Ilhamy Hussein (1908-1992)

Ilhamy Hussein Pasha, of Saint-Jean-Cap Ferrat, France

Associated Houses

Villa Sylvia

Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat

He was a Turkish nobleman and businessman, son of His Excellency Hafiz Hussein Pasha of Istanbul, by his wife, Gulnev Khanum. He was educated at the Sultan's College in Istanbul. In Cairo, he was Chairman of both the Egyptian private airline SAIDE (established in 1947) and the National Bottling Company of Egypt (Pepsi-Cola). He was President of the Superior Council of Farouk I City University and Vice-President of the Egyptian Aircraft Engineering Association. For the business and financial advice he had offered over the years to his wife's stepson, King Farouk, he was raised to the rank and title of "Pasha" in 1942. In 1946, he went into business with the inventor Peter Florjančič (read the Villa Sylvia to find out under what extraordinary circumstances) and their company invented among others the perfume atomiser and the airbag. He received the Grand Cross of the Orders of the Nile and the Phoenix of Greece.

In 1927, at Istanbul, he became the fifth husband of Princess Shivakiar Ibrahim (1876-1947) who was first married to King Fuad I of Egypt. She died in 1947 at the Kasr al-Aali Palace in Cairo. In 1960, he married oil heiress Myrtle Harkness (widow of A. Kingsley Macomber). From 1960, he lived at the Villa Baia dei Fiori in the South of France. He died without children and his valuable 3,000-piece collection of art and antiques were sold at auction in 1993 that was billed as marking the end of an era on the French Riviera. 
Contributed by Mark Meredith on 21/05/2020 and last updated on 10/11/2022.