The Mavroleon family is a

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

family of shipping magnates with strong

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

connections. Basil Manuel Mavroleon (1901–1979), descended from a long-established shipping family from

Kasos Kasos (; , ), also Casos, is a Greek island municipality in the Dodecanese. It is the southernmost island in the Aegean Sea, and is part of the regional unit Karpathos-Kasos. The capital of the island is Fri. , its population was 1,223. ...

island of Greece, moved to England as a member of the

merchant shipping Maritime transport (or ocean transport) or more generally waterborne transport, is the transport of people (passengers or goods (cargo) via waterways. Freight transport by watercraft has been widely used throughout recorded history, as it pro ...

business based in the UK and run by his cousins, the Kulukundis family. He later set up the shipping company

London and Overseas Freighters London & Overseas Freighters Ltd. (LOF) was an ocean-going merchant shipping company that for most of its history was based in the United Kingdom. Counties Ship Management In 1920 Manuel Kulukundis from the Aegean island of Kasos and his cou ...

(LOF). He had two sons, Nicolas Mavroleon and Manuel Basil Mavroleon, generally known by his nickname "Bluey" (1927/1932–2009), who was educated in England and served in the

Grenadier Guards The Grenadier Guards (GREN GDS) is the most senior infantry regiment of the British Army, being at the top of the Infantry Order of Precedence. It can trace its lineage back to 1656 when Lord Wentworth's Regiment was raised in Bruges to protect ...

. Bluey went on to run the firm but moved to

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

when the 1974–1979 Labour Government nationalised Austin and Pickersgill shipbuilders in which LOF was the largest shareholder. He was married four times (among whom in 1963 Camilla Paravicini, granddaughter of British writer

W. Somerset Maugham William Somerset Maugham ( ; 25 January 1874 – 16 December 1965) was an English writer, known for his plays, novels and short stories. Born in Paris, where he spent his first ten years, Maugham was schooled in England and went to a German un ...

, through

Mary Elizabeth Maugham Mary Elizabeth Hope, Baroness Glendevon (1 September 1915 – 27 December 1998) (née Wellcome, later Maugham, later Paravicini) was the daughter of Somerset Maugham and Syrie Barnardo Wellcome, and the wife of the 1st Baron Glendevon. Liza, a ...

) and left four children and six grandchildren. Bluey had two sons with Mexican-born Gioconda de Gallardo y Castro, Nicholas Mark Mavroleon and Basil "Carlos" Mavroleon (1958–98). Nicholas was educated at

Eton Eton most commonly refers to Eton College, a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. Eton may also refer to: Places *Eton, Berkshire, a town in Berkshire, England *Eton, Georgia, a town in the United States *Éton, a commune in the Meuse depa ...

and

Aiglon College Aiglon College is a private co-educational boarding school in the canton of Vaud, Switzerland. Founded in 1949 by former Gordonstoun School teacher John C. Corlette, it is in the alpine village of Chesieres, close to the ski resort of Villars ...

, and later married actress

Barbara Carrera Barbara Kingsbury Carrera is a Nicaraguan-born American actress, model and painter. She is a two-time Golden Globe Award nominee, New Star of the Year – Actress for '' The Master Gunfighter'' (1975) and Best Supporting Actress – Motion Pi ...

. Carlos was educated at

and

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...

before becoming a member of the

Mujahideen ''Mujahideen'', or ''Mujahidin'' (), is the plural form of ''mujahid'' (), an Arabic term that broadly refers to people who engage in ''jihad'' (), interpreted in a jurisprudence of Islam as the fight on behalf of God, religion or the commun ...

, with whom he fought against the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

. A professional journalist, he died in

Peshawar Peshawar is the capital and List of cities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by population, largest city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It is the sixth most populous city of Pakistan, with a district p ...

while on assignment for

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

reporting on

Operation Infinite Reach Operation Infinite Reach was the codename for American cruise missile strikes on al-Qaeda bases that were launched concurrently across two continents on 20 August 1998. Launched by the U.S. Navy, the strikes hit the al-Shifa pharmaceutical fact ...

See also

References

Further reading