Welcome to this site on Almina, Lady Carnarvon 1876-1969
The Life and Secrets of Almina Carnarvon
By William Cross, FSA Scot
The book is now available
http://lifeandsecretsofalminacarnarvon.yolasite.com/
Almina, Countess of Carnarvon, 1876-1969, pictured alongside, was every inch a Countess, every sinew a Lady, a formidable adversary, she adored men and dispised women. She gave generously to those of her own class for whom she was beloved, but some thought her foolish and wasteful. She has left behind a curse as deadly as the one that overshadowed her legendry husband, George Edward Stanhope Molyneux Herbert, the 5th Earl of Carnarvon, co-discoverer with Howard Carter of the Tomb of Tutankhamun.
Almina ploughed through a King’s ransom, inherited from one of the Rothschild family, leaving her playboy son enraged. In the Great War she reigned supreme as a Society leader who abandoned her comfy drawing room to treat wounded Officers at her own expense. Her later plush Nursing Homes, described by Evelyn Waugh as an
“ abortionist parlour” served the rich, famous and privileged, earning her celebrity status, and parody by A J Cronin in The Citadel. She controlled men like a puppet master. But, she lost everything to bankruptcy.
“ The Life and Secrets of Almina Carnarvon “ is a study of her life and times through a close study of newspapers, letters, diaries, testimonials, and references to her, and her circle, and from many other sources, archives and records.
The narrative reveals a riches-to-rags story over nine decades. Almina reinvented herself several times. Without any remorse but with the stigma of a being a bankrupt, Almina ended her days in an ordinary terraced house in Bristol, perishing at 93, the result of a horrendous “accident” in 1969. But she has left behind a cache of untold secrets: in her undiscovered Tomb are tales to rock the old world Establishment.
Contact Will Cross for more details williecross@aol.com