Prince Victor Duleep Singh and The Curse of the Carnarvons : A Talk from William Cross. FSA Scot

                                       Prince Victor Duleep Singh 

                      and The Curse of the Carnarvons

OR

The Countess and The Maharajah

Synopsis of a talk by William Cross, FSA Scot

Almina and Victor at Highclere, 1895

Almina Wombwell,  the 5^th Countess of Carnarvon (1876-1969)  was born in London on 14 April 1876, but her birth was not registered in England until four years later.  Christened Almina Victoria Marie Alexandra Wombwell later Herbert, finally Mrs Dennistoun, she termed herself Almina, Countess of Carnarvon.  Her mother was a pushy  Frenchwoman, her father probably English. Almina’s childhood was spent among the decaying vestiges of  the old French and Spanish  aristocrats living in exile.  Almina grew up in Paris, spoke fluent French and was later a debutante in the London Season of 1893.  She lived and loved for nine decades – married the 5th Earl of Carnarvon in 1895 and then the caddish Lt. Col Ian Onslow Dennistoun in 1923. Lord Carnarvon died in 1923 (in Egypt). Ian died in 1938 (in London). Almina was chatelaine of Highclere Castle (the back drop to TV’s Downton Abbey)  from 1895 until 1923. Every inch a Countess,  Almina spent a King’s ransom and died a horrendous death in Bristol in 1969.

Victor and George Carnarvon at Highclere, 1895

Prince Victor Duleep Singh (1866-1918) was born in London on 10 July 1866. He was the grandson of Maharajah Ranjit Singh of Lahore, the Lion of the Punjab and the founder of the great Sikh empire.   Victor’s father was also  Maharajah of Lahore, although he was brought up as an English gentleman, as was Victor.  The Duleep Singh family history is one that highlights the “horrors” of the British conquest of India. The prized  Koh-i-Noor diamond   was one of the Duleep Singh assets seized by Queen Victoria’s agents.

With his handsome half-Indian, half-European appearance,  his mother Bamba Muller was of German- Abyssinian descent, Victor (nick named ‘Tulip’) stood out as an attractive male figure in Society circles in  Victorian/ Edwardian days, he died in Monte Carlo in 1918.  Educated at Eton College, Cambridge University &  Sandhurst Miltary Academy, Victor’s closest life  long friend was George Herbert, 5^th Earl of Carnarvon, who married Almina Wombwell in 1895. George and Victors’s  youth and early adulthood were of the playboy type,  wild &  irresponsible, they were gamblers, risk takers. George’s health was blighted, leading to consequences that endure  for the Carnarvons to this day.   

     

Almina and the Carnarvon Heir, Henry, Lord Porchester, at Highclere 1899

                                                          

A secret truth –almost a curse- links the Countess Almina and the Maharajah Victor together,   a  legacy within  the  British Peerage  exposed in books and in a recent TV documentary.  William Cross, FSA Scot ( biographer of Almina),  was first to reveal the secret in his book “ The Life and Secrets of Almina Carnarvon” ( 2011).  In this talk Cross offers some of the latest evidence from his researches that still sends ripples through High Society.  In 2022 Will added further analysis of the whole story in his book “ More on Prince Victor Duleep Singh and the Curse of the Carnarvons : The Final Twists”.

 NB Will’s latest book is “ Lies, Damned Lies and the Carnarvons” issued for last year’s centenary of the discovery of Tutankhamun in 1922. 

Will Cross is a retired civil servant, writer & lecturer based in Newport, South Wales.  He is  the author of several books on Scottish history, on the Carnarvons of Highclere Castle, on Tutankhamun, and many on the Morgans of Tredegar House, Newport. Will  has had a long standing interest  on Society scandals and cover ups in the British aristocracy. Contact Will  directly about his books, talks etc,  at  58, Sutton Road, Newport, South Wales, NP19 7JF.  

E-mail Contact Welcome

willicross@aol.com

The  weeping figure of Almina,  in black, at the grave of Prince Victor Duleep Singh every summer at Monte Carlo.

“It was a duty undertaken out of respect and regard & perhaps a token of her love”   

The Story Has Not Ended…..

Photographs reproduced  by permission of the family of the photographer J W  Righton of Newbury, Berkshire

Tutankhamun Centenary: Lord Carnarvon’s Famous Car Accident At Langenschwalbach, Germany

 Tutankhamun Centenary 2022

Lord Carnarvon’s Famous Car Accident at Langenschwalbach, Germany

When it happened and its implications

Or How Will Cross Came, Saw And Conquered!

Motor Carnarvon

“Even today the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb offers potential for the creation of legends.

For years one legend has been trotted out, that of the car accident at the notorious “Heimbach bump (in the road)” near Langenschwalbach (1) as the starting point for the discovery of the tomb.

The claim has been passed down that it was not until after this accident that Lord Carnarvon was advised by his doctors to regularly visit Egypt on health grounds. There is hardly a publication on Tutankhamun that does not draw a connection between these events.

Generations of Egyptologists (2) have relied on various (pieces of) evidence which led to the assumption that the accident actually took place in 1901. (3)

(This was) a mistake as the British historian William Cross recognised years ago based on British press reports. (4)

These reports name 1909 as a much later time for the accident. Certainly, it is true that the spelling, by some sources, of the place where the accident took place as “Fehwel(l)bach “ and (the fact that) at least one report misplaces (the accident) in the vicinity of Stuttgart (5) has led people to mistakenly want to think of a second accident rather than the date being wrong for over a hundred years.

At the same time there have always been inconsistencies for thinking of the year 1901 which could have led to doubts. Thus there was no evidence of the Countess Lady Almina ( Carnarvon's wife) spending time at the spa in Langenschwalbach at the time which has previously been so long put forward, (i.e) late summer/early autumn of the year 1901, which would have been expected in the usual spa lists.

No German newspaper reported the accident and besides Lady Almina gave birth to her daughter Evelyn in England on the 15th of August, 1901. Evelyn’s baptism followed in the presence of her parents on the 21st of September 1901 in Burghclere church.

Although the window of opportunity for a possible stay of Lady Carnarvon’s in Langenschwalbach thus becomes rather small, the year 1901 was and continues to stubbornly be regarded as the year when the Earl who wanted to meet her there, had his car accident. (6)

On the basis of the dates compiled by William Cross, the author has now examined the relevant local newspaper archive for an accident report in August/September 1909. And, yes indeed, in the Monday edition of the Wiesbaden General-Anzeiger from 30.08.1909, page 4, under the heading “The district of Nassau, Kemel” we find the very same report that is missing from the year 1901 and which is reproduced here in full:

“A bad automobile accident took place on Thursday evening close to our town. An English lord who had driven in his motor car from Reims encountered two carts on the road about seven o’clock in the evening. An incline in the road made it difficult to see and thus the lord, who was himself driving, could not bring his car to a stop quickly enough. He steered the car towards the ditch running alongside the road. The car turned over and the chauffeur flew in a five to six metre arc into the wood but was not injured. The lord, however, suffered severe injuries to his head and, apparently, to his chest. It was fortunate that workmen were standing near the place where the accident occurred and immediately ran to help and fetched medical aid. The injured party was taken to Kemel where, during the night, a doctor from Langenschwalbach and a professor from Wiesbaden arrived. The condition of the injured party is said to be somewhat better. Towards evening his wife brought him to a hospital"

The discovery of the accident report in the Wiesbaden General-Anzeiger refutes the thesis that the car accident was the motive behind Lord Carnarvon’s stays in Egypt and, that he, whilst searching for a meaningful activity, had discovered archaeology. In fact it was quite different: when the accident happened in 1909 the Carnarvon/Carter co-operation had already been in existence for two years and the Earl had already visited Egypt frequently. (9) With the now verified date of the accident, the 26th August 1909, the mention of Lady Almina as “Countess of Carnarvon m. Bed., England” in the Spa list for “Bad Langen-Schwalbach” of the 15th August 1909 fits perfectly. There her stay is referred to as being at the Hotel Alleesaal. So we can be certain of one part of the original story: Lord Carnarvon was, in fact, on the way to his wife, who was at the spa in Langenschwalbach, when he was involved in the bad accident on the Bäderstraße (Bäder road). But, of course, as could be shown here —thanks to the intensive spade work of William Cross — eight years later than presumed.

FOOTNOTES:

1. The spelling of Langenschwalbach the spa in the west Taunus not far from Wiesbaden varies: Bad Langenschwalbach, Bad Langen-Schwalbach and Langenschwalbach refer to one and the same place: the predecessor of the chief town of the Rhine-Taunus- area in Hesse known as Bad Schwalbach which once belonged to Nassau..

2. C. Vogel, “You either find grand things, or nothing at all.” The Man behind Howard Carter: Life and Work of the Fifth Earl of Carnarvon, in Antike Welt 31/1, 2000, 95-98.

3. A considerable part in the dating of the car accident for 1901 probably belongs to a sister of Lord Carnarvon, Lady Winifred Burghclere. In L. Burghclere, Introduction: Biographical Sketch of the late Lord Carnarvon, in H. Carter & A. Mace, The Tomb of Tut-Ankh-Amen: Discovered by the Late Earl of Carnarvon and Howard Carter, Cambridge, 1923, 1-40 she names the accident (without giving a date) as the trigger for Carnarvon‘s travels to Egypt from 1903 onwards. There is no space here to go into the errors and confusions of her original placing of the accident in the year 1901, that will take place elsewhere.

4. William Cross, "Carnarvon, Carter and Tutankhamun Revisited": The hidden truths and doomed relationships, Newport, Gwent, 2016/2019, pages111-113.

5. We find “Fehwellbach” for example as the site of the accident in The Sportsman, August 28th, 1909.

6. Even today the successors of the Fifth Earl of Carnarvon have touted 1901 as being the time of the accident. So, for example, the present Countess of Carnarvon gives the date as late September, 1901: The Countess of Carnarvon, Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey, London/New York 2011, 90ff.

7. Even if the report of the Wiesbaden General-Anzeiger does not name the Lord meeting with an accident, his identification with Lord Carnarvon — taken in conjunction with the contemporary reports in the British newspapers—is indisputable.

8. Wiesbaden General-Anzeiger, 30th August, 1909, P4 under “The Nassau Area”, Kemel section, 30th August.

9. William Cross was able to prove that Lord Carnarvon had already visited Egypt for the first time in 1889. W. Cross op.cit., 22.The Earl had already visited Egypt several times before September 1901 with Lady Almina whom he had married in 1895. Thus we have to maintain that the moment in August/September 1901, as the trigger for Carnarvon’s stays in Egypt, does not lend itself to building a legend, even without the efforts made here to depict the events of the accident.

SOURCE : GÖTTINGEN MISCELLANY ( slightly amended)

Dr Carola Vogel

Contributions to the discussion of Egyptology

Number 266 (2022) Pages 39-40

With special thanks to Alan Roderick for the translation of the article from German into English.

A number of publications issued for the Centenary have cited the year 1909.

If the motor accident in Germany was not the spark that led to Lord Carnarvon taking up digging in Egypt, What Was?

TO BE CONTINUED

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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

William Cross, FSA Scot - Writer and Lecturer

 

William Cross, FSA Scot is a writer and researcher whose speciality is biography. He is the author of a number of books on British Society figures, including Almina, 5th Countess of Carnarvon, (1876-1969), George Edward Stanhope Molyneux Herbert, the 5th Earl of Carnarvon ( of Tutankhamun fame ), the Honourable Gwyneth Ericka Morgan (1895-1924) and the Honourable Evan Frederic Morgan, ( 1893-1949), the last Viscount Tredegar, the last two mentioned being members of the Morgan family of Tredegar House, Newport, Gwent. He has also written  long biographical sketches of the American, Catherine Wendell ( 1900-1977) and the Austrian dancer, Tilly Losch (1904-1975), the two wives of Henry George Alfred Marius Victor Francis Herbert ( 1898-1987), 6th Earl of Carnarvon.   In addition Cross has written two books on Prince Victor Duleep Singh ( 1866-1918), the eldest son the last Maharajah of Lahore, appraising Victor’s relationship with George Herbert, the 5^th Earl of Carnarvon and his wife Almina.

BOOKS BY WILLIAM CROSS

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Tom Mitford : A Fearful Old Twister

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·                     The Life and Secrets of Almina Carnarvon. Book Midden Publishing ISBN 9781905914081. 2011.

·                    The Dustbin Case : Dennistoun v Dennistoun. Book Midden Publishing ISBN 9781905914043 .2012.

·                    Lordy! Tutankhamun's Patron As A Young Man. Book Midden Publishing ISBN 9781905914050 2012.

·                    A Beautiful Nuisance : The Life and Death of the Hon. Gwyneth Ericka Morgan by Monty Dart and William Cross. Book Midden Publiishing ISBN 9781905914104 2012.

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

·                     Not Behind Lace Curtains: The Hidden World Of Evan, Viscount Tredegar. Book Midden Publishing ISBN9781905914210: 2013.

·                    Catherine and Tilly: Porchey Carnarvon's Two Duped Wives . Book Midden Publishing ISBN 9781905914258 : 2013.

·                     Tilly Losch Schlagobers Sweet Fragments From Her Life . Book Midden Publishing ISBN 9781905914272 : 2014.

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

·                     The Abergavenny Witch Hunt of 1942. Book Midden Publishing ISBN 978190514227 :2014.

·                     Lois Sturt, Wild Child. A Glance at Hon. Lois Ina Sturt, Viscountess Tredegar Book Midden Publishing ISBN 978190514319: 2014.

·                     Evan, Lord Tredegar, Selected Letters, Prose and Quotations. The Mystic Muse of Evan Frederic Morgan. . Book Midden Publishing ISBN 9781905914333 : 2015.

·                     The Engagement Diaries of Hon. Lois Sturt, 1919-1924 Book Midden Publishing ISBN 9781905914340 : 2015. ( 2016).

·                     Carnarvon, Carter and Tutunkhamun Revisted. The hidden truths and doomed relationships. Book Midden Publishing ISBN 9781905914364 . 2016. ( Release date November, 2016).

·                     Sketches of Evan, Viscount Tredegar 'Lord of the Lies' As seen by friends, foes and lovers. Book Midden Publishing ISBN 9781905914463 . 2017.

·                    Myths About The Morgans of Tredegar House, Newport, South Wales. Busting the History Fraudsters Book Midden Publishing ISBN 9781905914425 . 2018.

·                    An album of sexually explicit verses and jokes. From the Collection of Lois Ina Sturt and Reggie Pembroke Book Midden Publishing ISBN 9781905914401 . 2018.

·                     The Morgans of Tredegar House. Great War Roll of Honour: The Hoare, Lindsay and Mundy Great Grandsons of the First Lord and Lady Tredegar Who Died During the 1914-1918 War Book Midden Publishing ISBN 9781905914487 2018.

·                     Prince Victor Duleep Singh & the Curse of the Carnarvons Book Midden Publishing ISBN 9781905914357 2019.

·                     Tredegar House Weekend Parties, Frolics and Fun Book Midden Publishing ISBN 9781905914531 2019.

·                     Footprints on the Sands of Time. A glance at Welsh born photographer Angus McBean Book Midden Publishing ISBN 9781905914579 2020.

·                    More Sketches of Evan, Viscount Tredegar: 'Lord of the Lies' Book Midden Publishing ISBN 9781905914470 2020.

·                     Beechwood A Story of Childhood Book Midden Publishing [ ISBN 9781905914173 ]] 2021.

·                     Tails of Phoebe and Mags Worthington of The Mews, Belgravia. Short Stories With Two Darn Cats Book Midden Publishing ISBN 978-1905914593 2021.

·                     More on Prince Victor Duleep Singh & the Curse of the Carnarvons : The Final Twists Book Midden Publishing ISBN 9781905914739 2022.

·                    “Lies, Damned Lies and the Carnarvons” Book Midden Publishing ISBN 9781905914777 2022.

·                     Highclere Insider-David Sox : The Man Who Knew Too Much Book Midden Publishing [ ISBN 9781905914746] ( Release delayed.)

·                    Rosemary and Alastair : Everything is More Beautiful Because We're Doomed. Book Midden Publishing ISBN 9781905914289. 2017. ( Release date delayed).

 

EMAIL  WILLIAM CROSS, FSA SCOT

williecross@aol.com