Evan Frederick Morgan, 2nd Viscount Tredegar, , FAGS, FIL (13 July 1893 – 27 April 1949) was a

Welsh poet Welsh poetry refers to poetry of the Welsh people or nation. This includes poetry written in Welsh, poetry written in English by Welsh or Wales based poets, poetry written in Wales in other languages or poetry by Welsh poets around the world. H ...

and author. On 3 March 1934, he succeeded to the title of 6th Baronet Morgan, 4th Baron Tredegar, and 2nd Viscount Tredegar, after the death of his father.

Life

He was the son of

Courtenay Morgan, 1st Viscount Tredegar Courtenay Charles Evan Morgan, 1st Viscount Tredegar, CBE, KStJ, VD (10 April 1867 – 3 May 1934), was a Welsh peer. Morgan was born at Ruperra Castle near Newport, Monmouthshire, and educated at Eton College.Published under Association of Cr ...

, of Tredegar Park, Monmouthshire, Wales, and Lady Katharine Carnegie. The 13th Duke of Bedford described the Tredegar family as "the oddest family I have ever met". The 2nd Viscount was educated at Eton College and Christ Church, Oxford University. While working as private secretary to a government minister, W. C. Bridgeman, in 1917, he became friendly with another Oxford man, the poet

Robert Graves Captain Robert von Ranke Graves (24 July 1895 – 7 December 1985) was a British poet, historical novelist and critic. His father was Alfred Perceval Graves, a celebrated Irish poet and figure in the Gaelic revival; they were both Celtic ...

, who had been a school friend of Evan's cousin, Raymond Rodakowski. They shared an interest in both poetry and the supernatural. A Roman Catholic convert, Morgan was a Chamberlain of the Sword and Cape to Popes Benedict XV and Pius XI. An accomplished occultist, he was hailed by Aleister Crowley as ''Adept of Adepts''. He fought in the First World War, gaining the rank of lieutenant in the service of the Welsh Guards. During the Second World War with

MI8 MI8, or ''Military Intelligence, Section 8'' was a British Military Intelligence group responsible for signals intelligence and was created in 1914. It originally consisted of four sections: MI8(a), which dealt with wireless policy; MI8(b), b ...

, his responsibility was to monitor

carrier pigeons The homing pigeon, also called the mail pigeon or messenger pigeon, is a variety of domestic pigeons (''Columba livia domestica'') derived from the wild rock dove, selective breeding, selectively bred for its ability to find its way home over e ...

. He carelessly let slip on occasion departmental secrets to two girl guides and was court martialled but not sent to jail or worse. Tredegar House 1 (16984431737)

1929 This year marked the end of a period known in American history as the Roaring Twenties after the Wall Street Crash of 1929 ushered in a worldwide Great Depression. In the Americas, an agreement was brokered to end the Cristero War, a Catholic ...

, he unsuccessfully stood as the Conservative candidate for Limehouse. After the death of his father, in May 1934, he took possession of the family seat of Tredegar House, near Newport, where he lived alone with a menagerie of animals and birds. He dedicated one room, his 'magik room', to his study of the occult. Morgan provided inspiration for the characters of Ivor Lombard in Aldous Huxley's 1921 '' Crome Yellow'', and for Eddie Monteith in Ronald Firbank's ''The Flower Beneath the Foot''. He was decorated with the following awards: * Knight of Honour and Devotion, Sovereign and Military Order of Malta * Knight of Justice, Constantinian Order of St. George * Knight of Justice, Order of St. John of Jerusalem (KJStJ) * Commander, Order of the Holy Sepulchre (with star) In 1937 or 1938

Edith Mary Hinchley Edith Mary Hinchley, born Edith Mary Mason (1870 – 16 October 1940) was a British painter, suffragist, and humanist. Biography Hinchley was born in 1870 in the Chelsea area of London where her father was a florist and nurseryman and her mother ...

painted him. This painting is in the National Trust collection.

Marriages

Despite his known homosexuality, he married twice.D.J. Taylor, "Bright Young People", Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007, page 232 * Lois Ina Sturt (1900–1937), an actress and daughter of Humphrey Napier Sturt, 2nd Baron Alington of Crichel and Lady Feodorowna Yorke, on 1 April 1928. She died in 1937. * Princess Olga Sergeivna Dolgorouky (1915–1998), daughter of General Prince Serge Alexandrovitch Dolgorouky and Irina Vassilievna Narishkina, on 13 March 1939; this union was annulled in 1943.

Death

He died suddenly on 27 April 1949 at age 55, without issue, and his viscountcy became extinct, although the title of Baron Tredegar passed to his 76-year-old Uncle Frederick. To avoid death duties Tredegar House passed straight to Frederick's son John, the 6th Baron, who soon afterwards sold it to the Sisters of St Joseph. His mother died in London in 1949, only a few months later.Evan Frederic Morgan profile
peerage.com. Retrieved 20 November 2016.

Works

*''Fragments'' *''Gold and Ochre'' *''At Dawn'' *''The Eel'' *''The City of Canals''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tredegar, Evan Morgan, 2nd Viscount 1893 births 1949 deaths People educated at Eton College Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford 20th-century Welsh poets British Army personnel of World War I British Army personnel of World War II Conservative Party (UK) hereditary peers Converts to Roman Catholicism LGBT peers British gay writers British LGBT poets Welsh LGBT politicians LGBT Roman Catholics Welsh LGBT writers Welsh male poets Papal chamberlains Knights of Malta Viscounts in the Peerage of the United Kingdom Welsh occultists Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature 20th-century male writers 20th-century occultists Welsh Guards officers Royal Corps of Signals officers British Home Guard officers London Regiment officers Royal Engineers officers LGBT military personnel

Life

Marriages

Death

Works

See also

References