“Evan Morgan, Lord Tredegar's House Guests 1934-1938”

“Tredegar House : Weekend Parties, Frolics and Fun”

“Evan Morgan, Lord Tredegar's House Guests 1934-1938”

Book  Highlights          

    

A cast list of over 300 guests who slept under Evan Morgan’s ( Viscount Tredegar’s ) 500-year-old-roof at Tredegar House, Newport, South Wales,  between 1934  and 1938.

The truth about the séances, spooky nights  and fortune telling!

Biographical sketches, dates of visits & photographs of the good, bad and disgraceful, including literary personalities, politicians,  spies, spivs, & many of the rich & noble & some  glamorous women of the era.

Details of  the famous novelist who finished off the final chapters of a best seller at Tredegar House? 

After the  ‘ rumour and myth’  that the American  Denham (Denny) Fouts ‘The World’s Best Kept Boy’ was ‘saved’ from jail by Evan Morgan,  what are the facts of  Evan’s relationship with Fouts, a boy  dubbed by Gore Vidal as “un homme fatal” . Did Fouts ever come to Tredegar House?

The gigolo and the  Archbishop…..

‘Jolly boy’ sex and drugs  trips for Evan’s inner crowd to secret ruins. 

The facts concerning  Evan Morgan’s friendship with Crown Prince Paul of Greece ( later King of Greece).

Revelations (and written evidence ) of  how the ill-fated  Prince George, Duke of Kent became indebted to Evan Morgan. Learn too how Evan took charge of the Duke’s honeymoon trip in  Nassau.

Personal testimony and anecdotes from Alan Pryce-Jones,  Brian Howard, Cyril Hughes Hartmann, Lord Charles Carnegie, Desmond Leslie and many others on Evan Morgan’s house parties.

Recollections of a world  famous conductor’s stay-over at Tredegar House when he and his 92 musicians played to packed audiences at Cardiff and Swansea, making Welsh  musical history.

How Evan Morgan’s house party of 1936 reacted to the news of the Abdication of King Edward VIII,  a few weeks after the visit to Tredegar House by one of the King’s former mistresses and after Evan  met the King  during the infamous Valleys tour of “Special Areas”.

Contact the Author William Cross for best price, depending on availability.

e-bay   / Amazon

NB SALES SUBJECT TO AVAILABILITY

Contact William Cross directly ( by e-mail )  for latest book offers.


An illustrated  talk is also available about the book from William Cross. 

LAUNCH/ ILLUSTRATED TALK 

NEWPORT U3A  Shaftsbury Church, Newport

7 November 2019

http://lecturelist.org/content/view_lecture/16498




UPDATED 21 December 2019

Very Limited supplies held.

e-mail 

williecross@aol.com

Write to the Author for further information

58, Sutton Road, Newport, NP19 7JF

South Wales, UK  

Tredegar House : Evan Morgan's Weekend Parties, Frolics and Fun

“Tredegar House : Weekend Parties, Frolics and Fun”

“Evan Morgan, Lord Tredegar's House Guests 1934-1938”

Book  Highlights          

    

A cast list of over 300 guests who slept under Evan Morgan’s ( Viscount Tredegar’s ) 500-year-old-roof  at  Tredegar House, Newport, South Wales,  between 1934  and 1938.

The truth about the séances, spooky nights  and fortune telling!

Biographical sketches, dates of visits & photographs of the good, bad and disgraceful, including literary personalities, politicians,  spies, spivs, & many of the rich & noble & some  glamorous women of the era.

Details of  the famous novelist who finished off the final chapters of a best seller at Tredegar House? 

After the  ‘ rumour and myth’  that the American  Denham (Denny) Fouts ‘The World’s Best Kept Boy’ was ‘saved’ from jail by Evan Morgan,  what are the facts of  Evan’s relationship with Fouts, a boy  dubbed by Gore Vidal as “un homme fatal” . Did Fouts ever come to Tredegar House?

The gigolo and the  Archbishop…..

‘Jolly boy’ sex and drugs  trips for Evan’s inner crowd. 

The facts concerning  Evan Morgan’s friendship with Crown Prince Paul of Greece ( later King of Greece).

Revelations (and written evidence ) of  how the ill-fated  Prince George, Duke of Kent became indebted to Evan Morgan. Learn too how Evan took charge of the Duke’s honeymoon trip in  Nassau.

Personal testimony and anecdotes from Alan Pryce-Jones,  Brian Howard, Cyril Hughes Hartmann, Lord Charles Carnegie, Desmond Leslie and many others on Evan Morgan’s house parties.

Recollections of a world  famous conductor’s stay-over at Tredegar House when he and his 92 musicians played to packed audiences at Cardiff and Swansea, making Welsh  musical history.

How Evan Morgan’s house party of 1936 reacted to the news of the Abdication of King Edward VIII,  a few weeks after the visit to Tredegar House by one of the King’s former mistresses and after Evan  met the King  during the infamous Valleys tour of “Special Areas”.

Contact the Author William Cross for best price, depending on availability.

Also on  e-bay /Amazon

NB SUBJECT TO AVAILABILITY

Contact William Cross directly ( by e-mail )  for latest book offers.


An illustrated  talk is also available about the book from William Cross. 

BOOK LAUNCH


NEWPORT U3A  Shaftsbury Church, Newport

7 November 2019

http://lecturelist.org/content/view_lecture/16498

VERY LIMITED STOCKS

williecross@aol.com

Write to the Author

58, Sutton Road, Newport, NP19 7JF

South Wales, UK    

Updated 21 December 2019

TREDEGAR HOUSE :WEEKEND PARTIES, FROLICS AND FUN: EVAN MORGAN'S NOTORIOUS HOUSE PARTIES

NEW BOOK ON EVAN MORGAN  OF TREDEGAR HOUSE, NEWPORT

“ TREDEGAR HOUSE :WEEKEND PARTIES, FROLICS AND FUN”

EVAN MORGAN’S HOUSE GUESTS 1934-1938

FROM  NEWPORT HISTORIAN :  WILLIAM CROSS

·        A new book about  Evan Morgan’s notorious weekend house parties  has been published by Book Midden Publishing.

·        The compiler is Newport writer/historian  William Cross, FSA Scot,  author of eight other books featuring members of the Morgan family.

·                Synopsis : In the years 1934 - 1949 Evan Morgan Viscount Tredegar held court at his Welsh mansion, Tredegar House, an impressive 17th century red brick building set in 100 acres of parkland near Newport. Invitations to Evan's country house weekends were highly prized. But how many house guests passed through the gates of Tredegar House in the Evan years? Who actually stayed there and when? What of the legends of Evan's séances, outrageous parlour game of charades, riotous drinking and orgies to compare with Caligula's Rome? What is the truth, and what are the myths about these crazy weekends? In this book William Cross, author of previous Morgan books reveals the identity of the scores of people who were Evan's guests. Here are the good, bad and the downright disgraceful whom Evan brought together under one roof. The historical icons of the era, male prostitutes, spivs, spies, and traitors as well as a sizable collection of stage and literary figures, politicians, Catholic luminaries and Evan's relatives including his Royal cousins. Evan was a generous host, an excessive party giver, a man whose wealth in theory could support his foibles for pleasure seeking, for indulging in a complex homosexual life style, having footmen wear powdered wigs, and running a large zoo in the Estate grounds comprising wild and exotic birds and animals. But beneath the surface of fun, folly and farce it was a dynasty in decay, the Morgan coffers were crumbling fast under the burden of death duties, heavy taxation and the changing attitude in Society to service and employment on the landed estates. Evan was also a sick man crippled with poor health, moreover he ploughed a dangerous furrow especially during the war years and was subject to surveillance from on high.”

Highlights of the Book:

Essential reading for those interested in Newport’s most famous family and their history  and those who want to know the truth about Evan’s hospitality and who he invited to stay under his 500 year old roof during his early years as the lord of the Manor.

Cross adds “ The book is 150 pages long, over 55,000 words with over 400 End Notes. The main text  contains  over  100 images. There is also a  directory of over 300 guests whom Evan entertained, with biographical details, and dates when they visited Tredegar House,  some entries have photographs ”.

* Further Enquiries about the book etc please contact

William Cross

58 Sutton Newport, Newport, NP 19 7JF

Telephone: 01633 779731

FOR EDITORS

“Tredegar House : Weekend Parties, Frolics and Fun”

“Evan Morgan, Lord Tredegar's House Guests 1934-1938. “  Compiled by  William Cross. ISBN 9781905914531.   ( 2019)

Also on  e-bay   / Amazon

NB SUBJECT TO AVAILABILITY

Contact William Cross directly ( by e-mail )  for latest book offers.


An illustrated  talk is also available about the book from William Cross. 

BOOK LAUNCH


NEWPORT U3A  Shaftsbury Church, Newport

7 November 2019

http://lecturelist.org/content/view_lecture/16498




UPDATED 21 December 2019

Prince Victor Duleep Singh : The Curse of the Carnarvons

NEW BOOK FROM WILLIAM CROSS, FSA SCOT

NOW AVAILABLE

LAST COPIES FROM THE AUTHOR £8.00 INCLUDING UK POST AND PACKING

https://carnarvon-curse.blogspot.com/2019/06/prince-victor-duleep-singh-and-curse-of.html

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

Contact the Author for further details.

williecross@aol.com

WELSH PHOTOGRAPHER : ANGUS McBEAN : AN ILLUSTRATED TALK FROM WILLIAM CROSS, FSA Scot

WELSH PHOTOGRAPHER : ANGUS McBEAN

A TALK FROM WILLIAM CROSS, FSA Scot

‘Footprints in the sands of time…..’

Angus Rowland McBean (1904-1990). Society, fashion and theatre photographer.  A feast for the eye to behold of the good, great and scandalous as captured by McBean’s cameras.

Angus McBean was born in Newbridge, South Wales and attended Newport Art and Technical College. His professional  career in the theatre started as a mask-puppet maker and scenery designer with Hugh Cecil as mentor before turning to full-time theatre photography, with his own studios in London. 

McBean is famous for his theatrical images of dozens of the great stars of stage & screen in the 1930s through to the 1970s from actors likes Oliver, Gielguid, Vivian Leigh, Audrey Hepburn and later he designed album covers for the iconic musicians like  The Beatles. 

McBean hit a set back in the second world war years when jailed for four years but bounced back in the later decades to gain a special place in theatre and social history alongside the iconic Cecil Beaton, David Bailey and  Tony Armstrong Jones.  Will Cross’s tribute to McBean features over 60 photos of the famous stars, with anecdotes galore.

Talk from William Cross on  Angus McBean ( 1904-1990). Society, fashion and theatre photographer.  A feast for the eye to behold of the good,great and scandalous as captured by McBean’s cameras.

Grave of Agnes McBean

'Footprints on the sands of time'

William Cross is a writer, lecturer & researcher based in Newport, South Wales. He is the author/ co- author of various  books on members of the Morgan family of Tredegar House, Newport, and several books on the Herberts ( Carnarvons ) of Highclere Castle ( Downton Abbey ).

He is  the  author of  'Not Behind Lace Curtains'  the controversial biography of  Evan Morgan, Viscount Tredegar, and  'The Abergavenny Witch Hunt' the story of the prosecution and trial of over 20 homosexuals in a small Welsh Town in 1942,  events centred around the same crimes that led at the sane time  to Angus McBean being sent to prison for four years.   

Cross is currently working on further  books on the Morgans , including one about the notorious weekend  house parties of Evan Morgan in the  1930s. Will’s last books are “Myths About The Morgans: Busting the History Fraudsters”. 

Find William Cross   ( as Will Cross,  Author)   on Twitter

https://twitter.com/WilliamPCross

William Cross   also maintains a tribute page to Angus McBean on Twitter

https://twitter.com/angus_mcbean

Contact Will Cross by e-mail

williecross@aol.com

Remembering the Morgans of Tredegar House Killed in the Great War

Morgans of Tredegar House, Newport

INFORMATION RELEASE

A NEW BOOK ON THE MORGANS OF TREDEGAR HOUSE

FROM NEWPORT HISTORIAN WILLIAM CROSS

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

A new book about the Morgans of Tredegar House was  published on 11 November 2018.

The book outlines  the story of the five  great grandsons of the first Lord & Lady Tredegar of Tredegar who were killed in the Great War. 

The compiler is  Newport  writer and historian  William Cross,  the author of eight other books featuring the  Morgan dynasty.

The  book is a tribute to the five men, who  spent periods of  childhood and early adulthood in the company of  their Morgan relations at estate events and family gatherings at Tredegar House and the adjoining Tredegar Park and Ruperra Castle.

The book also touches on a nephew of Katharine, Lady Tredegar and three  other men killed  in the Great War who had overlaps to the Morgan family as they were socially linked in her debutante year of 1914 with the doomed  Gwyneth  Erika  Morgan, daughter of the 3rd Lord and Lady Tredegar whose body was fished out of the River Thames in 1925.

Essential reading for those interested  in the Morgan family of Tredegar House  and their collaterals and those who wish  to remember the selfless contribution one of Wales’s great families made in the war to end wars.

Compiler  William Cross comments :

• “Surprisingly with all the commemorations for the Great War no mention is made  at the Morgan seat of Tredegar House of the five brave Morgan  men who gave their lives for their country. 

Cross adds:

• “ Sadly on  11 November 2018 Tredegar House was dark and closed  whilst  the whole country observed two minutes silence for the dead from the Great War, and for  the  Armistice  commemorations 100 years on from the special day  that established  an important  line for peace and remembrance  after  four years of slaughter between 1914 and 1918. ”

  

The book is 100 pages long, with over 100 End Notes and contains

Over 80 images, with unique pictures of members of the Morgan clan that are not in the public domain. Many images are in colour.

*  Further Enquiries about the book  etc  please contact:

William Cross

58 Sutton Newport, Newport, NP 19 7JF

e-mail

williecross@aol.com

LEST WE FORGET

Those  to remember  with  honour are  Lt. Charles Morgan Hoare, 15^th Kings Hussars, Capt. George Walter Thomas Lindsay, Royal Engineers, Lt. Frederic Charles Mundy, RNVR,  Lt. Archibald Thurston Thomas Lindsay, Royal Engineers and Major Claud Frederick Thomas Lindsay, Royal Field Artillery.

Also to recall are Capt. Raymond Rodakowski, Irish Guards, nephew of Katharine, Lady Tredegar, Hon. Simon Fraser, Hon. Charles Mills, MP,  and Hon. Reginald Wyndham who  all  died between 1914 and 1918. 

The book is dedicated to the Hon. Gerard Sturt, brother of Lois Sturt ( Viscountess Tredegar 1934-1937).  By a singular coincidence Gerard Sturt died at Crichel House  (the country residence  of his parents, Lord and Lady Alington) about 8:30am on Monday 11 November
1918.  This was just after the re-taking of Mons ( where Gerard was  horrifically wounded in  1914) and the signing of the Armistice.

Great War : Roll of Honour: Morgans of Tredegar House, Newport

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

Introduction by William Cross, FSA Scot

As  Britain  nears the end of  four years  of  commemorations  for  the Great War,  the  many  stories revealed  have  enriched our history  and shed light on tales  of heroism,  sacrifice and premature deaths.

Five  of the great grandsons of the first Lord & Lady Tredegar of Tredegar House, Newport, South Wales were  killed in action in the fighting.  But no mention  is  made of  these men  at  the Morgan seat  where thousands of visitors flock every month including local Welsh school children. [i] That is a disgraceful reflection on these  deceased members of the Morgan dynasty who gave their lives for their country.  [ii]

It is also  unbefitting (by comparison) that  visitors to Tredegar  House will hear stories of a horse named ‘Sir Briggs’ who went to war in the Crimean  with  Godfrey Morgan, 2^nd Lord Tredegar but learn nothing whatsoever  about the  five young Tredegar men who perished in history and warfare that has more relevance and poignancy today than anything from time past.  

Those  to remember  with  honour are  Lt. Charles Morgan Hoare, 15^th Kings Hussars, Capt. George Walter Thomas Lindsay, Royal Engineers, Lt. Frederic Charles Mundy, RNVR,  Lt. Archibald Thurston Thomas Lindsay, Royal Engineers and Major Claud Frederick Thomas Lindsay, Royal Field Artillery who  all  died between 1914 and 1918.

Lady Katharine Carnegie, wife of the 3^rd Lord  Tredegar, also lost a nephew in the same conflict, Capt. Raymond Rodakowski, Irish Guards, who was killed in action in 1917.

This short book is a tribute to these men, who  spent periods of  childhood and early adulthood in the company of  their Morgan relations at estate events and family gatherings at Tredegar House and the adjoining Tredegar Park.  We should remember them.

The book also touches on three  other men killed  in the Great War with overlaps to the Morgan family: Hon. Simon Fraser, Hon. Charles Mills, MP,  and Hon. Reginald Wyndham who were linked in her debutante year of 1914 with Gwyneth Erika Morgan (only daughter of the 3^rd Lord and Lady Tredegar), and but for the lives of the men ending  in the war it poses the inevitable question of ‘what might have been’.    

The book is dedicated to Hon. Gerard  Sturt, [iii] a Captain in the Coldstream Guards (brother of Lois Sturt who married Evan Morgan). Gerard died of war wounds exactly one hundred years ago today.

Bless them all.   

William Cross, FSA Scot, Newport, 11 November 2018

---

[i] The matter was referred to by a Newport historian, Jim Dyer in the South Wales Argus in a letter in August 2017 : “As we are some way into the commemoration of WW1, I am rather surprised that no mention has been made of the Morgan Family. Everyone knows about their escapades in the Crimean War, but few know that some of the family collaterals died in the Great War. The Morgan family lost five members  in various battles and maybe a plaque or exhibit of this great sacrifice should be displayed at Tredegar House. The men, related to the first Lord and Lady Tredegar, lost were – Lt. Charles Morgan Hoare, 15th Kings Hussars; Capt. George Walter Thomas Lindsay, Royal Engineers;  Lt. Frederic Charles Mundy, RNVR; Lt. Archibald Thurston Thomas Lindsay, Royal Engineers, and Major Claude Frederick, Thomas Lindsay, Royal field Artillery. What sacrifice, all between 1914/18. Additionally, the Second Lady Tredegar, Katharine Carnegie, lost a nephew during the conflict, Capt. Raymond Rodakowski, Irish Guards, in 1917.

Tredegar House of course is well known and popular internationally, and I am quite surprised the Curators in charge there haven't made the most of this family connection.” Jim Dyer, Stockton Road, Newport. NB This is an amended version to that published in the South Wales Argus – 28 August 2017.

[ii] On 11 November 2017 and again on 11 November 2018  when the whole country observed two minutes silence for the dead from the Great War, and at  the  Armistice  commemorations 100 years on from the special day  that established  an important  date for peace and remembrance  after  four years of slaughter between 1914 and 1918,  Tredegar House, Newport, managed by the National Trust  remained dark and closed.

[iii] Captain  Hon. Gerard Philip Montagu Napier Sturt (1893-1918)  was the eldest  son of Humphrey Napier Sturt, 2nd Baron Alington of Crichel and Lady Feodorowna Yorke of Crichel House, Wimborne, Dorset. Died 11 November 1918 aged 25 ‘from wounds received in action’.  Sadly, the circumstances of Gerard’s death point to suicide. Contact the Author for further details.

CONTACT WILLIAM CROSS BY E-MAIL/POST FOR MORE DETAILS

williecross@aol.com

ISBN 13 9781905914487

Published by

William P. Cross

Book Midden Publishing

58 Sutton Road

Newport Gwent

NP19 7JF, United Kingdom