sir james dyson yacht

Sir James Dyson's luxury yacht in Cornwall after Boris Johnson text message controversy

The 300ft Nahlin which has turned up in Falmouth was previously part of King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson's abdication romance

• 17:18, 23 APR 2021
• Updated 09:02, 24 APR 2021

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Vacuum billionaire Sir James Dyson may well have scarpered to Cornwall to escape the fallout from ‘Textgate’ as his 300ft yacht has been spotted in Falmouth harbour.

One of Britain’s most prominent businessmen has been caught up in what the Labour Party has called “new Tory sleaze” after texts between him and Prime Minister Boris Johnson about tax and the provision of ventilators were made public.

Mr Johnson has said he will publish his text messages and “makes absolutely no apology” for the exchanges with Mr Dyson promising to “fix” tax status for the firm to help build ventilators.

Number 10 sources have accused the PM’s former senior advisor Dominic Cummings of leaking the text messages.

A trip to sunny Cornwall can fix most problems and this might be what Mr Dyson is hoping as his luxury yacht Nahlin is currently in Falmouth , moored on the harbour’s Cross Roads buoy.

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Launched in 1930, she is one of the last large steam yachts constructed in the UK having been built by John Brown & Company at Clydebank and was constructed immediately before the RMS Queen Mary.

In 1936 Nahlin was chartered by King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson for a cruise in the Adriatic Sea, photos from which sparked rumours of the impending abdication. Informal photographs of Edward and Simpson on board together during the cruise were not published in Britain but became front-page news in America.

The yacht was then bought by King Carol of Romania in 1937 and later became a floating restaurant in the country.

Sir James purchased the yacht from Sir Anthony Bamford, chairman of JCB, in 2006. The inventor spent five years comprehensively rebuilding and restoring it and the ship was recommissioned in 2010 as the Nahlin and registered again in Glasgow, Scotland.

The name Nahlin is taken from a Native American word meaning "fleet of foot" and the yacht has a figurehead depicting a Native American wearing a feathered headdress beneath the bowsprit.

She was originally furnished with six en-suite staterooms for guests, a gymnasium, a ladies' sitting room with sea views on three sides, and a library.

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From Edward VIII to James Dyson: the yacht that tells a tale of British wealth

The fortunes of industry and a handful of ultra-rich individuals are woven through the history of the Nahlin

I n the early years of this century, soon after he began moving production of his bagless vacuum cleaner from Wiltshire to south-east Asia , James Dyson bought a superb yacht. The Nahlin is exemplary in the beauty of its lines and instructive in its history, though how much of this history Dyson understands or relishes is hard to know. Despite spending a fortune (at least £25m) on its restoration, Dyson has never talked publicly about his yacht, no more than he has about his purchase of Singapore’s most expensive flat (£43m) and its sale soon after, at a loss. For a time, a kind of omertà prevailed about the vessel’s ownership among its team of restorers, though to own and care for such an elegant piece of naval architecture would surely be no shame.

What Dyson certainly knows is that it was on the Nahlin that King Edward VIII and Mrs Wallis Simpson shed any discretion and “came out” as a couple – a relationship reported across the world, though not at the time in Britain – precipitating the crisis that ended with the king’s abdication a few months later, in December 1936. “The cruise of the Nahlin” became an inevitable chapter in any telling of the event, though how the king came to be aboard such a mysteriously named vessel tended to be overlooked. In fact, the name is said to have Native American origins, and reportedly means “fleet of foot” – the yacht’s figurehead wears a chieftain’s headdress – and the king was aboard because the Foreign Office, worried by social unrest in France, had warned against his original plan to rent a villa there.

So instead he rented the Nahlin, to avoid the fuss that a voyage in the royal yacht, the Victoria and Albert, would create and perhaps also because the Nahlin, commissioned only six years earlier, appealed to his appetite for cocktail modernity. Fuss, however, was unavoidable. At Šibenik, the Dalmatian port where the king and Mrs Simpson boarded the yacht, an exuberant crowd of 20,000 turned up and (thanks to reports in the American press) showed as much interest in her as in him; at sea, two Royal Navy destroyers, the Grafton and the Glowworm, accompanied the Nahlin wherever she went – a leisurely August progress down the Adriatic, through the Corinth canal to the Greek islands, and eventually to Istanbul. The “nanny-boats”, as Lady Diana Cooper called them; she and a few other prominent society figures were also aboard, as well as a crew around 60-strong.

Of course, the term yacht is misleading. No sails have ever been involved. The Nahlin, like its bland modern equivalents, was a yacht only in the sense that its sole purpose was its owner’s pleasure, the owner being in this case a Lady Yule. Launched in 1930 from the Clydebank shipyard of John Brown & Co – builder of celebrated liners such as Cunard’s two Queens – it measures 300ft in length and was originally powered by four steam turbines. Characteristically of the steam yacht, of which the Nahlin was among the very last examples, its hull preserves elements of the sailing ship, with a curved clipper bow and a counter stern, each stretching well beyond the waterline. The shape and colour of steam yachts – white hull, cream funnel – made people think of swans. Their costs and months of idleness meant they were an indulgence that only the richest magnates on either side of the Atlantic could afford: JP Morgan, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Sir Thomas Lipton.

And Lady Yule? She was thought to be the richest widow in England. How had she come by her money? Jute, was the short answer. A longer one involves a story of British innovation and industrial expansion overseas that Dyson might recognise, beginning in the 1820s when Dundee manufacturers began to look for an alternative to hemp in the making of sacking, rope and sailcloth. Jute was cheap and reliably available from Bengal in British India, but it was tough and brittle and broke easily when it was spun or woven. After years of experiment, it was successfully made pliable by the application of whale oil, of which Dundee as a whaling port had no shortage.

The demand for jute fabric and jute rope boomed, and Dundee enjoyed a near monopoly until the 1870s, when British industrialists began to open jute mills in Bengal itself because, as economic historian Morris D Morris has pointed out, “jute manufacturing was not a complicated process [and] cheap labour was a very great advantage”. Bengal had five jute mills in 1870 and 69 jute mills in 1914, as cheaper Indian-made jute conquered foreign markets previously served by Dundee, and exports of jute cloth from India grew 272 times over the same period; even better was to come with the first world war, when the word “sandbag” must have sounded like a ringing cash register in the inner ear of every Indian jute trader.

The Yule family benefited enormously. Annie Henrietta (Lady) Yule was the daughter of Andrew Yule, the son of a small-town draper in Scotland who arrived in Kolkata (then Calcutta) in 1863 as an agent representing several British firms, and whose family eventually owned tea estates, coalmines, cotton and flour mills, railways, and 2,400 square miles of productive land – as well as the jute mills that Andrew Yule’s nephew and successor, Sir David Yule, had taken an especial interest in expanding. Sir David was a shy workaholic who rarely left Kolkata. Aged 42, he married another Yule, his cousin Annie Henrietta. When he died in 1928, soon after ordering his steam yacht, the Times described him as“one of the wealthiest men, if not the wealthiest man, in the country”.

Where did it all go? Lady Yule and her daughter Gladys made a long and expensive world cruise in the Nahlin in the early 1930s. She invested heavily and sometimes unwisely in the British film industry; she opened a stud farm. She had, in the words of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, “strong religious opinions, a sharp tongue, and imperious habits”. Her attempt to force teetotalism on the Nahlin’ s crew was probably not a success. At any rate she sold the ship to King Carol II of Romania in 1937, after which the Nahlin disappeared from the map of British interests – missing, presumed dead – until an English yacht broker, Nicholas Edmiston, discovered it moored in the Danube as a floating restaurant in the 1990s. It passed briefly through the ownership of another Brexit-supporting tycoon, Sir Anthony Bamford, before Dyson bought it in 2006.

This week, thanks to the wonder of digital ship location, I traced the yacht’s present whereabouts to the Blohm+Voss shipyard in Hamburg; it had reached there from the Caribbean via Gibraltar and Falmouth. Blohm+Voss spent millions of Dyson’s money when the yacht was first restored and re-engined, and it may be there now for its annual overhaul. The shipyard is old and distinguished, and still fills the harbour with the sounds of building and repair work. They even build luxury yachts there; the clients include Roman Abramovich and Vladimir Putin.

Nothing remains of the Nahlin’s birthplace at Clydebank, apart from a large crane that stands useless at the river’s edge. Ships, like bagless vacuum cleaners and jute, are made elsewhere.

Ian Jack is a Guardian columnist

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James Dyson retrofits classic steam yacht

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Sir James Dyson, the renowned English industrial designer has refitted a 300 feet classic steam yacht named Nahlin.

The 1930 steam yacht Nahlin was completely restored at Blohm + Voss (B+V), a German yacht building firm. The yacht has been refitted with new diesel engines and period-correct paneling and moldings.

Sir James Dyson, who is best known as the inventor of the Dual Cyclone bagless vacuum cleaner, has refurbished the classic yacht and has re-launched it. Nahlin was originally designed by G.L. Watson for a British heiress and was later owned by the Romanian Royal Family. The 1,574 ton Nahlin, which is 91.4m in length and can hold 58 crew and 351 passengers, was built for Lady Annie Henrietta Yule in 1930.

The historic super yacht was involved in the abdication of King Edward VIII, and has spent much of the last 70 years as a floating restaurant on the river Danube until it was reportedly bought by Dyson. It is believed that Dyson has shelled out GBP25 million ($38.7 million) for the retrofit project.

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Sir James Dyson´s Nahlin in Öresund

Sir james dyson´s 300 ft (91.4 m) motor yacht nahlin passed by at noon today on its way to the island of ven. unfortunately the light was not ideal, but i hope you can still get an impression of how beautiful this classic yacht is. nahlin was sailing very close to the danish coast in öresund. "nahlin is a luxury yacht and one of the last of three large steam yachts constructed in the uk. she was built for lady yule, heiress of sir david yule, and was launched in 1930.[3] she is owned by british industrial entrepreneur sir james dyson, who purchased her from sir anthony bamford, chairman of jcb.[4][5] the name nahlin is taken from a native american word meaning "fleet of foot" and the yacht has a figurehead depicting a native american wearing a feathered headdress beneath the bowsprit." (wikipedia).

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Packet camera club, superyacht with royal links now owned by sir james dyson spotted in falmouth, james dyson superyacht in falmouth, cornwall amid text row.

Moored quietly to the Cross Roads buoy the 300ft a superyacht owned by billionaire Sir James Dyson has spent a week in Falmouth sheltering from the strong easterly winds.

Amid a war of words echoing around the corridors of power at Westminster over texts exchanged between Prime Minister Boris Johnson and billionaire Sir James, the British-born inventor, industrialist and entrepreneur, superyacht Nahlin and her crew have kept a low profile.

The last time the Nahlin came to Falmouth was in 1999 when she arrived “piggy-backed” on the heavy lift vessel Swift. In a straight forward flo-flo (float on float off) operation Nahlin was checked for watertight integrity and towed away to Plymouth by the tug St Piran.

Nahlin arriving aboard a heavy lift ship in 1999 before she was refurbished

The steam yacht Nahlin was launched at John Brown’s Clydebank yard 91 years ago tomorrow (April 28, 1930).

Ordered by Lady Yule, wife of the wealthy Calcutta jute merchant Sir David Yule, she embarked on a world cruise with her daughter in 1930 after her husband died.

It was on the Nahlin that King Edward VIII entertained Mrs Wallis Simpson during the summer of 1936. This alerted the world’s press to a possible abdication crisis in the monarchy.

King Carol II of Romania bought the Nahlin in 1937 for £120,000 renaming her Luceafarul and later Libertatea. After the monarch abdicated in 1940 the yacht became the property of the government. Tied up in the port of Galati on the Danube the yacht became a floating restaurant.

Following the 1989 revolution Libertatea remained at Galati becoming more and more neglected.

Luxury yacht broker Nicholas Edmiston rescued the yacht, transporting her to Falmouth on the Swift. Her restoration began in Liverpool by Cammell Laird who went into receivership shortly afterwards. The refit was then completed in Germany.

James and Deidre Dyson purchased Nahlin in 2006 and for the next five years the yacht was completely rebuilt and restored to her former glory. The original steam engines have been replaced by four diesel engines giving her a top speed of 17 knots.

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"Enjoy failure and learn from it. You never learn from success."

Sir James Dyson

Sir James Dyson biography

Sir James Dyson is an inventor, entrepreneur and philanthropist who has devoted his life to solving problems and developing products through the application of new technologies.

He is Founder and Chairman of Dyson, a problem solving, technology-led, company which is present in 84 markets around the world. Around half of the global Dyson team are engineers and scientists, and its research interests span robotics, AI, machine learning, solid state battery development, material science and high-speed electric motors.

James Dyson established Dyson Farming in 2013, as a commercial farming business driving efficiency and sustainability in UK agriculture. The business is focused on creating tasty, high quality food with a low environmental impact, as well being good custodians of the land over the long term – encouraging biodiversity and innovation in farming.

He established the James Dyson Foundation in 2002, to challenge misconceptions about engineering and inspire more young people to pursue careers in engineering and science, it runs the annual global James Dyson Award to celebrate and support young problem-solving inventors in sustainability and medical fields.

In 2017, Dyson founded the Dyson Institute of Engineering and Technology, based on the Dyson Campus in Malmesbury. It is a new form of degree, in which school leavers study while undertaking a full-time salaried role in Dyson’s engineering team. The first cohort graduated in 2021 and all elected to remain at Dyson.

James was awarded a CBE in 1996 and a Knight Bachelor in 2007. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2015, and in the 2016 New Year Honours was appointed to the Order of Merit – the highest honour and the only one within the Queen’s personal gift.

James and his wife Deirdre have three children - Emily, Jake and Sam - and six grandchildren.

Sir James Dyson has devoted his life to developing products and companies that solve problems.

He grew up exploring the marshes and sand dunes of the rural North Norfolk coastline. It was here that he discovered his passion for competitive long-distance running – a discipline that taught him about determination.

“The time to push hard is when you’re hurting like crazy and you want to give up, because success is often just around the corner.”

James attended Gresham’s school where his father, Alec, taught classics. After losing his father to cancer at the age of nine, Gresham’s provided a bursary for James to stay at the school – generosity that he later recognised through a £18.75m donation to enable the construction of the Dyson STEAM building at the school, which was conceived by the late architect and friend, Chris Wilkinson.

After Gresham’s, James earned a place to study at the Byam Shaw School of Art (1965–66) before studying architectural design at the Royal College of Art (1966–70). It was during this time that a life-long obsession with functional design and engineering developed but also where he met his future wife and greatest supporter, Deirdre.

At the Royal College of Art, James developed a unique design for a mushroom shaped theatre building for Joan Littlewood; he approached British inventor and engineer, Jeremy Fry, for funding for the project. Fry turned down the theatre and instead asked James to design a versatile high-speed landing craft, which would become known as the Sea Truck.

Fry became a mentor to James and on leaving the Royal College of Art, with no relevant experience, he asked James to head-up the new Marine Division of his company, Rotork. The challenge of designing, manufacturing and selling the Sea Truck around the world equipped James with the resilience and determination he’d later rely on when starting his own venture.

His idea for an unconventional plastic barrow – with a ball rather than a wheel – ultimately drew James away from the safety and comfort of a salary. He went it alone in 1974. The Ballbarrow went against the grain and overcame many of the problems with traditional wheelbarrows. It featured the world’s first load-spreading, pneumatic ball instead of a narrow wheel which, together with wide legs, prevented it from sinking into soft ground.

This is a carousel with slides. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate, or jump to a slide with the slide dots.

At the same time, James and Deirdre were busy raising a family after the birth of their daughter Emily and their sons Jake and Sam. Despite the added pressure of family life, James continued to invent alone, creating a range of new machines such as the Wheelboat, which James was prevented from commercialising as the project was deemed to be of military significance.

It was in 1978 when one of the most important moments of his life as an inventor came about. While spraying the Ballbarrow’s metal frames with powdered paint, he became frustrated by the way excess powder would miss the frames and get caught in the calico cloth behind and become clogged. It was wasteful, so James investigated a better way.

Inspired by an expensive industrial cyclone he’d seen at a local timber mill, he decided to make a version himself, building a 25ft cyclone to suck the waste powder away. This was, as he would later describe, “a form of filter that never clogged.”

‘The filter that never cloggs’ on the roof of Hill Leigh Ltd. sawmill

At the same time, a similar problem presented itself in the Dyson household. After purchasing a top-of-the-range Hoover vacuum cleaner, James was frustrated to discover that the non-reusable bag frequently clogged with dust and dirt. Keen to understand if the same technology he had installed in the Ballbarrow factory could be applied to vacuum cleaners, James constructed a rudimentary cyclone made from cardboard and strapped it to his upright vacuum cleaner in place of the bag. It proved a seminal moment and four years and 5,127 prototypes later, the first cyclonic vacuum cleaner was ready for production – but would any manufacturer take a risk on it?

The vacuum cleaner bag market was worth over $500m in Europe alone at the time and James’ designs for a cyclonic vacuum were rejected by all major vacuum manufacturers. Undeterred, James persevered amidst the rejection – once again, he would have to go it alone. In 1993, his first mass-produced vacuum cleaner – DC01 - was launched, and Dyson was in business.

Since then, James has spent his time with growing teams of engineers and scientists, inventing products that harness radical, new technologies to solve problems. The team has pioneered new approaches to traditional products, including low-energy cordless vacuums, bladeless fans, air purifiers, heaters, and, most recently, lighting, high efficiency hair dryers, stylers and straighteners.

Scientific research by Dyson’s growing team of engineers and scientists has led to breakthroughs in the fields of digital motors, solid state batteries, material science and purification. Now present in 84 markets, Dyson has grown into a global technology company, headquartered in Singapore, but with a significant footprint also in the UK, Philippines, and Malaysia.

In keeping with the strong design philosophy that underlines Dyson as a company, James developed a close partnership with the late architect Chris Wilkinson, who helped bring James’ vision and values to life in the company’s many buildings around the world. Standing by James’ side at every point in Dyson’s expansion, Wilkinson helped to create Dyson’s UK campus in Malmesbury – with its wavy roofed main building and pioneering clean air system; the daring, structural glass D9 building;  the Undergraduate Village of cross-laminated factory-built pods; the Roundhouse clubhouse, and the faithful restoration of the vast hangars at Hullavington Airfield. While hugely varied, each project reflected Wilkinson’s belief that buildings should be a marriage of architecture, art, design and technology and James’ belief that engineers and scientists should work side-by-side in inspiring surroundings.

St.James Power Station, Singapore; The Wilkinson Building, Malmesbury, UK; Dyson's Malmesbury campus, Malmesbury, UK; Dyson student accommodation, Malmesbury, Wiltshire, UK;  STEAM Building, Gresham School, Holt, Norfolk.

“Success tells you nothing. Failure is interesting – it’s part of making progress. You never learn from success, but you do learn from failure.”

Despite the growth of Dyson and James’ accomplishments over the years, his path to success has not been without failure.

Alongside the 5,126 failed vacuum prototypes that paved the way to his most notable success story, James’ has continued to learn from failure. Inventing the Contrarotator washing machine in 2000, the revolutionary machine featured two large counter-rotating drums that could clean bigger loads better and faster than any of its competitor at the time. Although it was pioneering in terms of its technology, it was not a commercial success and high manufacturing costs meant that production finally ceased.

More recently, in 2014, James developed plans for a radical new battery-electric vehicle. Investing over £500m in the project in less than five years, the car was developed to a pre-production level  and measured five metres in length with generous ground clearance and room for seven adults inside. With a 150kWh battery, the car would travel over 600 miles on a single charge and would have been developed at Dyson’s newly acquired and faithfully restored Hullavington airfield, close to its Malmesbury campus in Wiltshire. Like many of his inventions before it, the pioneering technology behind the car and the lessons learnt from its creation were invaluable and would live on, but ultimately the Dyson car was not commercially viable and the project was halted in 2019.

2000: Dyson Contrarotator washing machine

2020: The Dyson Battery Electric Vehcile

These lessons, learnt on his journey as an inventor over the years, occupy the pages of books James has written. His first, Doing a Dyson, was written by James and also Tony Muranka in 1996, and was promptly followed by his first autobiography, Against the Odds, in 1997. In 2001, James wrote and published A History of Great Inventions and in 2010, he co-presented the Channel Four TV series, Genius of Britain. In 2021, a second autobiography, Invention: A Life, was published and quickly entered The Sunday Times bestseller list.

James has long been a keen advocate of the importance of engineering education, and established the James Dyson Foundation in 2002, to inspire more young people to pursue careers in engineering and science. The James Dyson Foundation inspires the next generation of engineers through its work in schools and universities. Its scholarships, engineering workshops, university partnerships and the annual James Dyson Award – an international student engineering problem solving competition  – aim to inspire, encourage and aid future engineering talent all around the world.

James has supported higher education institutions by providing funds for new activities and facilities including The Dyson Building at the Royal College of Art (2013), The Dyson School of Design Engineering at Imperial College London (2015) and The Dyson Centre for Engineering Design at Cambridge University in (2016). Since its creation, the Royal College of Art’s incubator housed  in the Dyson Building has the largest number of active spinouts of any of the UK university incubators and is third in terms of the number of deals secured by its spinouts. In 2014, James provided the funding for a new professorship – the Dyson Chair of Design Engineering – at the University of Bath.

Outside of education, James’ long-term support and investment into healthcare has led to pioneering new medical research and facilities. Significant amongst them were the development of the Dyson Cancer Centre and the Dyson Centre for Neonatal Care at the Royal United Hospitals Bath (RUH). More recently, his support of his friend and ex-Formula One driver Jackie Stewart’s charity Race Against Dementia created a research Fellowship, which saw Dyson fund and support a research programme with Dr Claire Durrant. By combining biological research with an engineer’s mindset,  the partnership is pioneering new research approaches – including a novel approach to human brain slicing – to establish new models of Alzheimer’s disease and speed up the delivery of pioneering research in the field.

The Dyson Institute of Engineering and Technology – based on the Dyson campus in Wiltshire, UK – is perhaps the most significant manifestation of James’ commitment to education. It is a new approach to education, born out of a conversation between James Dyson and Jo Johnson, the then UK Universities Minister after James bemoaned the shortage of engineers in the UK. Jo suggested James start his own university, using new legislation passing through the Houses of Parliament. The Dyson Institute of Engineering and Technology launched in 2017 and was the first institution  of its kind anywhere in the world.

The first Dyson Institute of Engineering and Technology cohort graduate

Dyson’s undergraduate engineers pay zero tuition fees and earn a full salary. As well as their degree studies, they work on real-life projects alongside world-experts in Dyson’s global engineering, research and technology teams. From day one they contribute to new technologies to improve lives around the world. It is more than a job, and more than a degree, and although the aspiration is that they remain long after graduation, they are not tied to Dyson.

James has also applied his engineering mindset to other fields and industries, such as farming and food production. Realising the vital role that sustainable farming, food security and the environment play in the nation’s health and the economy, he sees Dyson Farming as an opportunity for technology to drive a revolution in agriculture and vice versa.

Through the application of technology, Dyson farming has developed a highly efficient, carbon neutral circular farming system. The latest evolution is a 15-acre glasshouse that produces 750 tonnes of British strawberries outside the usual growing season, using renewable electricity and surplus heat from an anaerobic digestor. The farm produces flavoursome strawberries without the unnecessary  air miles associated with imported fruit. The farms also produce maize, wheat, sugar beet, peas, cabbages and potatoes alongside other crops, cattle and sheep while the anaerobic digestors produce approximately 41,610 MWh per year of sustainable electricity, which is enough to power 10k homes.

James Dyson beside the Anerobic Digester at the Dyson farm in Carrington

In acknowledgement of his services and life’s work, James was awarded a CBE in 1996 and a Knight Bachelor in 2007. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2015, and in the 2016 New Year Honours was appointed to the Order of Merit - the highest honour and the only one within the Queen’s personal gift. Alongside his national accolades, James was unanimously voted in as Chair of the Design Museum, a position that he occupied from 1999 to 2004. He was appointed Provost of his former alma mater the Royal College of Art in 2010.

James continues to spend his time developing technologies alongside the growing teams of engineers and scientists around the world. Marking the beginning of a new chapter for Dyson, James, Jake and the many Dyson employees based in Singapore move into the historic St James Power Station in 2022. The faithfully restored building is Dyson’s global headquarters, complimenting its significant spaces in the UK, Malaysia, the Philippines and many other countries around the world.

As Dyson continues to grow and expand, it is James’ firmly-held belief in the ability of engineers and scientists to improve the world that continues to drive him forward. Through the work of the Dyson Institute, the James Dyson Foundation, and the James Dyson Award, he hopes to inspire and encourage the next generation to take action and solve the problems they  are so passionate about.

For permission to reproduce any content on these pages, please contact the Dyson Press Office .

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Return of the royal love boat: Back in Britain, the yacht on which Edward VIII and his married lover enjoyed a voyage of scandalous hedonism

By Glenys Roberts Updated: 20:24 EDT, 20 July 2010

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Sliding gracefully into Dartmouth harbour yesterday, the sun playing on the lines of its graceful white hull, a 250ft yacht dwarfed the fleets of smaller boats and drew the attention of hundreds on the quayside.

This remarkable craft is the property of inventor Sir James Dyson. Now, after a major refit overseas, she has returned to Britain in tip-top shape for the first time in 70 years.

But the Nahlin is not just the plaything of a rich man. Though few observers in Devon were aware of the fact, this is the same boat that served as the backdrop to an extraordinary royal drama played out as the country became convulsed by a constitutional crisis

Glorious: Returned to Britain in tip-top shape for the first time in 70 years.

It was on the Nahlin that the newly succeeded King Edward VIII chose to take his married lover Mrs Simpson on an extended cruise around Eastern Europe in the summer of 1936, to the horror of the government.

During the trip, they cavorted with the leaders of several Nazi-supporting countries, drank vast amounts of alcohol and generally made a spectacle of themselves.

Within months, Edward had abdicated and thrown the future monarchy into chaos. 

In the years that followed, the Nahlin was bought and sold several times until it ended up at its lowest point - as a floating restaurant on the Danube.

Now, however, it has been returned to its former glories, but the shadow of that royal scandal will forever be associated with it.

As Prince of Wales in the Thirties, the new king had enjoyed a series of affairs with older women.

A restless young man who was not allowed to pursue a career in the Armed Forces because of his high-born destiny, he capitalised instead on his good looks and celebrity status.

In short, he was just the sort of person who felt completely at home on a luxury yacht. King George, who knew his son's frailties well, always said Edward had never grown out of adolescence and predicted the prince would ruin himself within a year of his death.

Luxury class: Mrs Simpson, above, and her lover King Edward, below, shocked the nation with their on-board romance

As long as his mistresses were society wives, everyone turned a blind eye, but then he met Mrs Simpson and his father's worst fears were realised.

Introduced to the future king by another of his women friends, Lady Thelma Furness, Wallis Simpson had already divorced one husband and was married to her second, ship broker Ernest Simpson.

But soon Edward had climbed into bed with her, though he never dared tell his father she was his mistress.

When George V died in January 1936, his son watched through a window in the company of the still married Mrs Simpson as he himself was proclaimed king. It was an unforgivable lapse of protocol.

Any hope the 42-year-old new king might mend his ways was dispelled when, a month later, he announced he was taking Wallis, 40, on a cruise aboard the Nahlin - and that her husband would not be going with them.

The latest word in luxury, the ship - built on the Clyde in 1930 by the then richest woman in Britain, Lady Annie Henrietta Yule - boasted six guest staterooms with ensuite bathrooms, a special ladies' sitting room, a gym and a library.

That is until the king had the books removed to provide extra space for the alcohol he planned to take on board.

Worse was to come. With war on the horizon, Edward even planned to start the cruise in Venice, part of Mussolini's fascist Italy.

The Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden finally managed to dissuade him from this course of action, but he was soon blundering on his insensitive way.

The Nahlin was perfectly equipped for long, ocean-going cruises, yet the couple restricted their movements to Eastern Europe, which provided more cause for blushes. Indeed, the king managed to embarrass Britain with a series of visits to Nazi-supporting states.

When they stopped off in Yugoslavia, the country's Regent, Prince Paul, organised a motorcade that sped across the countryside scattering peasants in its wake - behaviour which, once again, horrified the Foreign Office.

Meanwhile, in Istanbul, the couple were greeted by dictator Kemal Ataturk, who treated Wallis as though she were already married to the king.

And when they cruised down the Danube to Budapest, they abandoned all pretence of behaving appropriately.

In the Hungarian capital, Wallis showed off her gipsy dancing until the small hours and the king took over the bar-tending in the Ritz Hotel. Then, after a heavy drinking session, he proceeded to shoot out a row of street lights along the embankment to demonstrate his marksmanship.

Before the era of the paparazzi, most people were unaware of the couple's exuberant behaviour: we now know that this included driving 3,000 golf balls into the Mediterranean to practise their golf swings.

Indeed, their own photograph albums reveal just how they be-sported themselves on board while back home everyone worried about whether the country, never mind the monarchy, would survive.

The king, wearing a gold chain on his bare chest, looked every inch the continental roue. Rarely seen without a cigarette dangling from his mouth, he posed in shorts with a striped matelot sweater and oversized sunglasses, while his lover showed off her figure in fashionable one-piece swimming costumes, floppy sunhats and playsuits.

Though they were in the company of friends and, indeed, Edward's equerry John Aird, they had eyes only for each other.

By the time they returned home at the end of the summer, the king's credibility was ruined. In December, he abdicated the throne, married Mrs Simpson and the couple went to live abroad as the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.

The yacht, too, rapidly fell from grace. In 1937, the Nahlin was bought by King Carol of Romania for £120,000 and - renamed the Luceafarul - enjoyed a brief spell of Royal patronage.

But within a year, King Carol was forced into exile and the boat was put to work by the Romanian Ministry of Culture as a charter yacht, sailing museum and finally a floating restaurant on the Danube.

In the years that followed, she was reduced to a wreck, fit only for the breakers' yard and was picked up by a broker for a six-figure sum.

She was then briefly owned by JCB boss Sir Anthony Bamford, before passing into the hands of vacuum cleaner entrepreneur Sir James Dyson, who has paid for a £25 million refit at a German shipyard.

What the future holds for her, we must wait to see, but it surely cannot be as controversial as the summer she spent conveying a king and his most unsuitable lover one step closer to their scandalous marriage.

Share or comment on this article: Return of the royal love boat: Back in Britain, the yacht on which Edward VIII and his married lover enjoyed a voyage of scandelous hedonism

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I was so poor I owned just one pair of shoes – that didn’t stop me bagging my billions, says Sir James Dyson

• Oliver Harvey
• Published : 18:42 ET, Sep 1 2021

TODAY, billionaire vacuum cleaner king Sir James Dyson owns a stately home, a 300ft yacht and 36,000 acres of rolling British countryside.

Yet as a struggling inventor trying — and failing over 5,000 times — to make a marketable bagless vacuum, he lived a frugal existence similar to ’70s sitcom The Good Life.

The 74-year-old owned one pair of shoes and two shirts. He and wife Deirdre grew their own veg and James made their furniture.

James — named Britain’s richest man last year — revealed: “Deirdre made our clothes.

“In those days, you didn’t have as many clothes. We only had one pair of shoes, a couple of shirts. I think I had a suit at some point.

“Clothes weren’t as cheap as they are now. So you just made do with less, and you didn’t wash them every day. It sounds a bit disgusting, but a shirt lasted three days, not one day as we do now, chucking it in the washing machine.

“When I was at school, we had two shirts a week, so each shirt had to last three or four days. I don’t think we smelt any more.”

The dad-of-three was speaking to The Sun as his autobiography Invention: A Life is published today. It charts an extraordinary life of a man who became Britain’s wealthiest inventor yet who didn’t even study engineering or science.

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His school careers officer suggested he should become an estate agent. In the book James puts his astonishing success down to “endurance” despite failure and “bloody-mindedness not to follow convention”.

The ardent brexiteer said: “I didn’t have any money, I didn’t inherit anything. I’ve had to borrow prodigiously in order to do what I’ve done.” His business is now estimated to be worth £16.3BILLION and the family rank fourth in the Sunday Times’ UK Rich List after reaching the top spot last year.

James owns more land than the Queen. His portfolio includes the Grade One-listed Dodington Park stately home in Gloucestershire, vineyards in the south of France and a 300ft steam yacht called the Nahlin.

In his book, James — the youngest of three children — ponders whether losing his father at a young age spurred his later success. Second World War veteran Alec Dyson, who fought in Burma, died from throat and lung cancer in 1956 when James was nine.

Major Dyson — twice mentioned in dispatches — had been Head of Classics at public school Gresham’s in Holt, Norfolk. The school allowed James to stay on as a boarder free of charge following his “devastating loss”. He recently repaid the act of kindness with a £19million donation to open a new science building.

His mum — vicar’s daughter Mary, who became a grammar school teacher after her husband’s death — brought up the children alone. The family grew their own vegetables and kept chickens. They didn’t have a fridge until James was 12.

James said of Mary: “She was a great single parent. Determined, not too strict. It was a very unmaterialistic age after the war. I didn’t feel I missed money at all.” He became a schoolboy long distance runner which he credits with teaching him “determination”.

James studied at London’s Byam Shaw School of Art where he fell in love with his future wife, the “naturally beautiful” Deirdre Hindmarsh. Although both were living on student grants, they married in 1967. They had three children, Emily, Jake and Sam.

His business is now estimated to be worth £16.3BILLION and the family rank fourth in the Sunday Times’ UK Rich List after reaching the top spot last year. Oliver Harvey

Then, while studying at the Royal College of Art, James helped engineer and sell the Sea Truck — a craft that could land without needing a jetty or harbour — after meeting inventor Jeremy Fry.

In 1974 James invented the Ballbarrow — a wheelbarrow with a ball instead of a wheel. It would capture more than half the UK garden wheelbarrow market but James had assigned the Ballbarrow’s patent to the company that made.

Following disagreements, his fellow shareholders booted him out in 1979 — and James lost control of his Ballbarrow creation. He admits it was a “very low moment” that left him “penniless” with a large mortgage.

His confidence knocked, he was, however, already working up an idea for a revolutionary vacuum cleaner. As Deirdre worked as an art teacher and sold her paintings, James ran up an overdraft as he worked to perfect his invention, revealing he had no income for five years.

The family grew their own vegetables and made their own clothes and furniture. The entrepreneur said: “There was no Ikea then, so we just didn’t have furniture. We didn’t have cupboards. We didn’t have many chairs. You don’t really need all these things.”

Amusingly, Deirdre, who became bespoke rug designer, says of the inventor: “I don’t remember him doing much vacuuming.” When I tell him his family’s earlier years sound similar to classic sitcom The Good Life starring Richard Briers and Felicity Kendal, he admitted: “Well, they were! And we enjoyed them. We were all very happy. We scraped together enough money and borrowed money, increasing amounts.”

In 1983, after four years and 5,126 failed attempts at building a bagless vacuum cleaner, James “cracked it”.

Yet his invention, which would become the best-selling DC01, was rejected by the major manufacturers because the market in disposable vacuum cleaner bags was worth over £360million.

‘Lords? I don’t have time’

So he decided to make the vacuums himself. Within 18 months, it became Britain’s best-selling carpet cleaner.

James says: “Understanding why things go wrong and how they can be avoided is what’s so fascinating about engineering. It’s not the bridge staying up that’s interesting, it’s the one that falls down.”

James only paid off the overdraft aged 48 in 1995 — when it had reached £650,000. He credits Deirdre with not letting the billions go to his head.

“She has kept me grounded,” he revealed. “The amount of money we have is sort of on paper. It’s the value of the business. But making money allows us, as a company that is developing new technology, to fund these big ventures.”

He cites Dyson’s efforts to market an electric car which was canned without going into production because it wasn’t “commercially viable”. The Brexit supporter was criticised in 2002 for moving his factories to low-cost Malaysia after problems gaining planning permission at his Wiltshire site.

He also wanted to be close to Far East suppliers of components for his products. Later Dyson HQ was moved to Singapore. James points out he employs 4,000 people in the UK which is “far more than before the move”.

For a long time, there’s been a disdain of people who make things, people who sell things, even people who make money by making things. James Dyson

He says of Singapore: “You don’t get that same supportive environment for manufacturing in Britain.

“The problem lies in education and attitudes of politicians who really have no interest in manufacturing. For a long time, there’s been a disdain of people who make things, people who sell things, even people who make money by making things.”

He points out in Singapore, 40 per cent of graduates are engineers while in Britain the figure is four per cent. In 2017 he opened the Dyson Institute of Engineering and Technology in Wiltshire to help train the next generation of engineers.

This year he received an apology from the BBC after it published leaked text messages in which Boris Johnson promised James he would “fix” a tax issue for Dyson staff working to develop Covid ventilators.

The BBC apologised for labelling the entrepreneur a “prominent Conservative supporter”. The businessman admits he was “astonished” and “stung” by the BBC’s story after he was called in by the PM to design the ventilators. He says he lost £20million on the project.

Asked if he would accept a peerage, he said: “I haven’t really got time to sit in the Lords.” Britain’s great entrepreneur would rather be tinkering with his latest invention instead.

• Invention: A Life is published today, price £25. Available at dyson.com/JamesDyson .

A HISTORY OF SMART IDEAS

1970 – the rotork sea truck.

James managed the project while studying at the Royal College of Art.

Dyson was 23 when he helped designed the boat, which carried a three-ton load at 50mph. It was used in the oil and construction industries, as well as for military use.

1974 – The Ballbarrow

James invented this more manoeuvrable wheelbarrow with a ball instead of a wheel. It featured on the BBC’s Tomorrow’s World.

1983 – DC01

Frustrated with his own vacuum cleaner’s lacklustre suction, James took it apart and found the bag was clogged with dust.

After 5,126 failed prototypes, he came up with the world’s first bagless vacuum. It would become the UK’s best seller.

2006 – Airblade hand dryer

Air from the dryer moves at 430mph – the same speed as a late-model Spitfire – to dry your hands quickly.

It has a carbon footprint six times smaller than that of paper towels and is now a fixture at many restaurants and bars.

Read More on The US Sun

Kardashians' reign looks over as family slammed for 'buying followers'

Keir to be UK's next PM with 170-seat majority, exit poll predicts

2016 – supersonic hair dryer.

The motor sits in the handle of for better balance and less noise. A high-pressure jet of air dries hair quicker. It took four years and £50million to develop.

2019 – Dyson EV

The all-electric seven-seat luxury car – touted as a potential rival to Tesla – was supposed to be on the road this year. But it was scrapped in 2020 for not being commercially viable after James poured £500million of his own cash into the project.

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I was so poor I owned just one pair of shoes – that didn’t stop me bagging my billions, says Sir James Dyson

• Oliver Harvey
• Published : 22:27, 1 Sep 2021
• Updated : 22:28, 1 Sep 2021

TODAY, billionaire vacuum cleaner king Sir James Dyson owns a stately home, a 300ft yacht and 36,000 acres of rolling British countryside.

Yet as a struggling inventor trying — and failing over 5,000 times — to make a marketable bagless vacuum, he lived a frugal existence similar to ’70s sitcom The Good Life.

The 74-year-old owned one pair of shoes and two shirts. He and wife Deirdre grew their own veg and James made their furniture.

James — named Britain’s richest man last year — revealed: “Deirdre made our clothes.

“In those days, you didn’t have as many clothes. We only had one pair of shoes, a couple of shirts. I think I had a suit at some point.

“Clothes weren’t as cheap as they are now. So you just made do with less, and you didn’t wash them every day. It sounds a bit disgusting, but a shirt lasted three days, not one day as we do now, chucking it in the washing machine.

“When I was at school, we had two shirts a week, so each shirt had to last three or four days. I don’t think we smelt any more.”

The dad-of-three was speaking to The Sun as his autobiography Invention: A Life is published today. It charts an extraordinary life of a man who became Britain’s wealthiest inventor yet who didn’t even study engineering or science.

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His school careers officer suggested he should become an estate agent. In the book James puts his astonishing success down to “endurance” despite failure and “bloody-mindedness not to follow convention”.

The ardent brexiteer said: “I didn’t have any money, I didn’t inherit anything. I’ve had to borrow prodigiously in order to do what I’ve done.” His business is now estimated to be worth £16.3BILLION and the family rank fourth in the Sunday Times’ UK Rich List after reaching the top spot last year.

James owns more land than the Queen . His portfolio includes the Grade One-listed Dodington Park stately home in Gloucestershire, vineyards in the south of France and a 300ft steam yacht called the Nahlin.

In his book, James — the youngest of three children — ponders whether losing his father at a young age spurred his later success. Second World War veteran Alec Dyson, who fought in Burma, died from throat and lung cancer in 1956 when James was nine.

Major Dyson — twice mentioned in dispatches — had been Head of Classics at public school Gresham’s in Holt, Norfolk. The school allowed James to stay on as a boarder free of charge following his “devastating loss”. He recently repaid the act of kindness with a £19million donation to open a new science building.

His mum — vicar’s daughter Mary, who became a grammar school teacher after her husband’s death — brought up the children alone. The family grew their own vegetables and kept chickens. They didn’t have a fridge until James was 12.

James said of Mary: “She was a great single parent. Determined, not too strict. It was a very unmaterialistic age after the war. I didn’t feel I missed money at all.” He became a schoolboy long distance runner which he credits with teaching him “determination”.

James studied at London’s Byam Shaw School of Art where he fell in love with his future wife, the “naturally beautiful” Deirdre Hindmarsh. Although both were living on student grants, they married in 1967. They had three children, Emily, Jake and Sam.

His business is now estimated to be worth £16.3BILLION and the family rank fourth in the Sunday Times’ UK Rich List after reaching the top spot last year. Oliver Harvey

Then, while studying at the Royal College of Art, James helped engineer and sell the Sea Truck — a craft that could land without needing a jetty or harbour — after meeting inventor Jeremy Fry.

In 1974 James invented the Ballbarrow — a wheelbarrow with a ball instead of a wheel. It would capture more than half the UK garden wheelbarrow market but James had assigned the Ballbarrow’s patent to the company that made.

Following disagreements, his fellow shareholders booted him out in 1979 — and James lost control of his Ballbarrow creation. He admits it was a “very low moment” that left him “penniless” with a large mortgage.

His confidence knocked, he was, however, already working up an idea for a revolutionary vacuum cleaner. As Deirdre worked as an art teacher and sold her paintings, James ran up an overdraft as he worked to perfect his invention, revealing he had no income for five years.

The family grew their own vegetables and made their own clothes and furniture. The entrepreneur said: “There was no Ikea then, so we just didn’t have furniture. We didn’t have cupboards. We didn’t have many chairs. You don’t really need all these things.”

Amusingly, Deirdre, who became bespoke rug designer, says of the inventor: “I don’t remember him doing much vacuuming.” When I tell him his family’s earlier years sound similar to classic sitcom The Good Life starring Richard Briers and Felicity Kendal , he admitted: “Well, they were! And we enjoyed them. We were all very happy. We scraped together enough money and borrowed money, increasing amounts.”

In 1983, after four years and 5,126 failed attempts at building a bagless vacuum cleaner, James “cracked it”.

Yet his invention, which would become the best-selling DC01, was rejected by the major manufacturers because the market in disposable vacuum cleaner bags was worth over £360million.

‘Lords? I don’t have time’

So he decided to make the vacuums himself. Within 18 months, it became Britain’s best-selling carpet cleaner.

James says: “Understanding why things go wrong and how they can be avoided is what’s so fascinating about engineering. It’s not the bridge staying up that’s interesting, it’s the one that falls down.”

James only paid off the overdraft aged 48 in 1995 — when it had reached £650,000. He credits Deirdre with not letting the billions go to his head.

“She has kept me grounded,” he revealed. “The amount of money we have is sort of on paper. It’s the value of the business. But making money allows us, as a company that is developing new technology, to fund these big ventures.”

He cites Dyson’s efforts to market an electric car which was canned without going into production because it wasn’t “commercially viable”. The Brexit supporter was criticised in 2002 for moving his factories to low-cost Malaysia after problems gaining planning permission at his Wiltshire site.

He also wanted to be close to Far East suppliers of components for his products. Later Dyson HQ was moved to Singapore. James points out he employs 4,000 people in the UK which is “far more than before the move”.

For a long time, there’s been a disdain of people who make things, people who sell things, even people who make money by making things. James Dyson

He says of Singapore: “You don’t get that same supportive environment for manufacturing in Britain.

“The problem lies in education and attitudes of politicians who really have no interest in manufacturing. For a long time, there’s been a disdain of people who make things, people who sell things, even people who make money by making things.”

He points out in Singapore, 40 per cent of graduates are engineers while in Britain the figure is four per cent. In 2017 he opened the Dyson Institute of Engineering and Technology in Wiltshire to help train the next generation of engineers.

This year he received an apology from the BBC after it published leaked text messages in which Boris Johnson promised James he would “fix” a tax issue for Dyson staff working to develop Covid ventilators.

The BBC apologised for labelling the entrepreneur a “prominent Conservative supporter”. The businessman admits he was “astonished” and “stung” by the BBC’s story after he was called in by the PM to design the ventilators. He says he lost £20million on the project.

Asked if he would accept a peerage, he said: “I haven’t really got time to sit in the Lords.” Britain’s great entrepreneur would rather be tinkering with his latest invention instead.

• Invention: A Life is published today, price £25. Available at dyson.com/JamesDyson .

A HISTORY OF SMART IDEAS

1970 – the rotork sea truck.

James managed the project while studying at the Royal College of Art.

Dyson was 23 when he helped designed the boat, which carried a three-ton load at 50mph. It was used in the oil and construction industries, as well as for military use.

1974 – The Ballbarrow

James invented this more manoeuvrable wheelbarrow with a ball instead of a wheel. It featured on the BBC’s Tomorrow’s World.

1983 – DC01

Frustrated with his own vacuum cleaner’s lacklustre suction, James took it apart and found the bag was clogged with dust.

After 5,126 failed prototypes, he came up with the world’s first bagless vacuum. It would become the UK’s best seller.

2006 – Airblade hand dryer

Air from the dryer moves at 430mph – the same speed as a late-model Spitfire – to dry your hands quickly.

It has a carbon footprint six times smaller than that of paper towels and is now a fixture at many restaurants and bars.

READ MORE SUN STORIES

Love Island fans threaten to call Ofcom after ‘distressing' Casa Amor recoupling

Major fast food chain with over 100 branches abruptly closes diner with NO notice

2016 – supersonic hair dryer.

The motor sits in the handle of for better balance and less noise. A high-pressure jet of air dries hair quicker. It took four years and £50million to develop.

2019 – Dyson EV

The all-electric seven-seat luxury car – touted as a potential rival to Tesla – was supposed to be on the road this year. But it was scrapped in 2020 for not being commercially viable after James poured £500million of his own cash into the project.

• Print Features
• The Sun Newspaper

Sir James Dyson moves back to Britain after two years in Singapore

Relocation follows revelations that the billionaire businessman messaged Boris Johnson over tax issues in the UK

Sir James Dyson has moved his main address to the UK, new company filings revealed on Wednesday, as it emerged that the billionaire exchanged private messages with Boris Johnson about tax issues during the pandemic.

Sir James is now domiciled in Britain, after relocating to Singapore two years ago.

Details for Weybourne, the business that controls Sir James’s fortune, were updated on Tuesday to show a change in the “new country/state usually resident” section for the entrepreneur, with the UK now listed.

Sir James still owns a property in Singapore and continues to split his time between there and Britain, a source said.

On Wednesday, it emerged that after agreeing to make ventilators for the UK during the early phase of the Covid-19 outbreak, he sent text messages to the Prime Minister asking him to alter tax rules.

The requested changes were aimed at ensuring staff based abroad would not pay extra tax if they came to the UK to work on the ventilators initiative. Weeks later, the tax rules for non-residents coming to the country for Covid-related projects were relaxed for a temporary three-month period.

Government sources said the change benefitted a wider group, including non-resident health professionals and vaccine researchers.

A Dyson spokesman said: “There was no benefit to James Dyson in relation to the work he undertook on the ventilator challenge. Neither Dyson nor Weybourne sought or received any benefit either.”

He added that Dyson voluntarily absorbed the £20 million cost of the contribution “in support of a national emergency”.

A spokesman for Sir James also confirmed the move back to the UK, adding that the company “does not comment on private family issues. In respect of corporate entities that made the filing, nothing has changed”.

He added that the billionaire remained one of the largest UK taxpayers, contributing more than £100 million last year. Sir James is ranked as the country’s richest person with a £16 billion fortune when his family is included.

Texts leaked to the BBC showed that Sir James contacted Mr Johnson directly in March 2020, and said “sadly” it seemed the Government did not want him to proceed on the ventilator initiative.

The message was sent after he had written to the Treasury asking for reassurances on the tax issue for non-resident staff, but had received no reply.

Mr Johnson responded by text: “I will fix it tomo! We need you. It looks fantastic.”

The Prime Minister struck a defiant tone after the texts were laid bare, amid Labour claims of “sleaze and cronyism”. He told the Commons he made “ absolutely no apology at all ” and said he was “happy to share all the details” of the exchanges as there was “nothing to conceal”.

Sir James said: “When the Prime Minister rang me to ask Dyson to urgently build ventilators, of course I said yes. We were in the midst of an national emergency and I am hugely proud of Dyson’s response. I would do the same again if asked.”

He added it was “absurd to suggest that the urgent correspondence was anything other than seeking compliance with rules”.

It was the third time that details of ministers’ private communications have been leaked in recent weeks.

Downing Street said on Wednesday that no leak inquiry had been launched, but Sir Iain Duncan Smith called for the national security adviser to investigate.

Who's behind the Westminster leaks?

Most ministers anticipate that they will face the odd controversy while serving in Government.

What they do not expect, however, is their private text and WhatsApp messages appearing in the public domain and fuelling these rows. Yet that is precisely what has happened in a stream of incidents in recent weeks, which Government insiders now fear could swell into a full-blown torrent of leaks.

The Prime Minister, the Chancellor and the Health Secretary have all had details of their private correspondence emerge in the media. 

On Wednesday, Boris Johnson’s text exchanges with Sir James Dyson found their way into the hands of the BBC. The corporation made clear in its report that it had “seen” the messages in which Mr Johnson pledged to “fix” tax changes requested by the entrepreneur.

Meanwhile, last month the existence of text exchanges between Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor, and former prime minister David Cameron over Greensill Capital, the collapsed lender which employed Mr Cameron, were reported in The Sunday Times.

Questions were raised about the former Tory leader reaching out to Mr Sunak directly – and texting his personal rather than ministerial mobile.

It is understood that Government officials remain stumped about how the existence of the texts was made known to the press.

Matt Hancock has also been snarled by leaks of private communications. Last month, The Guardian published details of a conversation over WhatsApp between him and a former neighbour who was supplying the NHS with coronavirus test tubes.

The Health Secretary messaged Alex Bourne, a former publican, about a story set to appear about the pair in the newspaper. The messages suggested an “easy familiarity between the men” and that the latter “may have downplayed his relationship with Hancock in public”, The Guardian said.

Various theories abound over the source of these leaks – although there is no suggestion so far that they have originated from the same place.

Nonetheless, there may yet be a connection – in that one may have inspired another.

Senior ministers talk of the dangers of “leak culture” – the fear that one person taking the risk to leak damaging information emboldens others to follow suit.

Finger pointing is common in Westminster, and behind closed doors speculation has been rife about whether a politician with a vendetta against a rival, a mischief-making adviser, or a Left-leaning official who opposes the Government could be behind one or other of the leaks.

“There’s definitely a sense that some stuff is coming from officials, that it’s a knifing,” said one senior Tory.

Another source, who works in Government, insisted that “it’s impossible to tell”, however.

Some look further afield at the potential hacking threat from foreign powers. Sir Iain Duncan Smith has questioned whether a hostile state actor such as China or Russia could have breached the security of Mr Johnson or Sir James’s phones.

The former Tory leader called for an investigation into the Prime Minister’s phone led by Sir Stephen Lovegrove, the national security adviser.

In a move that surprised some Tory backbenchers, Downing Street clarified that no leak inquiry had been launched into the emergence of Mr Johnson’s texts.

But if the pattern continues to be repeated, it is only a matter of time until stiff action is taken.

• Sir James Dyson,
• Boris Johnson,
• Vacuum cleaners,
• David Cameron
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