Clement-Jones family 12/22 - Person Sheet
Clement-Jones family 12/22 - Person Sheet
NameCaptain Arthur Edward “Boy” CAPEL CBE , 3931
Death1919
EducationBeaumont College
FatherArthur CAPEL , 4060
Spouses
Birth1893
Death1983
FatherThomas LISTER 4th Baron Ribblesdale , 1891 (1854-1925)
MotherCharlotte Monckton TENNANT , 3933 (1858-1911)
Marriage1918
 June , 3941
Notes for Captain Arthur Edward “Boy” CAPEL CBE
Died December 21, 1919 in a car accident) was an English polo player best remembered for his affair with, and influence on the style of, Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel. He was wealthy and supplied her with resources she needed to open her first shop. His blazers inspired her to put a squared, masculine touch on classic suit designs. Supposedly Capel proposed to Chanel and she refused, wanting instead to wait until she was financially independent. Capel was killed in an auto accident on Monday 22 December 1919 in Puget-sur-Argens, supposedly on his way to a secret Christmas rendez-vous with Chanel. He was buried with full military honours at Fréjus Cathedral on December 24, 1919.

A heartbroken Coco Chanel who couldn't get there in time to see him before he was buried constructed a memorial to him.  

In his daughter's obituary, Capel was described as "an intellectual, politician, tycoon, polo-player and the dashing lover and sponsor of the fashion designer Coco Chanel.". Nothing else is known of his earlier life; there are hints in biographies of Chanel about his (illegitimate) connections with the Capel earls of Essex but no connection has been established. He was already a rich man, and apparently a self-made man, by 1909.

Capel was portrayed by French actor Olivier Sitruk in Coco Chanel (2008), an American television movie about Chanel produced by Lifetime Television and starring Shirley MacLaine as an elder Chanel. In the theatrical feature film Coco avant Chanel (2009), starring Audrey Tautou as Chanel, Alessandro Nivola plays Capel and in Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky his part is played by Swiss actor Anatole Taubman.
Last Modified 20 Jan 2011Created 4 Mar 2023 using Reunion for Macintosh