Lies, Damned Lies and the Carnarvons

The Ultimate Humiliation of Porchey Carnarvon in 1887

                                                                Tutankhamun Centenary  2022

Shocking & True Facts about George 5th  Lord Carnarvon  Highclere Don't Want History to Record

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

                     The Ultimate Degradation and Humiliation of Porchey Carnarvon  of 1887

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. 

A Carnarvon heir not fit for purpose  :  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. 

Blatant Lies to explain cancellation celebrations :    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 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. 

Porchey's Relationship with His Father :  The relationship between Porchey and his father, Henry Herbert, the 4th Earl of Carnarvon, 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.