TUTANKHAMUN
CENTENARY 2022
LORD GEORGE CARNARVON’S CAR SMASH IN GERMANY THAT NEARLY
COST HIM HIS LIFE
PART 2 ( OF 3
PARTS)
HIGHCLERE DENIES THE FACTS
THE 5TH EARL OF
CARNARVON FIRST WENT TO EGYPT IN 1889
SOWING HIS OATS IN THE
CAIRO WHOREHOUSES
THE LEGACY OF
VENEREAL DISEASE
Extract from
“Carnarvon,
Carter and Tutankhamun Revisted: The Hidden Truths and Doomed Relationships”
By
William Cross
The Carnarvons
confuse fact and fiction
Lord George Carnarvon first
went to Egypt in 1889
The Herberts of Highclere confuse fact and fiction. They select what
they want to place about their
kinfolk in the public domain. They misrepresent certain tales, romanticize
the facts to suit and suppress
scandal or put down any sort of taint. With a
world-wide following - from Downton
Abbey syndrome- they naturally
want to be seen in the best of lights, from a moral perspective, their pedigree afterall is notably blue; so anything improper, with warts or weaknesses
in the character or make up of any of their kinfolk get removed in playing out the storylines. Their ancestors have often been portrayed with the input of fiction and so people are hoodwinked to believe the
fiction.
Two generations ago the story of Lord George Carnarvon, the 5th Earl of Tutankhamun fame going to Egypt for the first time ever in the winter of 1901-2 - after a car
accident in Germany- was misrepresented.
This is because the accident
did not happen until 1909.
It was further claimed that because of the injuries in 1901 to the Earl’s chest and lungs he was in such a state that he could never spend
another cold winter in England. It was then he turned to
Egyptology, to while away the time.
The Legacy of Venereal Disease
However the fact is that George Herbert had been going out to the warm
climes of Egypt ( and other similar warm
places) for two decades before this early 20th
Century period. The reason for going there was to help
him cope with a congenital lung condition as well as to try to find a cure or comfort for the rot to his body from the legacy of venereal disease and his barbaric treatment by medics.
The truth isn’t as nice and neat as the fiction!
The Earl developing an interest in Egyptology- after the accident- is also swept in as conjured up in the same timeline as the car accident – but the actual influences that sparked this turn of events are not
disclosed. Those influence requires separate
coverage sometime. Please watch this
space for the story.......
George Carnarvon
- too much money and too little sense
Sowing his oats with Prince Victor Duleep Singh in the whore houses of Cairo
George Carnarvon inherited too much money and too little health or good sense.
Robbed of his mother’s love when
she died when he was just 8 years old, he had a
cold, unfeeling and troubled childhood, his father hated him and not
surprisingly George became a
dysfunctional adult. That grim story is told in full in the book ( from 2012) “ Lordy! Tutankhanun’s Patron As A
Young Man”, by William Cross.
For the record : George Herbert’s first trip to Egypt ( when he
was known as Lord Porchester, or ‘Porchey’ for short ) was
in 1889, the jaunt was part of a tour of Africa with his close pal, Prince Victor Duleep Singh. Victor’s mother’s
family were based in Cairo. As
playboys George and Victor sowed
their oats in the whore houses, gambling dens and hot bath and towel bars on the banks of the Nile.
George Carnarvon and Prince Victor Duleep Singh
‘The Odd Couple’
Featured Above : Prince Victor Duleep Singh ( 1866-1918 )
Whilst abroad the odd couple of the
Earl and the Prince enjoyed
one-2-one privacy on board George’s luxury yacht, and in England at
Bretby Park, which at the age of
21, in 1887, George inherited as part of his late mother’s lands
and property interests in Derbyshire, making him on paper a very wealthy young
man. But George could spend money too, and often not wisely.
Denying George his coming of age celebrations was the punishment his straight lace father, Henry, the 4th
Earl, known as ‘Twitters’, ( a joyless
Victorian politician and
statesman), inflicted upon his son and
heir for
paying off a string of bad debts.
With two other sons from a second marriage to his cousin Elsie Howard, the 4th Earl preferred to
see George’s half- brother Aubrey as his
successor.
History Cheats
Going back to the date for
Carnarvon’s car smash. The history cheats also say that this single event led to him taking up Egyptology etc. Except
( and it cannot be said often enough) this was not
the date of the key motor accident – so it could not be the reason – nor
was it the spark for Carnarnon’s interest in Egyptology in 1909, not least since by this date, George Herbert, the 5th Earl of Carnarvon had already met and struck a deal with his archaeologist colleague Howard Carter, and they were some five years into digging their
way around the tombs in Luxor and
Thebes. This further odd coupling eventually paved the way for these intrepids - as famous as any of the
most notable duos from history- to move into The Valley of the Kings,
and make their unique find of 4 November, 1922.
Motor Carnarvon and
More Car Accidents
It has to be said that in the course of
George Carnarvon’s life he was
involved in a number of motor car accidents. Nicknamed ‘ Motor Carnarvon’ he
was “ one of the first converts to motoring..” He could be seen “ in the early
morning ..rushing through the streets of London all alone and clad entirely in
white.” George bought cars and rode them on the Continent before
bringing them to England. High speed
appealed to George and he was often fined and reprimanded for exceeding the
bylaws on speed limits.
TO BE CONTINUED IN PART 3
This is a draft
extract from a new book “Carnarvon,
Carter and Tutankhamun Revisted: The Hidden Truths and Doomed Relationships”
by William Cross
TO BE PUBLISHED IN
2016
ISBN-10: 1905914369
ISBN-13: 978-1905914364
SOURCES
ARE WITHHELD IN THIS ARTICLE BUT CAN BE SUPPLIED BY THE AUTHOR ON REQUEST
The
sources will appear in the End Notes to
the new book
Any
enquiries please e-mail William Cross
