Family Group Sheet
Family Group Sheet
NameSir Basil (Vassili) Zaharoff
Birth6 Oct 1849, Muğla, Turkey
MemoMouchleion.
Death28 Nov 1936, Monte Carlo, Monaco
MemoOr 27th Nov.
OccupationMillionaire arms dealer, noteably with the firm Vickers.
Note 1Seven nationalities and 298 decorations from 31 heads of State. Married 1st (14 Oct 1872 London) Emily Ann Burrows, 2nd (22 Sep 1924 nr Paris) Maria del Pilar Antonia de Muguiro y Beruete, Duchess of Villafranca de los Caballeros (d. 25 Feb 1926).
Note 2Regarded by most people as having been an unprincipled arms dealer and war profiteer... He was the model for the unscrupulous and amoral arms-dealer and war-provoker in Herge’s Tintin adventure ‘The Broken Ear’.
Note 3According to E. Sutherland-Loveday, Basil was the father of the illegimate Colin Richard Theodore Zarifi. Once the world's richest man, he apparently gave his wife the Casino at Monte Carlo as a birthday present.
Note 4He carried on a liaison for a number of years with the Duchess de Villafranca, whose husband, Francisco de Borbón, Duke de Marchena, a member of the Spanish royal house, was mentally deranged.
Note 5When the duke died in 1923, Zaharoff married the widow. Following her death in 1926, he retired to Monte Carlo, where he controlled the casino (but never gambled).
FatherVassili Zaharoff (?-?)
MotherEleni Antoniadi (?-?)
Other spousesEmily Ann Burrows
Maria del Pilar Antonia de Muguiro y Beruete Duchess of Villafranca
Unmarried
SpouseFanny (Theodore) Zarifi, GG Granddaughter
Birth2 Jun 1891
Death?
MemoProbably in Monte Carlo, Monaco.
Baptism11 Jul 1891, Greek Orthodox Cathedral, St Sophia, Moscow Road, Bayswater, London, England
Residencebef 1921, 37 Great Cumberland Place, Westminster, London, England
Residence1922, 40 South Audley Street, Mayfair, London, England
Residencebef 1931, 45 Thurloe Square, South Kensington, London, England
Residencebef 1931, 20 Kensington Gore, Kensington, London, England
Residence1930, c/o Barclay’s Bank, Brompton Road, Knightsbridge, London, England
MemoAddress for Fanny and her son Colin given on passenger manifest of ‘Arundel Castle’ sailing from South Africa and Madeira arriving Southampton 29 Dec 1930.
Residence1931, 33 St James’s Court, St James’s, Westminster, England
MemoAt the time of her divorce from E.J.B. How.
Residence1934, Queen Anne’s Mansions, London, England
MemoLondon SW1 or SW7? See passenger manifest for ‘Arandora Star’ sailing Honolulu and West Indies cruise arriving Southampton 09-04-1934
Residenceabt 1934-1938, Colesdane, Harrietsham, Kent, England
MemoPresumably she bought this huge mansion after the death of her mother and it appears she shared it with her son Colin and his nanny, Jenny Burrell.
Note 1She had an illegitimate son Colin Richard Theodore (perhaps while her first husband Walter Montgomery was away at war). Alexandra, her mother, may have paid off the husband to avoid a scandal. She adopted the child herself pro tem.
Note 2Colin may have been adopted in order to allow Trust inheritance from the Ralli and Zarifi families. George ‘Boysie’ Zarifi noted (perhaps incorrectly) that she had four husbands and one illegitimate child.
Note 3A letter on 28 Oct 1916 from Alexandra Zarifi to her daughter Fanny’s nurse, Miss Jenny Burrell, at Glenstrae, Hills Road, St Martin’s, Christchurch, New Zealand, suggests that Fanny was sent far away during her illegimate pregnancy.
Note 4A libellous allegation made during the 1922 Kessisoglou libel trial suggests that Fanny’s mother might have paid £100,000 to Fanny’s first husband to settle the inevitable divorce.
Note 5She may have used the name Montgomery-Zarifi for a while after her first divorce. She returned, with her baby son Colin, to Plymouth from New Zealand (via India and Suez) as F. Zarifi on the SS Ruahine arriving 23 April 1919.
Note 5According to E. Sutherland-Loveday, the father of her illegitimate son Colin Zarifi was Basil Zaharoff.
God-parentsFanny Zarifi.
Marr. WitnessAlexandra Zarifi and Pandias Ralli.
Flags***, Argenti, Avierino, Boscovic, Calvocoressi, Cantacuzene, Coressi, Giustiniani Fi, Giustiniani Pi, Grimaldi, Kaplanoglou, Mavrogordato, Maximo, Petrocochino, Ralli (Chaviara), Ralli (Pitsis), Rodocanachi, Scaramanga, Sechiari, Sevastopoulos, Vlasto, Vouro, Zarifi
FatherTheodore Michael (Michael) Zarifi (1858-1910)
MotherAlexandra (Peter) Ralli (1866-1932)
Other spousesEverard John Boothby (John) How
Children
1 MColin Richard Theodore (Basil) Zarifi (Zaharoff), GGG Grandson
Birth24 Feb 1917, Christchurch, New Zealand
MemoBorn abroad presumably to avoid darwing attention to his illegitimacy.
Death19 Dec 2001, Berwick-on-Tweed, Northumberland, England