Winston Frederick Churchill Guest, born in England in 1906 and named after his godfather and his father’s best friend and cousin, Sir Winston Churchill, was raised in the company of great men. His father, Captain the Right Honourable Frederick E. Guest, a grandson of the 7th Duke of Marlborough, was a Member of Parliament and held the post of Britain’s first Secretary of State for Air. His mother, Amy Phipps, daughter of Henry Phipps of Pittsburgh who was a philanthropist and partner at Carnegie Steel Corporation, harnessed her considerable resources to fulfill her deep interest in aviation and to realize its value in the future of world transportation.

Service to his country was embedded in Mr. Guest at a young age. In 1918, during World War I, his American mother converted their London home, Alford House on Park Lane, to be used by the American Red Cross as a hospital for the American Navy.

Mr. Guest was not only a dedicated student (while attending Yale University and Columbia Law School he developed fluency in French and Spanish), but also an avid sportsman and Polo Hall of Fame 10 Goal player. He later served as Captain in the United States Marine Corps in World War II, and during his overseas travels he began his exceptional art collection.

In 1934, Mr. Guest married Helena Woolworth McCann, the daughter of Charles E. F. McCann and Helena Maud Woolworth McCann. Her maternal grandfather was F.W. Woolworth, the American entrepreneur and founder of America’s first ‘Five-and-Dimes.’ His eponymous franchise became the model for modern retail operations. At its peak, the Woolworth company owned and operated over one-thousand stores across the United States. Befitting her grandfather’s place as one of the largest wealth holders in America, Miss McCann was raised in an opulent environment and attended the most prestigious schools, including Miss Hewitt’s, Miss Chapin’s, and finally Miss Porter’s, which counts Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, Lee Bouvier Radziwill, and Gloria Vanderbilt among its notable alumnae.