated at her 17 cats.
As part of the divorce, Lady Slade was given an ‘income fund’ now worth around £651,000 and a £585,000 house on his 2,000-acre estate in rural Somerset.
She has now moved out of the house and wants trustees to sell it to pay off her debts and boost her income but the aristocrat is challenging her ability to do so in court.
Sir Benjamin, who will be 80 in May, offered £50,000 a year to find a bride but had a strict list of requirements.
Only applicants at least 20 years his junior will be considered and they must be able to use a shotgun.
Sir Benjamin pictured outside the High Court after a hearing for the dispute over Old Farm
Lady Pauline Slade, Sir Benjamin’s ex-wife, has made an effort to sell the house she lived in after the pair’s 1994 divorce settlement
Maunsel House, the family seat of Sir Benjamin Slade, pictured from above
In terms of hobbies, he sought a bride who loved ballroom dancing, playing bridge and backgammon.
She must also have a flair for administration to enable her to ‘run two castles’, with ‘legal and accountancy training’ a preference.
The successful candidate will also need a driving licence while a helicopter licence ‘would be beneficial’, said Sir Benjamin.
He narrowed the field down further by ruling out ‘Guardian readers, Scorpios, drug users, alcoholics, Scots, and anyone under 5’6’.
Sir Benjamin, 79, is descended from one of the Duke of Wellington’s generals and recently appeared on Channel 4 reality gameshow Handcuffed.
He currently lives in Old Farm, the house Lady Slade is trying to have sold, after putting his manor house up for sale for £3.5million last year.
Lady Slade’s plans have sparked a complex legal battle which has made its way to the High Court after Sir Benjamin moved to stop the sale.
His lawyers said his ex-wife has no claim to the proceeds of the house and only had a right to live there for life.
The trustees of Lady Slade’s fund have asked a judge to decide whether she can force them to sell the home and what the money from the sale could be used for.
Sir Benjamin is a direct descendant of one of the Duke of Wellington’s generals – General Sir John Slade, the first baronet – who was once criticised by the Iron Duke for his inept handling of cavalry and for ‘galloping at everything’.
The family seat is a sprawling 13-bedroom red-brick manor – Maunsel House in Somerset – which has origins stretching back to the 11th century and is said to be where Geoffrey Chaucer wrote some of his works.
Inside there is a blocked off secret passage, which was once linked to the local parish church, while a well-stocked bar has a display cabinet with 81 firearms – including a heavy machine gun.
Lady Slade, 79, is the daughter of the late Devon county cricketer and British Army officer Major Claude Myburgh.
When they divorced in 1994, he settled a trust to provide her with an income while transferring Old Farm into it for her to use as a home.
But the baronet’s barrister, Robert Deacon, told the court that Lady Slade moved out in 2022 or 2023, later writing a letter in August 2024 ‘confirming that she had no intention of living in the property again’.
Lady Slade went on to say that she had no wish to buy a ‘replacement property’ but wanted Old Farm to be sold up for her benefit.
‘She wanted the sale proceeds invested to enhance her income and she wanted all her debts paid from the sale proceeds,’ continued Mr Deacon.
Lady Slade and Sir Benjamin outside Maunsel House in 1986
Inside Maunsel House, which was listed for sale by Sir Benjamin at a £3.5million asking price
Aristocrat Sir Benjamin Slade on his estate with three of his dogs
He added the aim of the 1994 divorce settlement was ‘to provide income for Lady Slade from the cash fund deposited in the trust and to provide her with lifetime rent-free accommodation by means of the transfer of the property to the trust’.
‘It was never objectively intended that the property would be used to provide income either to Lady Slade or at all.
‘She is not entitled under the deed to alter the underlying purpose of the trust and the nature of the trust property from a home to an income-producing asset,’ he argued.
Lady Slade has limited rights in relation to both her investment fund and Old Farm, argued Mr Deacon, noting that she has no power to manage her £651,000 trust fund.
‘Under the settlement, she has a life interest in income, but is not entitled to control the capital of the trust fund,’ he said.
‘As regards the property, she has only a limited power, which is to direct the trustees to sell the property, but only to acquire another property [to be her home].
‘That does not allow her to demand investment of the proceeds for income.’
Sir Benjamin also claimed that, under the terms of her divorce settlement, his former wife cannot request Old Farm’s sale unless she is actually living at the property, and argued that the purpose of the trust was solely to safeguard her permanent accommodation.
‘The trust is there to permit her to live there as long as she lives,’ he told the court.
‘A more fundamental point is that the property was transferred solely to provide a place for her to live rent free.’
Sir Benjamin was in court for the short hearing, during which High Court judge, Master Julia Clark, was asked to resolve the ‘preliminary issue’ of whether Lady Slade can ‘compel’ the trustees to sell Old Farm and ‘invest the proceeds to produce an income for her’.
The two trustees were represented in court by barrister Hugh Cumber, who stressed their ‘neutral’ stance amid ‘diametrically opposing views’.
Lady Slade was not represented in court, with the trustees’ barrister telling the judge she has not participated in the court case or filed evidence ‘despite her interest in the outcome of the proceedings’.
He added the trustees had ‘brought these proceedings in an attempt to resolve the dispute and ensure the proper administration of the trust’.
Master Clark reserved her decision on whether Lady Slade can force the trustees to sell the house and invest the proceeds to boost her income until a later date.
Sir Benjamin made a fortune in the shipping industry but has generated headlines for his mission to find a suitable wife and most recently quitting Jonathan Ross’s show Handcuffed: Last Pair Standing after just hours spent linked to a fellow contestant.
The aristocrat, who was paired with a prison guard for the show, lasted 12 hours and demanded to be set free with bolt cutters after asking for his phone back, a breach of the rules.
‘It’s my house, I want my f***ing phone thanks – I need to check what’s happening in the world,’ he was recorded as saying in a rant at producers before going to find a pair of bolt cutters to separate him from his partner.
During his campaign for a ‘good breeder’ wife, Sir Benjamin also ruled out citizens of countries where ‘they don’t wear overcoats in the winter’.
Sir Benjamin said: ‘I don’t mind Canadians, Americans, Germans and Northern Europeans – what I like to call similar people. I don’t think marrying an Eskimo is for me.’
He added: ‘I can have two sons, three would be better, but if I get two sons that saves the situation.’
Sir Benjamin also said: ‘You always have a lady of the house, women run houses. People think that it is sexist. Jane Austen said if you got a big house, you need a wife.
‘The ladies run the house. They run the staff, they have an eye for it.’
In summary he said: ‘What I just need is a nice, ordinary country girl who knows and understands things.’
