Remembering Evan Morgan, Viscount Tredegar

 

REMEMBERING EVAN

 EVAN MORGAN, VISCOUNT TREDEGAR

 DIED HONEYWOOD HOUSE, ROWHOOK,  SURREY

27th  APRIL 1949

 

Evan Morgan, Viscount Tredegar, ( 1893-1949)  broke the rules, rejecting work to increase the family’s wealth from land, railways and coal to spend his allowance on fun. He rubbed shoulders with bohemians, scene-setters, painters and film stars from Charlie Chaplin to Tallulah Bankhead.  He dazzled literary contemporaries like Aldous Huxley (who portrayed him in his book Crome Yellow), showering the mediocre and handsome youths with praise and presents, and paying their bills.

 

At Garsington Manor the Morrells hailed Evan’s  talent, whilst Bloomsbury’s clique thought him shallow. In the Great War he dodged rat-infested trenches by citing a weak chest, the bane of his existence.  He tried Whitehall politics pursuing David  Lloyd George’s mistress, Francis Stevenson, who dubbed him a liar; he also attempted the diplomat’s role at the 1919  Paris Peace Conference.

 

Vowing to reject pleasure and birthright he found mysticism, spirituality and Roman Catholicism, briefly spending time as a monk, later studying at Beda College, Rome, whilst acting as a  Papal Chamberlain. Aside from the confessional he shared excesses with Augustus John, Gerald Berners, and lined his bed with satyrs.

 

Evan’s attraction for men, from Princes to valets and occultists encountered his dour father’s wrath. An affair with Ronald Firbank  sunk him, as did a fling with Alistair Graham,  Evelyn Waugh’s lover.  He attracted iconic women like Diana Manners, Nancy Cunard and Rosa Lewis and took two wives; but both marriages were shams. 

 

On inheriting the Morgan Estate Evan transformed it for rave weekend parties, nude bathing, and black magic rituals. The footmen adorned powdered wigs.  Houseguests were plentiful from H G Wells to the Great Beast, Alistair Crowley. Godfrey Winn sent Daily Mirror reader’s bulletins from Wales’ Tredegar House. In the Second World War Evan disgraced himself, and was Court Martialed for offences against the Official Secrets Acts.  In his last years he travelled abroad seeking salvation and Irish citizenship. The Tredegar Estate was bankrupted by death duties and Evan finally finished off by cancer, at only 55.    

 

Evan never found happiness; his misfortune was to be born with too much money, too little health and no practical sense. His deep love of animals irritated his “huntin, shootin a’ fishin” relations, wrecking gin-traps and creating his own zoo, with a kangaroo (Somerset), a honey bear (Alice) and a parrot  (Blue Boy).  Throughout decades of high-living Evan continued to write poetry, befriended Bosie Douglas and planned a biography leaving the contents of a black box to his Executors.  They deemed Society was not ready for the scandal; the box was destroyed, with instructions cascaded to burn everything associated with Evan Morgan.  

The funeral pyres glowed for hours.

William Cross, FSA Scot

Evan's Biographer

27 April 2023

 Principal Biographical Sources for Evan Morgan

Books Published by Book Midden Publishing, 58 Sutton Road, Newport NP19 7JF

By Monty Dart and William Cross

A Beautiful Nuisance : The Life and Death Of Hon Gwyneth Ericka Morgan

[ISBN 9781905914104]: 2012

Aspects of Evan : The Last Viscount Tredegar, by Monty Dart and William Cross.  [[ISBN 9781905914159]: 2012

By William Cross, FSA Scot

Not Behind Lace Curtains: The Hidden World Of Evan, Viscount Tredegar.  [ISBN9781905914210]: 2013.

Evan Frederic Morgan, Viscount Tredegar : The Final Affairs, Financial and Carnal . [[ISBN 9781905914241]: 2014.

Lois Sturt, Wild Child : A Glance at Hon. Lois Ina Sturt, Viscountess Tredegar. [ISBN 9781905914319] : 2014.

Evan, Lord Tredegar : Selected Letters, Prose and Quotations [ISBN9783905914333] : 2015

Evan, Lord Tredegar : Further Letters and Prose Pieces: With Anecdotes About Evan.  [ISBN 9781905914388] : 2016

Evan, Lord Tredegar: Final Affairs - The Aftermath: The Welsh Peer, Poet & Pleasure Seeker [ISBN 9781905914326] : 2016

Sketches of Evan, Viscount Tredegar 'Lord of the Lies' As seen by friends, foes and lovers. [ISBN 9781905914463] : 2017.

An album of sexually explicit verses and jokes. From the collection of Lois Ina Sturt and  Reggie Pembroke. [ISBN 9781905914401] : 2018.

Myths About The Morgans of Tredegar House, Newport, South Wales. Busting the History Fraudsters [ISBN 9781905914425] : 2018.

More Sketches of Evan, Viscount Tredegar: 'Lord of the Lies' [ISBN 781905914470] : 2020.

FURTHER INFORMATION

CONTACT WILLIAM CROSS BY EMAIL

 williecross@aol.com