Aubrey Herbert: Remembering The Man Who Was Greenmantle

 

Remembering Aubrey Herbert At The Centenary

Of His Death

                                  Aubrey Nigel Henry Molyneux Herbert 

                                                    1880–1923

Aubrey Herbert died 100 years ago today, 26 September 1923, five months after his revered half-brother Porchy - George Herbert,  5th Earl of Carnarvon- the discoverer with Howard Carter of the Tomb of Tutankhamun.

 

Despite being born near blind Aubrey overcame his medical condition to lead a full life, but ironically died after a botched operation to restore his sight resulted in blood poisoning.

 

A very fine and courageous man, one of the last adventurers, an accomplished traveller, expert on the Middle East ( especially of Turkey and the Balkans) and a notable politician before and after the Great War.

 

John Buchan modelled the character Ludovick Gustavus Arbuthnot better known as ‘Sandy’ Arbuthnot the side kick of the famous Richard Hannay (of ‘ The 39 Steps’ fame) around Aubrey Herbert in the superb spy novel “ Greenmantle”.

 

A friend of Albania, as was his dear mother, Elizabeth, 4th Countess of Carnarvon, he argued for that small nation’s independence – and was offered the country’s crown - twice.

 

His sister in law Almina, 5th Countess of Carnarvon treasured and adored him and was secretly in love with him. In 1911 she vigorously campaigned for him to win as the Member of Parliament for South Somerset & she nursed him at Highclere Military Hospital in WW1 and saved him from the near death wounds he’d received in battle.

 

A master of disguise ( just like Sandy Arbuthnot) best illustrated at the outbreak of the First World War, when Aubrey joined the Irish Guards- despite his near blindness - by simply buying himself a second lieutenant's uniform and falling in as the Regiment boarded their ship for France.

 

Aubrey’s legacy remains – with surviving descendants ( produced with a formidable wife, Mary Vesey, who lived until 1970) and there’s a good biography of him by his granddaughter Margaret Fitzherbert under the title “The Man Who Was Greenmantle.”

Aubrey's Herbert line is almost certainly  the TRUE succession blood line to the title "Earldom of Carnarvon" since the 6th Earl of Carnarvon was the son of Prince Victor Duleep Singh. 

Aubrey Herbert was a friend of TE Lawrence ( of Arabia fame) and when Aubrey was re-elected to his Somerset Parliamentary seat in 1922 Lawrence quipped

 “ I note your re-election by your usual absurd majority which of course you would get if you declared yourself a Bolshevik or a Wee Free or a Prohibitionist or a Mormon.”

 

We shall not ever see his like again.

 

William Cross, FSA Scot

William Cross is the biographer of Almina, Countess of Carnarvon and several books on the Carnarvons of Highclere Castle.

 Contact him by email

williecross@aol.com

THE MAN WHO WAS GREENMANTLE

Aubrey's Effigy & Tomb At Brushford Church, Somerset

Prince Victor Duleep Singh and Lord George Carnarvon : A Romantic Friendship

A Romantic Friendship

Prince Victor Duleep Singh 

and 

Lord George Carnarvon 

At the heart of this story is a “romantic friendship”.

This  is an old Victorian term for a special connection of friendship, usually between two men or two women.

It may or may not have a sexual [carnal] connotation; it can be physical and/or emotional and may border on a deeper, profound love. Between two men it is often referred to as being  “platonic” [i].

There was certainly much more than an ordinary friendship in the constancy between  Prince Victor Duleep Singh ( nicknamed  ‘Tulip’)  and  George  Carnarvon, starting from when George was Lord Porchester (nicknamed  ‘Porchey’), the Herbert ( Carnarvon /Highclere)  heir in waiting as the 5^th Earl. 

Victor was also the heir to his father’s title of Maharaja of Lahore, although he never  subsequently claimed that style of name or address after his father died in 1893. Victor adored his mother’s family in Egypt, he never understood his father and his wrath against Queen Victoria, but was proud of their Indian roots.

The closeness and fondness of Porchey and Victor ran through as pre-pubescent boys  from their Eton College schooldays in the early 1880s until Victor’s death in 1918.

There were deeply felt  emotional needs they both had that was satisfied from the other in a rare devotion that endured for almost 40 years.

The two of them found a means of survival as dubbed “odd balls”[ii], bullied by their fathers, with often distant mothers, and  mocked by their peer group. It was a union with one another that was unbreakable.

Later they travelled the world with privacy assured on board Porchey’s yachts. They often hid away at Bretby Park, a property in Derbyshire that Porchey inherited in 1887 (upon his  coming of age, of  21). The two of them spent long periods of time there, enjoying lots of sport, especially shooting, with only a few trusted retainers to wait on them hand and foot.

After Porchey became Lord Carnarvon (from 1890) and married Almina Wombwell in 1895, Victor remained an unvarying presence in the lives of the Carnarvons.  His Lordship’s love for his best friend was unfailing.  Almina  accepted that love and she came to tolerate their closeness, and, in time,  grew fond of  Victor.  He was always at their side, or on call, he held the Carnarvon’s peculiar marriage together, and, is, almost certainly,  the 6th Earl’s father.

The  books published  by the 6th Earl and the  present day Carnarvons  are tardy and economical with the facts about Victor.  Others too  have missed the point. The point is  simple.  This is  overwhelming a  story of the love between  Tulip Singh and Porchey Carnarvon.

The Carnarvons  may owe Victor their continuity. But the Herberts go no further than  acknowledging that Victor was a regular visitor to Highclere  Castle – as  he is often in the Castle’s Visitors Record. 

They add a few unexceptional anecdotes of him as a great sportsman and the godfather of the 6th Earl (as Lord Porchester) from 1898. The memoirs of Henry, the 6th Earl, whilst proclaiming his mother Almina’s alleged illegitimacy (as the daughter of Alfred de Rothschild), withholds the real truth of his own illegitimacy that he knew, as Almina told him all about Victor. [iii] 

It is a bad reflection that the truth  continues unsaid  of Victor’s role in sustaining the advance of  the Herbert family; it is because it  remains a curse.[iv]

THIS IS AN EXTRACT FROM A NEW BOOK BY WILLIAM CROSS

MORE ON PRINCE VICTOR DULEEP SINGH 

AND THE CURSE OF THE CARNARVONS

PUBLISHED  4 AUGUST 2022

Enquiries : Contact the Author, William Cross, FSA Scot

https://twitter.com/Victor_Duleep?lang=en-gb

EMAIL 

williecross@aol.com

---

[i] This concept originates in the ideas of the ancient philosopher Plato, from whose name the term is derived.

[ii] Tony Leadbetter Interviews 2009-2019.

[iii] Ibid.

[iv] See the book by William  Cross “Prince Victor Duleep Singh and the Curse of the Carnarvons” Book Midden Publishing. (2019).

David Sox : Highclere Guide : Did Sox Fake His Letter to Tony Leadbetter About Prince Victor Duleep Singh?

                                  PRINCE VICTOR DULEEP SINGH 

                AND PORCHEY CARNARVON

                      PROOF OF PATERNITY

Left : Victor Duleep Singh -Middle : Porchey Carnarvon 

Right : Lord George Carnarvon

WAS  DAVID SOX’S LETTER  OF 1 JUNE 1996 FAKED?

David Sox ( 1936-2016)  : A Guide at Highclere Castle in the 1990s, author of books on the Turin Shroud and on forgery and faking

Tony Leadbetter ( 1938-2019)  : Godson of Almina, 5th Countess of Carnarvon

 A letter  was sent  by  David Sox to Tony Leadbetter on 1 June 1996. FACT

The letter claims that Sox made a discovery in Highclere Archives ( quite by accident)  that Prince Victor Duleep Singh was the father of  the Sixth Earl of Carnarvon. FACT
 
The letter is flawed, as it contains historical errors about the name of Prince Victor’s own father. FACT

Sox was questioned in 2014 about what he found in Highclere Archives  he answered that he found nothing. FACT

If Sox found nothing in Highclere Archives  did he lie in the letter of 1 June 1996  to Tony Leadbetter?

 
It has been mooted by others that when Sox was asked in 2014 to cite details of his source in Highclere Archives,  he'd forgotten ( or chose to forget) that he'd written  a letter to Tony Leadbetter in 1996. 

Based on Sox’s underhand  methods of leaking and lying to suit his own ends on the carbon testing of the Turin Shroud his antics almost answers the question and the trail researched  raises a reasonable doubt about Sox's integrity and truthfulness.

This Author was cautioned by a contemporary of Sox’s who was  involved in the Shroud history. The advice was  that nothing Sox claimed should be believed unless there is independent proof of it or corroboration.

No one has ever verified that Sox  found anything in Highclere Archives on Porchey's father being Prince Victor. FACT  

Sox was told by several people ( who knew)  that Porchey Carnarvon was believed to be the son of Prince Victor Duleep Singh. FACT

It was a common belief on the Highclere Estate that Porchey was Victor’s son. FACT

This Author has been told by a number of credible  informants that Prince Victor Duleep Singh was the father of Porchey, later 6th Earl of Carnarvon 

If Sox knew  this information about Victor  before 1 June 1996 ( and received it from a source elsewhere)  it casts doubts on his letter to Tony Leadbetter as being anything other than  skulduggery and deception on Sox’s part.

By making a claim of  the discovery of something in Highclere Archives, was Sox  looking to hold a gun to the head of the Carnarvons? 

Or, more likely,  was this  act a part of a cunning plan to shower himself in glory as he did when he leaked the carbon dating results and then went on to write a book ?

Did Sox tell anyone other than Tony Leadbetter of his discovery ?

Sox began his researches into Almina, 5th Countess of Carnarvon in July 1995, ( supported evidence is held). i.e.  so a considerable time elapsed before his letter of 1 June 1996  

William Cross, FSA Scot

All Will Be Revealed In A Book in 2022

 

"Highclere Insider - David Sox : The Man Who Knew Too Much"

 

By William Cross, FSA Scot

 

ISBN 9781905914746

 

https://highclere-truths.yolasite.com/

 Any queries contact the Author  by email
williecross@aol.com
4th   January 2022 

Lord Porchester, later Henry, 6th Earl of Carnarvon