Lady Katharine, Viscountess Tredegar

Remembering Lady Katharine Tredegar

LADY  KATHARINE  AGNES  BLANCHE  CARNEGIE : (1867-1949)

VISCOUNTESS  TREDEGAR  1934-1949

A   short  note of   affection and remembrance

by William Cross, FSA Scot 

Author of six books on the Morgans of Tredegar House, Newport 

LADY TREDEGAR OF TREDEGAR HOUSE NEWPORT AND HONEYWOOD HOUSE, ROWHOOK, NEAR DORKING, SURREY

BORN : KINNAIRD CASTLE, BRECHIN, SCOTLAND, 12 JUNE 1867
DIED : BELGRAVIA, LONDON, 4 OCTOBER 1949

Lady Katharine Agnes Blanche Carnegie, born Kinnaird Castle, Brechin, Scotland on 12 June 1867, died London, England, 4 October 1949. Peeress, Artist, Benefactor, Patron of the Arts, Writer of Children's Stories.

Katharine was painted twice by the Welsh artist, Augustus John. She was also painted by the Society painter, Ambrose McEvoy. One of the Augustus John pictures remains in the Carnegie family home at Kinnaird Castle. The other Augustius John and the portrait by McEvoy are both on display at the Morgan seat of Tredegar House, Newport, South Wales, currently managed by the National Trust . These paintings are worth seeing but are eclipsed by the vile tales told at Tredegar House relating to Katharine.

In 1890 Katharine married Courtenay Charles Evan Morgan ( 1867-1934), who inherited the title of Lord Tredegar ( from his uncle Godfrey Morgan, 2nd Lord Tredegar ) in 1913.

Katharine and Courtenay had marital difficulties, attempts to overcome these with short 'let's live together ' arrangements made with Courtenay to occupy large homes ( with a butler and servants) at Ludlow and in Wiltshire, alas failed, Katharine was " too much a lover of London" .

She found Courtenay painfully dull.

Katharine had two children, a son Evan Frederic Morgan ( who succeeded his father in 1934 and died in 1949) and a daughter Gwyneth Ericka Morgan, who died in grim circumstances in 1924.

Evan was a poet and a generous patron. He was also a predatory homosexual who prayed on young men, enjoying the anonymity of picking up 'rough trade'. He abused his way through the carnal pleasures of seducing young arab boys in Algiers and the scanty dressed native lads on the Island of Bali.

Gwyneth was a loner, a sickly girl who fell into the wrong company, a body ( accepted as Gwyneth's) was fished from the River Thames five months after she disappeared from a house in Wimbledon in 1925.

Katharine ( nicknamed 'Kats' / ' Kassie' ) mother of Evan and Gwyneth was the daughter of James Carnegie, the 9th Earl of Southesk and his second wife Lady Susan Murray. James was a poet and traveller in Canada.

Katharine had siblings and half-siblings. Much of her childhood was spent in happiness and love at the Carnegie family seat of Kinnaird Castle, her birthplace, in Scotland. Hence the caption " I remember, I remember the house where I was born". Kathariine adored Kinnaird Castle and found it hard to adjust to married life and the prospect of living largely in Wales.

Sadly, the one member of the Morgan family that Katharine had befriended, her mother in law - Charlotte Williamson ( Mrs Freddie Morgan) died soon after Katharine's marriage to Courtenay. Courtenay's sisters proved unhelpful bystanders.

Neither marriage nor motherhood suited Katharine. She hated Wales, could not envisage living with Courtenay at Ruperra Castle ( where the heir to the Tredegar Estate usually lived) and despite several tries at matrimony in the end did not live with her husband, they parted, except for a few occasions on the London scene and on board one of Courtenay's steam yachts, but in 44 years of marriage they were strangers.

Courtenay took mistresses. Katharine enjoyed her independence but a certain isolation living in London and at Honeywood House, Rowhook, near Dorking in Surrey, She was an eccentric character, gifted as a writer of children''s stories, with one published book entitled ' The Crimson Ducks', which she also colourfully illustrated . Katharine was a regular attendee at the ballet and opera. She contributed generously to Welsh charities during the Great War and was great maker of plum puddings.

Sadly, Katharine suffered mental health issues all her life. The sadder fact is that her husband and two children predeceased her. After her son Evan died at Honeywood House in April 1949, Katharine was moved to a flat in London's Belgravia ( for full time nursing care ) where she died on 4 October 1949. Her final affairs were dealt with by the Carnegie family.

She snubbed a burial in Wales and was cremated.

Katharine's memory is held in great regard by present generation members of the Carnegie family, it is a sad reflection that the only stories told to the public at the Morgan seat at Tredegar House, Newport, South Wales are greatly tainted tales of Katharine as a dotty mad woman who thought she was a bird, sitting in giant nests, cooing and laying eggs.

Added to this are unreliable at best anecdotal references to Katharine " sat atop a nest wearing a 'bejewelled beak'.' These are vile descriptions of a woman who was affected by a chronic nervous condition, an aversion to noise and poor genes. Endlessly mocking her little foibles and her situation is vile, her sanity, life style and odd behaviour were not helped by the many personal tragedies she suffered, disappointments from a bad marriage and the loss of her children and other relatives.

There are many stories of Katharine that show her in a different light as a Society figure, liked, respected and as a loving sister and an amusing aunt. 

Literary and Society figures including Aldous Huxley, Alan Pryce Jones Cecil Roberts and Frances Steveson all sing Katharine's praises in the memoirs and diaries.

These are the glories of Lady Katharine Agnes Blanche Carnegie that deserve to be told at Tredegar House.

William Cross, FSA Scot

April 2016