Shocking and True Facts About Lord Carnarvon of Tutankhamum Fame : Coming of Age Scandal 1887

Why was Lord George Carnarvon of Tutankhamun fame denied His Coming Of Age Celebrations at the age of 21 ?

Tutankhamun’s co-discoverer George Edward Stanhope Molyneux Herbert, born 1866, reached his coming of age (of 21) on 26th June, 1887. George was known in 1887 as Viscount ( Lord ) Porchester, (‘Porchey’ for short). As Porchey was the heir to an English Earldom with family seats at Highclere Castle, Hampshire and Pixton Park, Devonshire this should have been an occasion for great rejoicing with toasts galore led by a proud father, pats on the back from the other senior Herbert relations as well as hearty drinking at a lavish banquet with the friends of the heir and family along with hearing speeches, florid testimonies and good cheer from the family’s tenants to mark the heir-in- waiting’s official legal status being reached and thus declare him welcome and blessed as the next in line as the Earl.

But the heir to the Carnarvon Earldom was not fit for purpose, there were to be no celebrations, no speeches or cheers, Porchey was denied by his father this customary and important single moment in the eternal conventions of the British aristocracy and land owning classes. Porchey’s big day was cancelled - expunged- with blatant lies told of the event being postponed on account of his father’s ill-health - or an excuse that the date clashed with Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee. But the truth was that Porchey’s coming of age event was snubbed – it was deemed he had brought dishonour upon the Herbert family name by near bankrupting himself, and associating with scoundrels, money lenders, brothel keepers and cheats.

On paper Porchey ( pictured above ) was a wealthly young man, having inherited upon reaching his majority his late mother’s large legacies including land and property and substantial sums of money from the Stanhope - Chesterfield family coffers. The property portfolio comprised several estates and a noble seat with coalmines and brickworks at Bretby Park, in Derbyshire . These inheritances from his mother, Lady Evelyn Stanhope ( who died in 1875) and from his grandmother, Lady Anne Chesterfield ( Evelyn’s mother, who died in 1886 ) gave Porchey financial independence and his own personal control over it all.

The relationship between Porchey and his father, Henry Herbert, the 4th Earl of Carnarvon, ( as above ) a prominent Victorian politician ( of Cabinet rank) was uncomfortable at best, his straight-faced, economical, Pater, ( whose nick name was ‘Twitters’ in part because of a strange, nervous disposition ) did not approve of his son’s borrowings, loose morals, bad habits, and cringed at rumours and reports of his offspring being frequently seen disappearing into the seedy depths of the London underworld where his friends included criminals and perverts where Illegal drinking, male and female prostitution, bent card schools, and cock-fighting could be accessed and where those ( like Porchey) with money to spend foolishly congregated and satisfied their desires, carnal needs or got their inner thrills.

Besides this being how the Carnarvon heir whiled away his time there was not a race course in England that had not seen Porchey Carnarvon wager and invariably lose large sums on horses. He was best known in Society as a wastrel, a gambler, who pursued excesses for his own quick pleasures. His maternal grandfather and name sake, George Stanhope, 6th Earl of Chesterfield, ( pictured above ) who died the year that his grandson was born was a similar squanderer of the family assets. Dubbed a never-do-well Porchey had a reputation for being seen in the company of undesirables in houses that had been visited ( or at least were being watched) by the authorities for evidence of rascality. This time period was close enough to make associations of Porchey through some contemporaries studying with him at Cambridge University and these and other companions being on close terms with courtiers in Royal circles and some of the titled people who were rumbled ( or those who escaped from being ‘outed’ as participants ) in the Cleveland Street homosexual scandal of 1888-9.

Coming into money on the promise of his inheritance was not safe in Porchey’s head and hands for long, he clocked up vast debts on the strength of this expectation of wealth in the several years before he became 21. Despite some bail outs by his father and warnings that no more help would be given, Porchey ignored such threats and continued to plunge deeper into debt, disgrace and debauchery. He tired of being lectured by his papa – especially when he was reminded of an obligation, a burden hanging over from his late mother’s hope ( poignantly expressed on her deathbed and set out in her Will ) that her son when of age would recognise his duties as well as his rights. Whilst Porchey cherished his mother’s memory, he resented the fact that she had left him on his own as she died when he was aged only 8.

The Carnarvon heir was the victim too of bad genes , he was a frail child, unloved and unlovable, bullied ( or ignored ) by his father, unable to warm to a stepmother, his cousin, Elsie Howard, and left to be intimidated by an older sister, Winifred, and reared and regimented by crazy aunts, mad uncles, abusive governesses, servants and private tutors.

As a young adult Porchey suffered from being sickly with weak lungs and chest and throat disease. He amassed a dreadful track record for disobedience and for sloppiness in his learning and education; he was booted out of Eton College : he was never a scholar ( like his father ), nor was he clever enough for the diplomatic corps or astute enough to study business, nor sturdy enough bodily material for to enter the army or navy ; moreover to crown failing at going to Oxford University and with a mass of humiliating periods at crammers in London, the north of England and Germany, he was at the centre of a spate of a scandals for non-payment of creditors bills, poor judgement in his companions and for lax- living which by the middle of 1887 resulted in him being told to pack his bags and leave Cambridge University in shame; he had only been able to get in there in the first place because of his family’s influence and connections.

Since the 4th Earl was a strict disciplinarian it was inevitable that George should suffer this ultimate degradation at the hands of this superior, high-Church, tight-faced, cheerless, father. There was no appeal or support for George from his stepmother who always took her husband’s side, moreover this price paid by George had to be seen as their public punishment together of a wayward son. It was also inevitable, that George would rebel further as he was not going to be put down by anybody. Porchey’s arrogance was a life- long trait he was always someone who took criticism badly and was unwilling to have his actions or decisions challenged. Moreover he refused to back down. This led to run-ins with his wife, Almina, from 1895, and disagreements with Howard Carter at the height of Tutankhamun mania.

In 1887, the consequence was that George’s father and stepmother lost any degree of commitment from George to family matters and he failed to take any interest in his family’s activities, demands or wishes, except on his terms. George decided to leave England behind and travel abroad, seeing the world on board his own yacht, the Aphrodite. In August 1887 George became a member of the Royal Yacht Squadron, at Cowes, IOW. The period 1887-90 were George’s wandering years abroad, in fact it was an imposed exile ( but often in the company of his beloved friend Prince Victor Duleep Singh ), and who was more than just a friend. In these years there were just a few appearances with George’s family and this separation was only ended when the 4th Earl seriously declined in health and he finally died in 1890.

On becoming the 5th Earl of Carnarvon George Herbert had the satisfaction of then booting out his stepmother, Elsie from Highclere Castle. In any case the Countess was well enough provided for by the 4th Earl’s will with an alternative roof and maintenance for life. The 4th Earl did not get his last wish which was to see his eldest son George pre-decease him and George’s half-brother Hon. Aubrey Herbert ( one of Elsie’s two sons she bore the 4th Earl ) succeed him as the next Earl of Carnarvon.

NB The above event of George Herbert being refused his coming of age celebrations in 1887 - including the corresponding record of the period as seen in the diaries of the 4th Earl of Carnarvon, is told by William Cross in detail ( with supporting sources ) in his book “ Lordy! Tutankhamun’s Patron As A Young Man” Book Midden Publishing ( 2012 ). The entire narrative will be probed again in “ Carnarvon, Carter and Tutankhamun Revisited : The hidden truths and doomed relationships “ a new book from William Cross to be published on 4 November, 2016. This above article is a rough draft from the new book which will be sourced with suitable End Notes in the final draft. A photograph of a revealing nature will also be published in the new book from a private collection representing the decadence of Victorian England showing Porchey in the company of a group of undesirable males.