Lieutenant-Colonel
Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colo ...
Sir William Alexander Gordon Gordon-Cumming, 4th Baronet (20 July 1848 – 20 May 1930) was a Scottish landowner, soldier, adventurer and socialite. A notorious womaniser, he is best known for being the central figure in the
royal baccarat scandal
The Royal Baccarat Scandal, also known as the Tranby Croft Affair, was a British gambling scandal of the late 19th century involving the Prince of Wales—the future King Edward VII. The scandal started during a house party in September 1890, ...
of 1891. After inheriting a
baronetcy
A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14th ...
he joined the Army and saw service in South Africa, Egypt and the Sudan; he served with distinction and rose to the rank of
lieutenant-colonel
Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colo ...
. Something of an adventurer, he also spent time hunting in the US and India.
A friend of
Edward, Prince of Wales, for over 20 years, in 1891 he attended a house party at
Tranby Croft
Tranby Croft is a large Grade II listed Victorian country house and estate at Anlaby, near Hull in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The house is now the co-educational, independent day school, Tranby School.
The house is built in wh ...
,
Yorkshire
Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other English counties, functions have ...
, where he took part in a game of
baccarat
Baccarat or baccara (; ) is a card game played at casinos. It is a comparing card game played between two hands, the "player" and the "banker". Each baccarat coup (round of play) has three possible outcomes: "player" (player has the higher score ...
at the behest of the prince. During the course of two nights' play he was accused of cheating, which he denied vehemently. After news of the affair leaked out, he sued five members of the host family for
slander
Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...
; the Prince of Wales was called as a witness. The case was a public spectacle, widely reported in the UK and abroad, but the judgement went against Gordon-Cumming and he was ostracised from polite society.
A handsome, arrogant man, Gordon-Cumming was a womaniser, particularly with married women. After the court case he married an American heiress; the couple had five children, but it was an unhappy relationship. He was the grandfather of the writers
Katie Fforde
Katie Fforde, née Catherine Rose Gordon-Cumming (born 27 September 1952), is a British romance novelist. Published since 1995, her romance novels are set in modern-day England.
She is founder of the Katie Fforde Bursary for writers who have y ...
and Jane Gordon-Cumming.
Early life
William Gordon Gordon-Cumming was born on 20 July 1848 at Sanquhar House, near
Forres
Forres (; gd, Farrais) is a town and former royal burgh in the north of Scotland on the Moray coast, approximately northeast of Inverness and west of Elgin. Forres has been a winner of the Scotland in Bloom award on several occasions. There a ...
,
Morayshire
Moray; ( gd, Moireibh ) or Morayshire, called Elginshire until 1919, is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland, bordering Nairnshire to the west, Inverness-shire to the south, and Banffshire to the east. It ...
.
His parents were Alexander Penrose Gordon-Cumming and his wife Anne Pitcairn Campbell (died 1888). The
big-game hunter
Big-game hunting is the hunting of large game animals for meat, commercially valuable by-products (such as horns/ antlers, furs, tusks, bones, body fat/oil, or special organs and contents), trophy/taxidermy, or simply just for recreation ...
Roualeyn George Gordon-Cumming
Roualeyn George Gordon-Cumming (March 15, 1820 – March 24, 1866) was a Scottish traveller and sportsman, known as the " lion hunter". He was the second son of Sir William Gordon Gordon-Cumming, 2nd Baronet and Lady Eliza Maria Gordon-Cumming
...
was his uncle; and the
travel writer
The genre of travel literature encompasses outdoor literature, guide books, nature writing, and travel memoirs.
One early travel memoirist in Western literature was Pausanias, a Greek geographer of the 2nd century CE. In the early modern per ...
Constance Gordon-Cumming
Constance Frederica “Eka” Gordon-Cumming (26 May 1837 – 4 September 1924) was a noted Scottish travel writer and painter. Born in a wealthy family, she travelled around the world and painted described scenes and life as she saw them. She w ...
was his aunt. He was educated at
Eton Eton most commonly refers to Eton College, a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England.
Eton may also refer to:
Places
*Eton, Berkshire, a town in Berkshire, England
* Eton, Georgia, a town in the United States
* Éton, a commune in the Meuse dep ...
and
Wellington
Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by metr ...
colleges.
At the age of eighteen he inherited the
baronetcy
A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14th ...
and became chief of the
Clan Cumming; his line had been traced from the fourth century, through
Charlemagne
Charlemagne ( , ) or Charles the Great ( la, Carolus Magnus; german: Karl der Große; 2 April 747 – 28 January 814), a member of the Carolingian dynasty, was King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, and the first ...
. His inheritance included three Morayshire estates: Altyre near Forres,
Gordonstoun
Gordonstoun School is a co-educational independent school for boarding and day pupils in Moray, Scotland. It is named after the estate owned by Sir Robert Gordon in the 17th century; the school now uses this estate as its campus. It is locate ...
near
Elgin and
Dallas
Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...
. Though the estates totalled , they yielded poor revenues; the annual income from the estates in around 1890 has been described as either £60,000 or £80,000.
Professional career
Although Gordon-Cumming suffered from
asthma
Asthma is a long-term inflammatory disease of the airways of the lungs. It is characterized by variable and recurring symptoms, reversible airflow obstruction, and easily triggered bronchospasms. Symptoms include episodes of wheezing, co ...
and was blind in one eye, he
purchased an ensign's commission in the Scots Fusilier Guards (later the
Scots Guards
The Scots Guards (SG) is one of the five Foot Guards regiments of the British Army. Its origins are as the personal bodyguard of King Charles I of England and Scotland. Its lineage can be traced back to 1642, although it was only placed on the E ...
) in 1868 (dated from 25 December 1867). He was promoted to regimental lieutenant and to the rank of captain in the army by purchase on 17 May 1871, the last year commissions were allowed to be purchased. He volunteered for service in South Africa in the
Anglo-Zulu War
The Anglo-Zulu War was fought in 1879 between the British Empire and the Zulu Kingdom. Following the passing of the British North America Act of 1867 forming a federation in Canada, Lord Carnarvon thought that a similar political effort, cou ...
, where he served gallantly, and was the first man to enter
Cetshwayo's kraal after the
Battle of Ulundi (1879). That year he conveyed the condolences of the army to the
Empress Eugénie
An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife ( empress consort), mother (empr ...
on the death of her son,
Napoléon, Prince Imperial.
Gordon-Cumming was promoted to the regimental rank of captain and the army rank of lieutenant-colonel on 28 July 1880. He went on to serve in Egypt, in the
Anglo-Egyptian War (1882)
The British conquest of Egypt (1882), also known as Anglo-Egyptian War (), occurred in 1882 between Egyptian and Sudanese forces under Ahmed ‘Urabi and the United Kingdom. It ended a nationalist uprising against the Khedive Tewfik Pasha. I ...
and in the Sudan in the
Mahdist War (1884–85), the last of which was with the Guards Camel Regiment in the Desert Column.
He was promoted to regimental major on 23 May 1888.
He also found time for independent adventure, hunting in the
Rocky Mountains
The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in straight-line distance from the northernmost part of western Canada, to New Mexico ...
in the U.S. and in India, where he would stalk tigers on foot; in 1871 he published an account of his travels in India, ''Wild Men & Wild Beasts. Scenes in camp and jungle ''.
Royal baccarat scandal
In September 1890 Gordon-Cumming was invited, along with
Edward, Prince of Wales, to a house party at
Tranby Croft
Tranby Croft is a large Grade II listed Victorian country house and estate at Anlaby, near Hull in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The house is now the co-educational, independent day school, Tranby School.
The house is built in wh ...
in
Yorkshire
Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other English counties, functions have ...
. There he was accused of cheating at
baccarat
Baccarat or baccara (; ) is a card game played at casinos. It is a comparing card game played between two hands, the "player" and the "banker". Each baccarat coup (round of play) has three possible outcomes: "player" (player has the higher score ...
by placing additional counters onto his stake after the hand had finished, but before the stake had been paid—a method of cheating known in casinos as '. Gordon-Cumming insisted they had been mistaken, and explained that he played the ' system of betting, in which if he won a hand with a £5 stake, he would add his winnings to the stake, together with another £5, as the stake for the next hand.
In order to avoid a scandal involving the prince, he gave way to pressure from the attendant royal courtiers to sign a statement undertaking never to play cards again in return for a pledge that no-one present would speak of the incident again.
Despite the pledge of silence, rumours of the incident began to circulate and were brought to Gordon-Cumming's attention. In an attempt to scotch the rumours, he demanded a retraction from five of the house party; with no withdrawal forthcoming, on 6 February 1891, Gordon-Cumming issued writs for slander against the five, claiming £5,000 against each of them.
The trial opened on 1 June 1891 and entry to
the court was by ticket only. The Prince of Wales was present, and sat on a red leather chair on a raised platform between the judge and the witness box;
his appearance was the first time since 1411 that an heir to the throne had appeared involuntarily in court.
The trial closed the following week, after the judge's summing up "had been unacceptably biased", according to Tomes. The jury deliberated for only 13 minutes before finding in favour of the defendants; their decision was greeted by prolonged hissing from some members of the galleries. The day after judgement was passed, the leader in ''The Times'' stated that "He is ... condemned by the verdict of the jury to social extinction. His brilliant record is wiped out and he must, so to speak, begin life again. Such is the inexorable social rule ... He has committed a mortal offence. Society can know him no more."
Gordon-Cumming's senior counsel, the
Solicitor General Sir Edward Clarke, remained convinced in his client and, in his 1918 memoirs, wrote that "I believe the verdict was wrong, and that Sir William Gordon-Cumming was innocent".
Aftermath
As a result of the scandal, Gordon-Cumming was dismissed from the army the day after the trial,
and he resigned his membership of his four London clubs, the
Carlton,
Guards', Marlborough and
Turf
Sod, also known as turf, is the upper layer of soil with the grass growing on it that is often harvested into rolls.
In Australian and British English, sod is more commonly known as ''turf'', and the word "sod" is limited mainly to agricult ...
.
The same day he married his American fiancée, the heiress Florence Garner, who had stood by him throughout the trial despite Gordon-Cumming twice offering to break off their engagement because of the scandal. The service took place at the
Holy Trinity church in Chelsea with only a small congregation.
When the couple returned to Scotland a few days later the locals from near his estate had decorated the station and pulled the carriage through the streets by hand. According to the former
Lord Chancellor
The lord chancellor, formally the lord high chancellor of Great Britain, is the highest-ranking traditional minister among the Great Officers of State in Scotland and England in the United Kingdom, nominally outranking the prime minister. Th ...
,
Michael Havers, the lawyer Edward Grayson and the historian Peter Shankland, "That the prince and society considered him a social outcast mattered not at all to his people". The prince was determined Gordon-Cumming should remain ostracised and he "declined to meet anyone who henceforth acknowledged the Scottish baronet".
Later life
Gordon-Cumming remained outside high society for the remainder of his life. He later told his daughter that "among a host of acquaintances I thought I had perhaps twenty friends. Not one of them ever spoke to me again". Others of his friends only relented after the death of the prince, who was by that stage King
Edward VII
Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910.
The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria and ...
.
Gordon-Cumming and his wife had three sons and two daughters between 1892 and 1904. In 1905 Florence's fortune slumped and the couple were compelled to let or close up the houses on the Scottish estates and to move to Bridge House,
Dawlish,
Devon
Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devo ...
, with a reduced household. Gordon-Cumming managed to disguise his contempt for the
middle class
The middle class refers to a class of people in the middle of a social hierarchy, often defined by occupation, income, education, or social status. The term has historically been associated with modernity, capitalism and political debate. Com ...
society to which he was now limited so that he could continue to indulge himself in golf, croquet, billiards, cricket, bridge and collecting post marks. He also enjoyed his own company, and that of his dogs and pet monkey. He hated Dawlish and considered his wife a "fat little frump", unapologetically engaging in chronic infidelity. Florence lost no opportunity to remind him who funded their life but eventually herself resorted to
alcohol abuse; the couple had effectively separated before she died in 1922.
In 1916 Gordon-Cumming ensured that the
Labour Party politician
Ramsay MacDonald had his membership rescinded from the
Moray Golf Club
Moray Golf Club is situated in Lossiemouth (on the south coast of the Moray Firth), Moray, Scotland. The club has two eighteen-hole courses appropriately called the ''Old Course'' and the ''New Course''. The club has played host to many cha ...
because of the latter's opposition to the First World War.
Gordon-Cumming died on 20 May 1930 at his Altyre home at the age of 81. He was succeeded in his title by his eldest son, Major Alexander Penrose Gordon-Cumming,
MC.
Private life
Gordon-Cumming's biographer, Jason Tomes, thought that his subject possessed "audacity and wit
ndgloried in the sobriquet of the most arrogant man in London", while ''
Sporting Life'' described him as "possibly the most handsome man in London, and certainly the rudest". Gordon-Cumming also owned a house in
Belgravia
Belgravia () is a district in Central London, covering parts of the areas of both the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.
Belgravia was known as the 'Five Fields' during the Tudor Period, and became a dang ...
, London; he was a friend of the Prince of Wales, and would lend the premises to the prince for assignations with the royal mistresses.
Gordon-Cumming was a womaniser, and stated that his aim was to "perforate" members of "the sex". His preference was for uncomplicated relationships with married women, and he admitted that "all the married women try me"; his liaisons included
Lillie Langtry
Emilie Charlotte, Lady de Bathe (née Le Breton, formerly Langtry; 13 October 1853 – 12 February 1929), known as Lillie (or Lily) Langtry and nicknamed "The Jersey Lily", was a British socialite, stage actress and producer.
Born on the isla ...
,
Sarah Bernhardt and
Lady Randolph Churchill
Jennie Spencer-Churchill (; 9 January 1854 – 29 June 1921), known as Lady Randolph Churchill, was an American-born British socialite, the wife of Lord Randolph Churchill, and the mother of British prime minister Sir Winston Churchill.
Early ...
. In 1890, three days before the events at Tranby Croft, the Prince of Wales returned early from travelling in Europe; he visited Harriet Street where he found his mistress,
Daisy, Lady Brooke, "in Gordon-Cumming's arms", which soured the relationship between the two men.
After Gordon-Cumming's death in 1930, his house at Gordonstoun was obtained by
Kurt Hahn
Kurt Matthias Robert Martin Hahn (5 June 1886, Berlin – 14 December 1974, Hermannsberg) was a German educator. He was decisive in founding, among other organizations and initiatives, Stiftung Louisenlund, Schule Schloss Salem, Gordonsto ...
, who turned it into the
eponymous school. It has been attended by
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (born Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, later Philip Mountbatten; 10 June 1921 – 9 April 2021) was the husband of Queen Elizabeth II. As such, he served as the consort of the British monarch from E ...
, and his three sons,
Charles,
Andrew
Andrew is the English form of a given name common in many countries. In the 1990s, it was among the top ten most popular names given to boys in List of countries where English is an official language, English-speaking countries. "Andrew" is freq ...
and
Edward.
Two of Gordon-Cumming's granddaughters,
Katie Fforde
Katie Fforde, née Catherine Rose Gordon-Cumming (born 27 September 1952), is a British romance novelist. Published since 1995, her romance novels are set in modern-day England.
She is founder of the Katie Fforde Bursary for writers who have y ...
and Jane Gordon-Cumming, became writers.
Notes and references
Notes
References
Sources
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Gordon-Cumming, William, Sir, 4th Bt Of Altyre
1848 births
1930 deaths
Baronets in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom
Scots Guards officers
British Army personnel of the Anglo-Zulu War
British Army personnel of the Anglo-Egyptian War
British Army personnel of the Mahdist War
People educated at Eton College
People educated at Wellington College, Berkshire
Scottish landowners