Aristocrat tested positive for Covid-19 after being admitted to hospital, says estate

This article is more than 5 months old

This article is more than 5 months old

Lord Bath has died aged 87 after testing positive for coronavirus.

Alexander Thynn, the seventh Marquess of Bath, died on Saturday after being admitted to the Royal United hospital in Bath on 28 March. During his time there it was confirmed that he had Covid-19.

Longleat safari park in the grounds of his estate confirmed the news in a Facebook post on Sunday, expressing “deepest sadness” at his death.

It added: “The family would like to express their great appreciation for the dedicated team of nurses, doctors and other staff who cared so professionally and compassionately for Alexander in these extremely difficult times for everyone. They would politely request a period of privacy to deal with their loss.”

The flamboyant aristocrat was known for his colourful dress sense and regularly appeared on the Animal Park television show about his estate.

Kate Humble, who presented the show that ran from 2000 to 2009 and then returned in 2016, said she was sad to hear of his death. She tweeted: “Everyone will describe him as eccentric – and he was, gloriously so – but he was also kind & fun – and we all need a bit of kindness & fun in our lives.”

Bath, then Viscount Weymouth, was educated at Eton and Oxford where he was president of the Bullingdon Club.

He married Anna Gyarmathy in 1969 and had two children, but he was known for housing women he referred to as “wifelets” in properties on the Longleat estate. In a 2010 Guardian interview he acknowledged he had an eight-year-old daughter “but I don’t see enough of her”.

According to several reports, walls in his house were decorated with erotic murals. He boycotted his son Ceawlin’s wedding after Ceawlin removed a series of his father’s handpainted murals from the walls of Longleat. Bath told a newspaper: “It’s my life’s work and he’s quietly binned it.”

In 2009 Bath was estimated by the Sunday Times Rich List to be worth £157m.

He was involved in politics and stood in the first European parliamentary elections, in 1979, representing the Wessex Regionalist party that he had helped found.

After inheriting the marquess seat in 1992 he sat as a Liberal Democrat in the House of Lords, but lost the seat when changes introduced by Labour excluded most hereditary peers.