Scandalous Spotlight: Almina, Countess of Carnarvon
Almina was born Almina Wombwell in 1876. Her mother Marie Boyer was French, her father a respectable banker. While her sisters all married well, Marie married a ne'er do well, younger son of a baron named Captain Frederick Wombwell. The couple seperated after Freddie apparently was caught stealing from Marie's parents. Marie soon made the acquaintance of Alfred de Rothschild, the man widely believed to be Almina's father. Even her unusual name Almina was a combination of her parents names. However, although he doted on Almina and left her a fortune, Alfred never openly acknowledged Almina as his. Almina grew up to be beautiful, vivacious and a little bit spoilt. Petite, she was blessed with the curvaceous figure that was then fashionable, Fiona Carnarvon describes her as a "Pocket Venus," throughout the book. Her 'god-father' Alfred doted on her, lavishing her with expensive presents, no doubt to make up for not claiming her as his own. Although a bachelor, he never married Almina's mother, even after her husband died. Apparently he liked his freedom too much, plus Marie was Catholic.
I bought Fiona Carnarvon's book on the day it was published and I find it riveting. While her book deals with a great deal of social history, detailing how an Edwardian household was run, the different roles of the servants, aspects of Edwardian society, Cross's book seems to take a more salacious tone. Just from reading the web-site , he seems to have a less rosy colored view of Almina. According to a recent article in The Daily Mail, Cross claims that Almina had an affair with her husband's best man, Prince Victor Duleep Singh, the son of the deposed Maharajah of Lahore, and that her son, the 6th Earl of Carnarvon was a product of this affair. What this means of course, if it could be proven and I don't see anyone taking a DNA test anytime soon, is that the current Earl is not the real Earl. Given that Prince Victor and his wife were childless, I think the changes that he is the father of 6th Earl are also slim. Although Prince Victor was of mixed race, there was a very good chance that if Almina had been pregnant by him, the child would have dark or tan skin. How was she going to pass the baby off as the Earl's if that had happened? It boggles the mind. Was she going to claim the baby died? Or given it away secretly? I can't imagine that Almina would have taken such a risk, given her own background.
Almina remarried her 2nd husband, not long after the Earl of Carnarvon died in 1923 (his death was considered to part of the Curse of King Tut's tomb). Her 2nd husband was Lieutenant-Colonel Ian Onslow Dennistoun. According to Christopher Wilson's article in The Daily Telegraph, Dennistoun owed his promotion to his wife Dorothy's liaison with the Army's Quartermaster General! Dennistoun and Almina met in Paris in 1920, 3 years before her husband's death. Almost immediately, Almina set him up in a smart cottage. Apparently Almina also used him for money-laundering purposes. She often sold jewelry and works of art that she had inherited from her god-father, and she used Dennistoun's bank accounts to hide the money from the tax man! Almina also apparently was having an affair with a man by the name of Tommy Frost who was also sleeping with Dennistoun's ex-wife Dorothy!
In 1925, Almina was part of a scandalous court case. Her husband's ex-wife, Dorothy Dennistoun sued her husband for the alimony that he claimed that he couldn't pay at the time of their divorce. Apparently, Dennistoun had promised to provide for his ex-wife in the future when he had the money. When Dorothy heard that he had married the Dowager Countess of Carnarvon, who had been left a fortune by her 'godfather' Alfred de Rothschild, she thought she had hit pay dirt. Almina was not about to give up any of her money to her husband's ex-wife. She convinced her husband to take the matter to the courts. During the trial, Dorothy claimed that her husband forced her to sleep with the Quartermaster General to further his career. Dennistoun basically claimed that his wife was a slut and couldn't be trusted. Under oath, Almina admitted to adultery, and her money-laundering scheme. Nobody, least of all Almina, came out smellling like a rose when the case was decided. Although the jury decided in favor of Dennistoun, the case cost Almina more than 400,000 pounds, more than what it would have cost her to make Dennistoun's wife go away.
Cash-strapped, Almina decided to open a high-society nursing home. During the war, like Downton Abbey, Highclere had been turned into a hospital. Almina had spared no expense hiring the best doctors and equipment, decreeing that each wounded officer should have his own room, with down pillows and linen sheets. She believed in the importance of comfort, warmth and cosseting. But even before that, Almina had discovered a talent for nursing when her husband suffered a horrific car accident in 1901 in Germany.
Unfortunately, it turned out that she had no head for running a business, finding it difficult to present her patients with a bill. Eventually the nursing home, according to Evelyn Waugh, became a place where high-class women could discreetly obtain an illegal abortion. Then at the age of 70, she became involved with a much younger man, who worked as heating engineer. It was the last straw for her son, the 6th Earl, who gave her up to the IRS, calling her a "scheming swindler" (they were never close). In her lifetime, Almina had gone through the equivalent of 50 million pounds, much of it no doubt going to pay for the Earl's expeditions to Egypt (they made yearly trips to the country, and the Earl started his own excavations in 1906), the upkeep on Highclere, taxes etc. One has to wonder if her son's sour grapes came more from the fact that his mother managed her own money, rather than turn it over to him to manage.
Almina's last years were spent in obscurity and poverty. She died at the age of 93 after choking on a piece of chicken, an ignominious end to a once glamorous life.
Unfortunately, it turned out that she had no head for running a business, finding it difficult to present her patients with a bill. Eventually the nursing home, according to Evelyn Waugh, became a place where high-class women could discreetly obtain an illegal abortion. Then at the age of 70, she became involved with a much younger man, who worked as heating engineer. It was the last straw for her son, the 6th Earl, who gave her up to the IRS, calling her a "scheming swindler" (they were never close). In her lifetime, Almina had gone through the equivalent of 50 million pounds, much of it no doubt going to pay for the Earl's expeditions to Egypt (they made yearly trips to the country, and the Earl started his own excavations in 1906), the upkeep on Highclere, taxes etc. One has to wonder if her son's sour grapes came more from the fact that his mother managed her own money, rather than turn it over to him to manage.
Almina's last years were spent in obscurity and poverty. She died at the age of 93 after choking on a piece of chicken, an ignominious end to a once glamorous life.
Highclere Castle today
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