Tutankhamun Centenary 2022 : Lady Almina Carnarvon's Game of Charades

 TUTANKHAMUN CENTENARY 2022

ALMINA COUNTESS OF CARNARVON  PLAYS  OUT  HER OWN  GAME OF CHARADES 

Almina, Countess of Carnarvon

In November-December 1922  whilst Howard Carter and  Lord George  Carnarvon were playing out their  choreographed games around the Old King Tut discovery  and then entering into  Tutankhamun’s tomb,  Almina, Carnarvon’s wife was missing from the centre stage at Luxor.  

Almina was playing out her own game of charades.                     

The woman who forked out  the money  for  the  14 years of digging through the generous  hand-outs  she secured  from  her sugar daddy,  Baron Alfred de Rothschild, was sorting out  how to add to her  bank balance.

The reason for  Almina’s absence  on  the first November 1922 trip by her husband  to Egypt  is crowded with surreptitious art deals and sneaky arrangements, the usual level of  Carnarvon lies that have confused history.  

Year on year, for 20 years, Lady Carnarvon had accompanied his Lordship  to Egypt.  Upon the epic discovery being made, and Howard Carter’s famous telegram, Almina  declined to go out to the scene of the great triumph.  This was because she had other bigger fish, much bigger fish to fry in the hotels  of Paris and in the English countryside, as far away as possible from the eyes and tongues of London spies.

One cute explanation given was that “being so often disappointed [on previous journeys to Luxor ] [Almina] decided  to  stay behind.”  [i] [ in England].

Colonel Ian Onslow Dennistoun and Almina, Countess of Carnarvon

Another reason, the true one,  is clear.  Almina was already  deeply involved  in a relationship with  Lt Colonel Ian Dennistoun, whom she later married a few months after  she   humanely hastened  Lord Carnarvon’s demise in the days she spent nursing him at the Continental Hotel,  Cairo from 26 March- 5 April 1923. 

 Almina  was seeing the Colonel and they were lovers. 

 This fact came out  in the High Court in 1925  during the  17 day sex scandal Dennistoun v  Dennistoun.  

 The Colonel – and his ex wife Dorothy may well   have had a cunning plan to deceive Almina,  but the Countess saw through any ploy.   She wanted the Colonel and  had him in her bed.   Moreover , he  was the fall guy, the  patsy. 

Almina’s plan was also  to money launder the proceeds of  her intended  art  sales through   Ian Dennistoun’s   barren bank  account. Ian was skint, he lived on a tiddly  army pension and hand outs from the  helpless  women he chased.

Baron Alfred de Rothschild

In the winter of  1922/3  the Countess was busy wheeling and dealing over the estate left to her by  Baron Alfred de Rothschild.  Alfred, a shrewd  collector of old Masters, Gainsboroughs,  French porcelain,  rare silver and the finest  jewels treated Almina well, he secured the title for her of Countess of Carnarvon, he funded the Carnarvons’ whims  for decades; but he had to as Almina’s mother Marie Wombwell  was aware and ready to disclose Alfred’s cloudy business  and shameful sex secrets to the world.

[i]  Sunday Times, 10 December, 1922.

READ MORE IN 

" LIES, DAMNED LIES AND THE CARNARVONS"

A NEW BOOK FROM

WILLIAM CROSS, FSA SCOT

Lies, Damned Lies And The Carnarvons

CONTACT WILL CROSS BY E-MAIL

williecross@aol.com

 

The Curse Of Tutankhamun : From William Cross, FSA Scot.

Carnarvon - Tutankhamun and Howard Carter

Howard  Carter’s view of the so called curse of Tutankhamun  was summed up by him  in one  word,  ‘Tommyrot’.  

It was something man made and encouraged by local Egyptians  whose heritage was being removed by foreigners all around them,  coupled with daft stories  fuelled  by journalists fighting for a good headline.  

After  1922 there were  several deaths of folk caught up in the Tutankhamun tale, the curse was introduced and hysteria and human playfulness  set  it to work.

Lord Carnarvon’s death (from throat cancer) was inevitable, it was inconvenient and had to be  staged managed. 

Some of the other demises attributed to the curse were  exaggerated   odd-ball, they  were not well enough explained or  facts were taken liberty with,  but nothing of this was  owing to any curse from the ancients.  Causes of death are often secret or  bizarre and complicated by circumstances of  fate and madness or even  medical incompetence. 

Many of those folk who feature  in the King Tut  story were affected by family secrets,  bad habits, poor health and incautious living. The hot climate of  Egypt  affected many of them  more so than any curse acting to strike them down dead.  

Howard Carter lived and ate, slept and worked constantly  in the tombs in Egypt  for many years,  he was not afraid or needed to be afraid of curses, he was more concerned with avoiding disease and taking sufficient respite and drinking enough whisky to  blot out  a hard day’s graft and  ease his  fragile body frame!

Moreover Carter did not subscribe to the stories ( fostered even by some  academics)  about  so called warning  signs  being present  for  him and Carnarvon  or threats being  given. Carter deemed these  the work of  troublemakers. 

There are no warnings in old writing texts  that Carter considered  wary,  or dangerous,   or fearsome  other than those from and by errant priests to  warn off  grave robbers, thieves and the gullible. There was  certainly no threatening  sign of death will come etc  to those who disturb the tomb. Nothing  like this was found  in or above the tomb  or evidence of intervention by the gods, the crazy things cited were only of acts that were the work of human hands. 

The cobra that consumed Carter’s canary, the lights going out in Cairo as Carnarvon died, a dog  howling and  perishing at the same moment  at Highclere  Castle.  These are  all fictions or have scanty facts dressed up as true.   All a charade,  the work of hacks planting and keeping going a story,  that began with  the Cairo correspondent of Reuters News Agency making world  news with  the so called insect bite affecting Carnarvon  rather  than revealing the true story of  Carnarvon being in extremis with a  terminal illness.  

Ploys by news agencies like Reuters  were to deflect attention away from the real crisis of Carnarvon being doomed, especially with so much money at stake with media deals etc  All this chaos and crisis caused Almina’s daughter Lady Evelyn  Herbert ( acting as the Earl's nurse)  to panic, Carter was at loggerheads with the Carnarvons and turned his back on his patron,  and Almina ( Carnarvon's wife)  rushed to her husband’s bedside to aid his passage into peace and oblivion.

All that said Lord Carnarvon was superstitious by nature  and had a keen perception of all the  ancient myths, however  his vaulting ambition to make money from the tomb overcame his fears. 

Carnarvon, Carter and Tutankhamun's lives were all cursed, they were affected personally and across  their overlapping lives  on more down to earth factors, on account of bad genes, inbreeding and  trauma during their development years. This blighted them and made them the people that they were, three dysfunctional adults.

But all that said no one can take away the glory of  Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon being celebrated this year, 100 years after 1922 for discovering the great tomb of Tutankhamun. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT THE AUTHOR WILLIAM CROSS  

   email  williecross@aol.com

NB William Cross's latest book written for the centenary of 2022  is entitled  "Lies, Damned Lies and the Carnarvons" and challenges many of the landmark events in the story of the discovery of Tutankhamun. 

"Lies, Damned Lies and the Carnarvons"
From William Cross, FSA Scot

Lady Burghclere, Sister of Lord George Carnarvon of Tutankhamun Fame

 William Cross, FSA Scot considers  Winifred, Lady Burghclere, Sister of Lord George Carnarvon of Tutankhamun Fame 

Winifred Anne Henrietta Christiana Herbert (1864-1933), best known as Lady Burghclere was the bookish older sister of Lord George Carnarvon of Tutankhamun fame. To make certain her brother’s less noble life was relegated to the long grass Winifred quickly and smartly appointed herself his chief protector on earth when she stepped into the shoes of making herself his earliest biographer and champion. All comers thereafter writing anything of his Lordship’s unhealthy, chequered life and times have been muted and left in the shadow of Winifred’s elegantly drafted gloss- over.

In 1923, some months after Lord Carnarvon died  in Egypt in a famous death scene at the Continental Hotel Cairo, Lady Winifred ( by then a widow, with two husbands down) left her London home at Green Street, Park Lane to spend the autumn at the beautiful Lake House at Burghclere, this close proximity to the old family’s seat at Highclere Castle ensured exactly the right setting for literary inspiration and mendacity.

In the wake of Howard Carter and Arthur Mace publishing the first volume of their narrative on the discovery of Tutankhamun, Winifred had agreed to write an Introduction to the book about her beloved brother Lord Carnarvon. 

This long tirade secured a pre-emptive strike, a glamorous, orchestrated sketch before any one else could or  ever would effectively sum up his life. It's content has woven a damaged, flawed chronology as it had been used as gospel by a successive line of history vandals at Highclere Castle to suit their own ends.

It had been a difficult year since Winifred's accomplished half-brother the Hon. Aubrey Herbert, dubbed ‘ The Man Who Was Greenmantle’ died in a London nursing home on 16 September, 1923 aged 43. Aubrey had been an adventurer, soldier and politician, he was one of his sister- in-law, Almina's early crushes. Almina ( Carnarvon's wife) always preferred the gallant but caddish Aubrey to the creepy Lord Carnarvon, he [ Aubrey] had been her patient to nurse first hand at Highclere Castle ( when a military hospital) during the Great War. After a series of botched operations to improve his sight, Aubrey’s doctors missed a serious underlying health condition, he suffered a ruptured gall bladder and bled to death. Almina always said Aubrey was her lost love, she campaigned for him in Somerset to help him win a seat in Parliament.

Grieving for two siblings Winifred sought seclusion and quiet solitude, writing proved the restorative she needed.

As there was a good deal to hide from the public’s knowledge about Lord Carnarvon’s life, death, proclivities and foibles. Winifred ‘s tribute to him had to be manipulated. She records with great laffection, respect and dignity things she uniquely felt ought to be said but as the whole of the language used is floral and full of terminological inexactitudes its effect was to scorch the truth as seen by others. There were those who knew the real Carnarvon, a sad man tormented by demons who snarled, bullied and never smiled. One witness for the prosecution was a woman whom Winifred detested but who was eminently qualified to contradict her slick treatment on the subject of the Earl, when or if provoked. This onlooker was Almina Wombwell, Carnarvon’s lusty widow, who, although no angel, endured almost 30 years humiliation in a loveless, sham marriage to the 5th Earl of Carnarvon in a commercial deal brokered by the banker Baron Alfred de Rothschild.

Speaking of Lord Carnarvon Almina told her godson Tony Leadbetter that

 “ all his sisters knew him for being irksome ....he was always shouting at them. My dear husband was moody, he was hell to live with and put his own pleasures first” Almina added “ I was always afraid of him, and so was Howard Carter ”. Carter was less forthcoming in public about the man who as his patron with whom he was often badly treated and ridiculed. As a character who regularly recoiled and bit out at friends and foes he took his Lordship's ear bashings with few back comments.

Winifred Burghclere knew of this too and what family face was saved in her homage, she would not admit to having a wayward brother nor come clean on Almina’s marriage charade or Carter's snipes. 

Lady Burghclere was an experienced scribe, the author of a number of well received yet obscure biographies featuring the exploits of past English noblemen ( as above in her book on George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham) she set their histories in a overly romantic as well as the historic mould. As with in her tribute to Lord Carnarvon, Winifred’s aim was to make her writing convincing; one obituary writer observed that she had style, and “ had edge, but with no acerbity or malice”. 

“Biographical Sketch of the late Lord Carnarvon by Lady Burghclere"

first page of pages 31-72 of the book below:

"The tomb of Tut-ankh-Amen, discovered by the late Earl of Carnarvon and Howard Carter; by Howard Carter and A.C. Mace...." ( 1923)

This article is an update on a previous Blogger posting in 2016.

ANY QUERIES CONTACT THE AUTHOR OF THIS PIECE BY EMAIL

williecross@aol.com

The book " Lady Winifred Burghclere and her Troublesome Daughters", withheld from wider circulation is now available from the Author William Cross, FSA Scot

FURTHER READING

"Lies, Damned Lies and the Carnarvons" 

By William Cross, FSA Scot

A NEW BOOK

Published 1 September 2022

AVAILABLE DIRECT FROM THE AUTHOR

BY EMAIL CONTACT, BELOW

williecross@aol.com