Beau Brummell spent his inheritance on clothes and cards, fled London by night, and died in a paupers' asylum in Caen

George Bryan Brummell was born on Downing Street on 7 June 1778, the son of Lord North's private secretary. His father's estate, about £60,000, was shared equally among three children and held in trust until they came of age^†. Brummell received his share around 1799, left the army and set the style for men's dress in London. In 1813 the Prince Regent snubbed him in St James's Street. His gambling debts grew past what the inheritance could cover. On the night of 16 May 1816, after the theatre, he left London, travelled through the night to Dover and crossed to Calais to escape his creditors. He lived at Dessin's Hotel and never returned to England. Before he died in 1830, King George IV appointed him British consul at Caen. The post was abolished in 1832. On 4 May 1835 he was arrested for money owed to Leleux, the owner of Dessin's Hotel. He was released on 21 July 1835 after receiving compensation for the loss of the consulship. He died on 30 March 1840 in a paupers' lunatic asylum at Caen, aged 61. Charity paid for his coffin. In 1984 the Greater London Council put a blue plaque on his former home at 4 Chesterfield Street, Mayfair.