EXTRACT FROM
LORDY! TUTANKHAMUN’S PATRON AS A YOUNG MAN BY WILLIAM CROSS, FSA SCOT [i]
[Lord Carnarvon's] Romantic Friendships with Victor Duleep Singh and Howard Carter
Homosexual men in Victorian society are to be found in all walks of life and in sizable numbers amongst the ranks of the aristocracy, schoolmasters, the universities and both Houses of Parliament.
A.L. Rowse names many in Homosexuals in History [ii],including several men who feature amongst the 4th Earl’s social and political contacts. Highclere, Eggesford and PixtonPark played host to a succession of these closeted gay men. [iii]
Among the Herbert family one of their own, Robert Herbert,[iv] shared a house in the Australian outback with John Bramston.[v] The house’s name, Herston, was a fusion of the two men’s names. Their “romantic friendship” has been the subject of much curiosity.[vi] Bramston’s obituary declares “his life was greatly influenced by his close personal friendship with… Robert Herbert”.[vii]
The Wallop collaterals to whom Lordy was allied whilst growing up include a string of confirmed bachelors, colonial exiles[viii] and childless couples. The Wallop line rattles with a number of men who as boys came under the spell of Oscar Browning[ix] – a notorious Eton master (just before Lordy’s time there) with a sexual proclivity towards young men. Browning once held tutorials in his bath with the boys standing around.
From the age of thirteen Lordy enjoyed a close friendship with Prince Victor Duleep Singh. The evidence points to it being a far from simple relationship. Theirs was a bond of emotional need and of rare devotion that endured for four decades. The two boys found a symmetry and means of survival in a union with each other, and as men they would regularly meet at Bretby Park to spend long periods of time together alone, but for a few retainers.
It is mischievous and impertinent to assert that there was any more than some pubescent horseplay in their private lives. Yet their life stories would be incomplete without a reference, at least, to this important aspect of their relationship.
After exploring “wild ways”[x] in his youth (largely at Victor’s encouragement) at Eton, Cambridge and on the Continent, Lordy contracted a venereal disease.[xi] The assumption is that this was from sexual contact with a woman, but that is not certain. The matter is left open in The Life and Secrets of Almina Carnarvon.
Lordy had a deeply held mistrust of women. He was never confident in their presence. His mother, though remote, had left him when he needed her most, and he shunned other women, even outlawing them on his yachts. [xii] But certainly, both Victor and Lordy had sexual relations with women (though in Victor’s case, his marriage to Lady Anne Coventry was based on mutual celibacy). [xiii] After Lordy married Almina Wombwell, she had two children. It is implied (in Secrets) that if their marriage was consummated, it was done so late. Documentary evidence on Highclere headed notepaper (seen by the author) cites the paternity of Almina’s son as being his best friend, Prince Victor Duleep Singh, but declares that Lordy is without doubt the father of Almina’s daughter, Lady Evelyn Herbert.[xiv]
In addition, there is evidence that Lordy’s sexual proclivities settled on the female form. He liked gazing upon woman – clad and otherwise – in his photographic studio in London[xv] and on stage in darkened theatres.[xvi] Lordy was attracted to women who painted their faces, stage actresses and the early film actresses. The portraits of his dead mother had come to represent a warped idea of beauty. This beauty was inanimate, one sided, unreal; the women he photographed fell into the same category.
Such fragments as exist point more to Lordy being heterosexual with only flimsy evidence lining up of any homosexual leanings.
But what of Howard Carter? The author was informed in an email on 21 October 2011 that Lord Carnarvon and Howard Carter were gay lovers. The text is clear:
I suspect you know that the 5th Earl of Carnarvon and Howard Carter were “an item”. I was reliably informed of this by a friend of mine whose Godfather was intimately involved with that couple. Do let me know if you would like me to forward a letter on to him.
Was there a love/ carnal affair between Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon? Almina certainly hinted as much to her godson.[xvii] The two men lived together in Egypt, and Carter stayed frequently in Britain at Highclere, Bretby and Seamore PlaceMayfair. Carter’s house ( built from his design) in the Valley of the Kings was made in part from precious Bretby stone, which was Lordy’s idea. [xviii] Did Lordy have these bricks brought out from England for a love nest with Carter? Had the similar curious coupling between his father’s cousin Robert Herbert and John Bramston been a model?
The author Paul William Roberts has encroached on Carter’s apparent celibacy to some conclusion;[xix] now was this startling evidence of a closer relationship between the two a base to sustain an insolent claim? The controversial email was from a verifiable source, a respected literary figure.[xx] The author followed up the assertion up with a letter, emails and a telephone conversation with the informant. The contact cautioned that he was not the original source; the actual source was a man from inside the Carnarvon family.
The reluctant source is a well-placed figure within the family of Lordy’s half-brother, Mervyn Herbert.[xxi] The latter was a British diplomat in the residency at Cairo, Egypt, throughout the period 1915–23. Mervyn knew and undoubtedly witnessed at first hand the nature of the relationship between the sponsor, Lord Carnarvon, and the man he had sponsored, Howard Carter. On making representations the outcome was that the Carnarvon family member “didn’t want anything to do with the enquiry”. It was an understandable block.
Is such a relationship conceivable? Between an employer and employee, with such a class divide? The author raised the issue with the American Alfred Jones PhD, a (British-born) psychologist acquainted with men who knew Carter and someone who has closely studied what makes men like Carnarvon and Carter tick. His opinion is as follows:
In my opinion Carnarvon and Carter could best be described as “a very odd couple indeed”. Walter Emery[xxii] and others thought Carter strange in the extreme. He was “asocial”. A man who would fly off the handle at the slightest provocation. At that time, one’s sexual behaviour was taboo. Viewing him (based on your premise) as a psychologist many say that he was a man of many conflicts. The question of a “relationship” between himself and Carnarvon never occurred to me, but if it did, I suspect that Carnarvon would have been the aggressor in so far that this type of behaviour was viewed in a far more accepting manner than within the ranks of the other classes.
The English public school system was a very pathological entity in many ways as was the nurture and admonition of upper class young gentlemen. A boy from a public school background would have a much more accepting opinion.
I don’t think that Carter could “love” anyone. Homosexual behaviour in and of itself does not always imply “love” but psychological needs. Lust, if you will, as was perhaps the case with Oscar Wilde who was a sexual opportunist.
Any type of sexual behaviour, homosexual, heterosexual or bisexual is very complicated with many variables.
Look to Taylor's book Sex in History[xxiii] in which he postulates that our sexual behaviour depends on whether any particular culture worships the Moon or Sun.
The Victorians were very anti-sex which made the subject more clandestine and titillating.
Based on your picture of these complicated circumstances, I would suspect that Carnarvon could best be described as “amorphous sexually” which is a term used for those individuals with no single sexual orientation, but (like Oscar Wilde) a sexual opportunist capable of directing their sexual drive in many directions but with a strong homosexual component.
I previously described Carter (based on the information given to me by those who knew him) as having a character disorder. Carnarvon had the same psychological profile (based on your findings), which are very typical of those with almost total self-serving needs. There were many other such men from within both the Royal family as well as within the aristocracy. The sons of King George V and Queen Mary were examples. Children were attended to during the formative years by servants and often abused in many ways. There have been lengthy studies regarding these circumstances in which there are studied cases of children who were separated from their mother at birth and given over to surrogates. They spend their entire life with the preoccupation of total self-indulgence. I would suspect that there were developmental features that set in motion Carnarvon’s adult behaviour. The mores of his social class would have precluded the type of sexual promiscuity as seen with Carnarvon (and his peers).
Fortunately, psychologists are not permitted to sit in judgement, but apply social knowledge based on developmental factors alone. The fact remains that these people often go through life as their own worst enemy. The character neurotic cannot seem to learn from experience and go through life making the same mistakes over and over again. They have zero capacity for self-inspection and evaluation. The relationship between Carter and Carnarvon was apparently very neurotic and almost anything could have transpired between them.
Dr Alfred Jones’s compelling introduction to this book supplements these comments. He rightly cautions that private lives should be kept just that, private.
In fact, Howard Carter’s personality is an easy target to exploit. One reviewer puts Carter amongst a vulnerable group of men: “Any [public] figure who remained unmarried, had close same sex friendships or acted in a way perceived flamboyant by modern standards is automatically presumed homosexual.”[xxiv] There is no clear evidence to support the theory of a homosexual relationship between Lordy and Carter. Yes, they were joyless men in their relations with women, and their relationship was sometimes fraught, but it seems a stretch to think rows were from a place of passion.[xxv] Carter’s devotion to his work was the most important thing of all;[xxvi] he was a “master of resource”.[xxvii] As for Lordy, the record is unclear, but there is no satisfactory, written proof that he was a closet homosexual.
[ Additional Note – written 2016: The above subject is appraised further by William Cross in his book “ Carnarvon, Carter and Tutankhamun Revisited: The Hidden truths and doomed relationships.”]
http://tutankhamun-revisited.yolasite.com/Strange-Co-incidences.php
http://will-cross-author.yolasite.com/
[i] Cross, William. Lordy! Tutankhamun’s Patron As A Young Man. Book Midden Publishing ( 2012).
[ii] Rowse, A.L., Homosexuals in History. A Study of Ambivalence in Society, Literature and the Arts, Dorset Press (1977).
[iii] In Lordy’s youth one of his mother’s admirers was the art critic (and homosexual) Lord Ronald Gower ( 1845-1916), youngest son of the 2nd Duke of Sutherland, whose mother was a member of the Howard family. He was an occasional visitor at Highclere. He also visited Dr Alan Herbert in Paris “ at his rooms in the Rue Chaveau Lagarde” ( see Gower’s My reminiscencies. J Murray ( 1885). Gower’s labyrinth spanned a wide part of the homosexual community. He was a friend of Oscar Wilde and it was said by John Addington Symonds ( 1840-1893) (who features in Rowse’s Homosexuals in History and described as “ conscious of himself as a same –sex loving man) as “ he knows everybody “ from cabbies, corporals and carabinieri”. Symonds was a regular visitor at Eggesford House where Lordy’s aunt Lady Portsmouth gathered a collection of the Victorian literati together including Thomas Hardy, Robert Browning, Henry James and George Eliot. A long letter from the repressed homosexual, American writer, Henry James ( 1843-1916) ( whilst staying at Eggesford) to his father is quoted in McWilliam, Candia. What To Look for in Winter. JonathanCape ( 2010). In the late Professor Gordon Haight’s biography of George Eliot [Clarenden Press ( 1968)] he remarks “ Lady Portsmouth’s house [at Eggesford] was also filled with figures whose sexuality was multi layered including John Addington Symonds”.
[iv] Sir Robert George Wyndham Herbert (1831–1905). Cousin of 4th Earl of Carnarvon. Premier of Queensland, Australia (1860–1865). Hebert was (from 1871) a permanent under-secretary of state at the Colonial Office in London, a position he held for over 30 years.
[v] Sir John Bramston (1832–1921). Colonial administrator and civil servant at the Colonial Office for over 20 years.
[vi] Herbert and Bramston met at Balliol College, Oxford. They shared rooms at university and in London. In 1859 they both went out to Australia together. When Herbert was premier of Queensland, Bramston was his attorney-general. The two of them lived together at a farm-steading called Herston,a combination of their names. Herbert never married. He provides insight into the idyllic life they shared in one letter to his sister and explains why he could not consider marriage: “it does not seem to me reasonable to tell a man who is happy and content, to marry a woman who may turn out a great disappointment.”
[vii] The Times, 16 September 1921.
[viii] Several of the sons of Lady Eveline Herbert and Isaac Newton Wallop (5th Earl of Portsmouth) sought service in Australia and elsewhere. http://www.cracroftspeerage.co.uk/online/content/index567.htm
[ix] Oscar Browning (1837–1923). A disciple of another Eton master, William Johnson Cory (1823–1982). Both men left Eton under a cloud connected with their close relations with pupils. Browning was dismissed in 1875. His personal papers including letters relating to the Wallop boys are in KingCollege, Cambridge. [Nine letters from the Wallop family to Browning and 29 letters from John Fellowes Wallop (1859–1925, later 7th Earl of Portsmouth) to Browning.]
[x] Field, Osgood Julian: Uncensored Recollections (1925) p.247: “When I first knew Lord Porchester as he was then, he was fine handsome youth, but Victor Duleep Singh let him into wild ways.”
[xi] The author has recorded elsewhere:
Porchey was awkward, shy and clumsy with women. Victor delighted in leading his weaker, inexperienced, friend astray, indeed even into indulging in “wild ways”. The preferred course was for visiting common prostitutes, who were available (and tolerated) on the Continent and in Egypt, although the host of diseases these women carried put young men in danger of being blighted for life. Whilst at Cambridge, both men formed all male – but more social associations – their contemporaries included the notorious “Prince Eddy”, Duke of Clarence and Lord Francis Hope – of the Hope diamond fame – but there is no evidence either Victor or George was deflected into seeking carnal pleasures in the company of these sometimes darker fellows.
[xii] “…on taking up yachting he [ Lordy] made it a rule that no ladies and no black shoes [ since he had established the fashion for wearing brown leather boots/ shoes ] were to be allowed on board.” See Huddersfield Chronicle, 25 October 1894.
[xiii] See Bance, Peter, Sovereign, Squire and Rebel: Maharajah Duleep Singh and the Heirs of a Lost Kingdom,Coronet Books, London (2009).
[xiv] Leadbetter Collection. Lady Evelyn Leonora Almina Herbert (1901–1980) married (Sir) Brograve Beauchamp (1897–1976).
[xv]Lordy was a partner in a photographic firm in Dover Street, London. See also The Life and Secrets of Almina Carnarvon. In 1916 he became president of the Camera Club (based at 17 John Street, London) where he “infused still greater keenness into the members”including staging an exhibition of his own work.
[xvi]See The Life and Secrets of Almina Carnarvon.
[xvii] Tony Leadbetter – Almina’s godson – felt there was a strong inference of an affair between Carnarvon and Carter from what Almina told him, but she was coy about spelling it out.
[xviii] The most authoritative narrative about the building of Castle Carter, situated “ at the entrance to the rocky wadi leading to the Valley of the Kings” which was lived in from 1911 is by T G H James in his book Howard Carter :The Path to Tutankhamun. James had research done on the detail relating to the use of Bretby stones/ bricks. See also Fiona Carnarvon’s Carnarvon & Carter. Highclere Enterprises. NB Carter left the house and its contents to the Metropolitan Museum, New York. It is now a museum.
( 2007) which also states that Lordy and Carter visited Europe together “ in August 1912” visiting “ Florence, Paris and Turin.” It should be noted that Carnarvon did NOT secure a concession to dig in the Valley of the Kings until 1914.
[xix] See Roberts, Paul William, River in the Desert: A Modern Traveller in Ancient Egypt,Tauris Parke Paperbacks (2006). Roberts found an old guide in the Valley of the Kings named Khadry who knew Howard Carter. “I urged... him onto Carter’s personality: Was the man really celibate… Khadry grinned toothlessly, slapping his knee, then answering in a roundabout fashion that implied both boys and the occasional ‘dancing girl’ enhanced Carter’s domestic life from time to time.”
[xx] Source withheld. Please contact the author.
[xxi] Mervyn Robert Howard Molyneux Herbert (1882–1929). Private source (e-mail). Please contact the author for background details.
[xxii] Walter Bryan Emery (1903–1971). Egyptologist. Worked with Carter at the tomb of Tutankhamun.
[xxiii] Taylor, G R. Sex in History, ThamesHudson, London (1953).
[xxiv] John Godl in a review of the life and writings of T.E. Lawrence (of Arabia fame), 22 August 2009.
[xxv] The rumour of a romance growing between Carter and Lady Evelyn Herbert caused one fall out. Lordy’s financial “deal” with The Times granting them exclusive rights over the reporting of the tomb and its contents was another. Carter honestly believed that the introduction of large amounts of money to the discovery was fatal to the principles of scientific work. But Lordy (and Almina) had invested large sums over many years. Carter’s journal and diaries – at the Griffith Institute, Oxford (now available online) often comprise just a few words or sentiments. The entry for 5 April 1923 is “Poor Ld C died during the early hours of the morning”and 12 April 1923 refer again to “Poor Ld C’s remains”; perhaps the use of the word “poor” repeated simply captures Carter’s sorrow and even grief.
[xxvi] One portrait of Carter describes him as a modern-day hermit, set apart from his fellow Egyptologists.
[xxvii] Robinson, Edward, Lord Carnarvon, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin Vol. 18, No 5 (May 1923).