The ‘senior advisor’ who brokered the relationship between the Duke of York and an alleged Chinese ‘spy’ is a semi-professional golfer who has had a relationship with the Royal Family stretching back more than 25 years.
Dominic Hampshire, 56, is a former Scots Guard who rose to the rank of captain, spending the final three years of his decade in the Army as an equerry to the Duke of Kent.
Mr Hampshire has said his role involved ‘running the professional life’ of the Duke of Kent, with official records showing he accompanied His Royal Highness – a cousin of Queen Elizabeth II – on royal engagements in the late 1990s to countries including France, Canada and South Africa.
A married father-of-two from Chalfont St Peter, Bucks, Mr Hampshire was described in court documents released on Thursday as Prince Andrew’s ‘advisor’ in dealings with a Chinese civil servant who has been banned from entering the UK over claims he is a secret agent gathering intelligence on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party [CCP].
But he has long acted as a ‘fixer’ for members of the Royal Family and other ‘high net-worth individuals.’
After leaving the armed forces, Mr Hampshire, who was born in Edinburgh but moved to Africa as a child before boarding at Cheltenham College, helped establish a travel company, Latitude International. He joined the firm, which specialises in the finest holiday hospitality, as a director in 2003.
It allowed those with deep pockets to ensure they didn’t ‘have to check into hotels, check out, worry about paying,’ he told a podcast in 2021.
Mr Hampshire added, touching upon his previous experience with the Duke of Kent: ‘I knew I had a product that worked for our Royal Family and it didn’t exist anywhere else.’
Dominic Hampshire was described in court documents released on Thursday as Prince Andrew’s ‘advisor’ in dealings with the Chinese civil servant banned from entering the UK
Prince Andrew with the alleged Chinese spy banned from entering the UK
Mr Hampshire has long acted as a ‘fixer’ for members of the Royal Family and other ‘high net-worth individuals’
The trips often involved lavish golfing holidays and Mr Hampshire, who has even described himself as a ‘professional golfer’ on company directorships, bonded with Prince Andrew over their shared love of the sport.
He is secretary of the Quad-Centenary Club, which was established to raise funds for London’s Royal Blackheath Golf Club, for which Andrew was chair. He was also ‘tournament director’ of the Duke of York’s under-18s golf tournament, The Young Champions Trophy, which was scrapped following revelations over his relationship with the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
It appears Mr Hampshire was also helping the Duke with other business arrangements.
In February 2019, Mr Hampshire incorporated the business ‘York Investments Global Ltd’ but it was promptly shut down the following year. In November 2019, Andrew’s car-crash Newsnight interview in which he attempted to justify his much-criticised relationship with Epstein had been broadcast.
In June 2020, Mr Hampshire was behind an unlimited company, Lincelles, named after the 1793 Battle of Lincelles, during which Great Britain was commanded by the then Duke of York, Prince Frederick. The company was reportedly a trust fund for Andrew’s daughters, Beatrice and Eugenie.
The duke had control of the trust, alongside his ‘friend and private banker’ Harry Keogh. In 2018, Mr Keogh left his position at Coutts, the royal bank, amid allegations that he made unwanted advances towards female colleagues. At the time the allegations became public, a friend of Mr Keogh told the Wall Street Journal that he denied the allegations. Another controller was Charles Douglas, a solicitor and partner of London firm CDS Mayfair, who is described as ‘working closely with private banks, private equity and offshore funds advising high net worth individuals and their corporate entities, nationally and internationally.’
Lincelles was dissolved in 2022.
One neighbour of Mr Hampshire said he had no idea about his life in royal circles, and instead believed he was a wealthy ‘City worker’, given his membership of a prestigious golf club.
Mr Hampshire had a relationship with the Royal Family stretching back more than 25 years
‘If you had mentioned Prince Andrew and next door, I had no idea, you could knock me down with a feather.’
Another said he was often picked up in cars from his property while a third said they had spoken to him at a dinner party several years ago, but he was coy about his royal connections.
‘I had understood he was an equerry, but I don’t even know what an equerry is,’ she said.
‘I can certainly tell you that at this dinner party I went to, he did not mention Prince Andrew once.
‘So I think he’s probably very discreet.’
The court documents showed that in March 2020, Mr Hampshire wrote to the alleged Chinese spy regarding the Duke of York. He said: ‘I also hope that it is clear to you where you sit with my principal and indeed his family.
‘You should never underestimate the strength of that relationship. Outside of his closest internal confidants, you sit at the very top of a tree that many, many people would like to be on.’
There is no indication that Mr Hampshire or the duke suspected the Chinese businessman, known as H6 for legal reasons, was a spy.
Mr Hampshire, who has conceded that he was forced to join the armed forces because he didn’t work hard in school, told the 2021 podcast that his mother always said he was ‘very lucky to be born with charisma. But charisma is not enough on its own’.
Now the former soldier may be ruing an element of naivety on his dealings with the Chinese ‘spy’.
