Were Lord Carnarvon and Howard Carter An Item?

          ALMINA  PLAYS  HER OWN  GAMES 

In  early  December 1922, Almina,  the  5th Countess of Carnarvon was missing from the  centre  stage  in  Luxor.                                                                           

Whilst Howard Carter and  Lord  Carnarvon were playing out their end game in the  aftermath of  the opening up of  King Tut’s tomb,   Almina was playing a  game of charades of her own.

The  woman who forked out   for  the  14 years of digging through the generous  hand-outs  she secured  from  her sugar daddy,  Baron Alfred de Rothschild, was sorting out  how to add to her  bank balance.

The reason for  Almina’s absence  on  the first November 1922 trip by the Earl to Egypt  is crowded with    surreptitious  art deals, sneaky arrangements , the usual level of  Carnarvon   lies  that  have  confused history.  

Year on year Lady Carnarvon had accompanied his Lordship, the Earl,  to Egypt.  Upon the epic  discovery being made, Almina  declined to go out to the scene of  the great triumph.  She had other bigger fish to fry in Paris and London.

One cute explanation given was that “being so often disappointed [on previous journeys] [Almina]  decided .... to  stay behind.”   [i] [ in England].

Another reason  is controversial  since it suggests Almina was  already  deep  into a  close relationship with   Lt Colonel  Ian Dennistoun, whom she later married a few months after  she quietly and  humanely hastened  Lord Carnarvon’s demise in March-April 1923. 

She was seeing the Colonel.  This fact came out  in 1925  during the  17 day sex scandal Dennistoun v  Dennistoun.    The Colonel was the fall guy,  the  patsy. Almina’s plan was to money launder the proceeds of  her intended  art  sales through  Ian Dennistoun’s   bank  accounts. Ian was skint, he lived on a tiddly  army pension and hand outs from the  helpless  women he chased.   

In the winter of  1922/3  the Countess was busy wheeling and dealing over the estate left to her by  Baron Alfred de Rothschild.  Alfred, a shrewd  collector of old Masters, Gainsboroughs,  French porcelain,  rare silver and the finest  jewels treated Almina well, he secured the title for her of Countess of Carnarvon, he funded the Carnarvons’ whims  for decades; but he had to as Almina’s mother Marie Wombwell  was aware and ready to disclose Alfred’s  cloudy business  and sex secrets to the world.

Almina inherited the entire contents of Alfred’s  London mansion  at 1, Seamore Place, Mayfair.    This   haul  was  worth almost as much as the artefacts contained in the  antechamber of Tutankhamun’s tomb.

Almina claimed ( in a long  letter written  in 1963 ) that  the reason for her absence from Egypt in November- December 1922  was that she was ill. 

This was a bit of a  lie too, although  the 45-year-old  Almina  had a miscarriage about this time.  She  was  also assisting  Dorothy Dennistoun,  the Colonel’s first wife ( who lived with Almina at the time of the Tut discovery )   to dispose of  her foetus, when Dorothy fell pregnant to a Spaniard. This  infanticide came out  during the court case in 1925 when Dorothy sued the Colonel for unpaid debts and alimony.  

But the 1963 letter ( to Mrs Gordon Johnstone,  the wife of an American doctor whom  Almina had befriended in the Second World War) is full of  other curiosities.  It  gives an explanation to several  untold parts of the  roll out of the days of Howard  Carter and  Lord Carnarvon  at Luxor between the time the  Tomb was first  trespassed by Carter – even before his famous telegram to Lord Carnarvon on 6 November 1922 and through until  the opening of the Tomb to the world on 28 November 1922.  It is this letter that provides the  source to Almina’s accusational  comments on the official historical  account of the discovery  that began to irk the Countess when he saw herself mentioned  in  books from the early 1960s onwards.

 Almina was defiant, she told her godson Tony Leadbetter. “ It was not like that at all, dear boy…. .. it was not like that at all…”

In her lifetime  ( she died in 1969)  no historian, no journalist,  no one ever bothered to ask Almina’s views on the digging years, about the  discovery period or the aftermath. At Highclere, Almina’s son Porchey, 6th  Earl showered himself in glory playing charades about his part in the discovery.  It was all invented, he was only in Cairo for a fleeting moment in 1923 and  ran off terrified of the curse of Tutankhamun.   

Almina was  good at dealing in  secrets and lies too. She knew the suppressed details behind   Carter’s telegram about the  truth of  the   discovery of the century.    Carter and  Carnarvon were suspictious of the Egyptians;  the two adventurers    had a  ruthless plan  to take from out of  the tomb what they thought was their due  reward for  the many years of sacrifice.  They did just that.

Almina’s daughter  Lady Evelyn Herbert  was  with the Earl  on the  first celebratory trip  to Luxor to proclaim the   discovery .  Evelyn    agreed  to keep  her mother informed on the  state of  play in Egypt  including  watching over   the health of   the dying   Earl, who  was in remission from       ( oesophageal ) throat cancer,   a cancer associated with excessive alcohol consumption and smoking. Almina expected her frail  husband to keel over at any time.

Almina  soon completed her  plans in  Paris and London about  disposing of some prime items  from  Alfred’s estate.  By 4  December 1922,   to Almina’s  surprise,  Evelyn informed her mother that the  Earl was still  alive and  coming back  to England to publicise  the great tomb’s  find  through a  business deal struck with The Times newspaper that the Earl had unilaterally agreed  for  £5000 plus commissions.    The first of  The Times  news stories  from 30 November 1922  had highly charged   the populace.  Tut mania was born.    Almina did not think the sum offered by The Times  was enough. She had paid out  more than ten times that sum over the years  to finance the enterprise.

Whilst the Earl and Evelyn  returned from Egypt  by sea, Almina played on with the charades.

On 16th  December 1922  it  fell on Almina to tell the world  “ that all particulars regarding Lord Carnarvon’s recent important discoveries  in Egypt  [ would]  soon be announced. “ [ii] 

However  Almina was not deflected from her main course, and was in discussion with the  art  dealer Joseph Duveen to sell off   many of the prized pictures she’d inherited from Baron  Alfred de Rothschild.

Later, in 1925  Almina sold off the majority of  Alfred’s inheritance in a sale of the century at Christie’s Auction House.

[i]  Sunday Times, 10 December, 1922.

[ii] Sunday Times, 17 December, 1922.

TRUE TIMETABLE

http://carnarvon.yolasite.com/Tutankhamun-The-True-Timetable-November-2022.php

 SHOCKING REVELATIONS IN NEW BOOK ON LORD CARNARVON AND HOWARD CARTER

http://tutankhamun-revisited.yolasite.com/Strange-Co-incidences.php

WHO KILLED LORD CARNARVON?

 http://lord-carnarvon-death.yolasite.com/