Who was the real Arthur Guinness of House of Guinness, and what happened to him?

Starring a riotously charming Anthony Boyle (of Masters of the Air fame) as Arthur Guinness, the eight-part series bills itself as a 19th-century Succession, complete with sibling rivalries, political intrigue and a rebellious spirit – all mixed down with plenty of pints.

Who was the real Arthur Guinness?

The Arthur Guinness of House of Guinness is not the one who founded the brewery back in 1759. This is his great-grandson, Arthur Edward Guinness, 1st Baron Ardilaun.

He ran the brewery business alongside his brother Edward from 1868 to 1876, as well as sitting in the House of Commons as an MP and giving generously to a host of humanitarian causes.

Born on 1 November 1840 in Dublin, Arthur was the eldest son of Elizabeth and Benjamin Lee Guinness, the man responsible for turning the brewery into a truly global giant. Growing up with two brothers, Benjamin and Edward, and a sister, Anne, he received an elite education at Eton and Trinity College Dublin, graduating in 1862.

During its first three generations, Guinness had become the largest brewery in Ireland and a major exporter to Europe, the Americas and parts of Africa. Under the stewardship of Arthur and his youngest brother, Edward Guinness, the brewery continued to thrive; even the temperance movement, which bemoaned the social ills of alcohol, promoted the stout as a preferred alternative to spirits like gin and whiskey.

What was Arthur’s involvement in the brewery?

For Arthur, 1868 would be a life-changing year, beginning with the death of his father. He was elevated to the title of Baronet Guinness of Ashford, which had been created just a year earlier to mark Benjamin Lee’s achievements.

His father left a fortune of £1.1 million (well over £100 million today) and the Guinness Brewery, the management of which became a partnership between Arthur and the youngest son, Edward. While the middle brother Benjamin and sister Anne received estates and money, they had no say in the business.

In the first decade of their ownership, the success of Guinness only expanded, with sales more than doubling from around 350,000 barrels sold in 1868 to almost 779,000 in 1876. In the decades that followed, it would rise to more than a million a year.

Was Arthur Guinness a philanthropist?

As a major landowner in rural Ireland, Arthur had hundreds of poor tenants. Although more attentive than many landlords, this got him embroiled in the agrarian unrest and occasional violence of the 1880s, known as the Land War, in which several of his employees were murdered.

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Generally, though, he was considered a generous and conscientious figure, having learned the creed of the Guinness family to favour philanthropy and social responsibility over greed.

Did Arthur Guinness commit election fraud?

The year 1868 also saw Arthur’s election to the UK Parliament as a Conservative MP for the City of Dublin, the seat previously been held by his father.

Only a year later, however, the election was voided when it emerged that Guinness agents had used tactics that amounted to corruption and bribery, even offering £5 for every vote. When the matter went to court, it was concluded that Arthur himself had no idea this had happened.

It would be another five years before he could win his seat back, in 1874, when he served under the Conservative government of Benjamin Disraeli until 1880.

This was a time of widening divide in Ireland, between the Unionists who wished to stay part of the United Kingdom and nationalists seeking independence. Religion similarly divided the Irish between Protestant and Catholic.

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Arthur was a staunch Unionist and Protestant, as all generations of his family had been. In later life, he bought two Unionist newspapers and supported the Irish Unionist Alliance, and the Guinness Brewery’s clear stance was cause for some anger among republicans.

In 1880, Arthur left the House of Commons as he was raised to the peerage as Baron Ardilaun.

What’s known about Arthur Guinness’s sexuality?

In 1871, Arthur married Lady Olivia Charlotte Hedges-White, daughter of the Earl of Bantry. It seemed to be a happy marriage, although childless.

The couple became known for their extravagant hospitality, hosting both Queen Victoria and the future George V, and they travelled widely.

According to Joe Joyce, author of 2009 The Guinnesses: The Untold Story of Ireland’s Most Successful Family, Arthur was “probably gay”. Joyce also reported that both Arthur Guinness and the Baroness Ardilaun were content in maintaining the marriage under the agreement that there would be no sexual intercourse.

It’s a slender claim that the show has taken to heart and run with to riotous conclusions. Certainly, there was no way that same-sex relationships could have been accepted in tandem with success in public life – male homosexuality was legislated against in UK law, under the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act.

"Sodomy (or buggery) were previously a hanging offence in Britain," writes Brian Lewis. "This was modified by the Offences Against the Person Act 1861, which replaced capital punishment with minimum sentences of 10 years’ imprisonment. The Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1885 added to the statute book a two-year maximum penalty for 'gross indecency' between men."

What happened to Arthur Guinness after the events of House of Guinness?

In 1876, Arthur made the decision to step back from the brewery, selling his half of the shares to his brother for nearly £700,000. Although that figure made the younger Guinness a fabulously wealthy man, Edward would float the business a few years later on the London Stock Exchange, which made him a multi-millionaire.

Arthur helped restore Marsh’s Library and extend the Coombe Hospital in Dublin; he sponsored the building of housing for the poor; and, along with his brother, set up the Dublin Exhibition of Arts and Finance to encourage domestic trade. To this day, people can visit St Stephen’s Green, a 22-acre public park that Arthur bought, landscaped and gifted to the city in the 1870s and 80s.

Arthur died on 20 January 1915, at the age of 74. He would be buried in the Dublin suburb of Raheny at All Saints’ Church, the building of which he had helped fund several decades earlier.