The flamboyant Count Gottfried von Bismarck - who achieved notoriety as a fast-living Oxford undergraduate - has died of a heroin overdose.

Great, great grandson of Prussian 'Iron Chancellor' Otto Von Bismarck, the party-loving Count hit the headlines in 1986 when, as a 23-year-old politics, philosophy and economics student, he hosted a drug-fuelled party in his rooms at Christ Church.

The party resulted in the death of 22-year-old Olivia Channon, the daughter of then Conservative minister Paul Channon.

Bismarck had a reputation for hard-drinking and was renowned for dressing up in lipstick and stockings and hosting outrageous parties.

Miss Channon was found dead of a heroin overdose the morning after the party, in Bismarck's bed, with a male student beside her. Police found amphetamines on Bismarck and he was arrested and charged with possession.

Following the inquest, at which Bismarck denied knowing Miss Channon had taken drugs, he was ordered back to Germany by his father, Prince Ferdinand, and treated for alcoholism. A servant was said to have been sent to Oxford to pay off his debts at the city's pubs, bars, restaurants and tailors.

After three months, he returned to England to stand trial at Oxford Magistrates' Court and was fined £80. Rosie Johnston, 23, of Shellingford House, near Faringdon, was found guilty of supplying Miss Channon with heroin and was jailed for nine months.

While he was not implicated in the death, the Count was said to have been hit hard by the experience and his socialising was put on the backburner.

But last August brought fresh notoriety when a partygoer plunged from the roof terrace of Bismarck's home in Chelsea, London, following what was described as a "gay orgy".

Anthony Casey, 38, had a "substantial" amount of cocaine in his body when he fell 60ft at about 5.30am.

At an inquest into Casey's death, the coroner said a room in Bismarck's flat contained "unusual" and "bizarre" items, including sex toys and a butane gas canister. A verdict of misadventure was later recorded.

It was at the same flat that Bismarck was found dead on Monday, aged 44.