Countess carnarvon biography of michaels

Well, it’s not every day that a member of the aristocracy gets in touch. Sadly not by King’s Messenger, herald or even a royal carrier pigeon, just by good old email.

And not just any aristocrat either but none other than Lady Fiona Carnarvon or the Countess of Carnarvon to assign her with the correct title. Yes, the Lady Carnarvon,  wife of George Herbert, the 8th Earl of Carnarvon and the one whose ancestral seat and current home is  Highclere Castle, the real life setting for the TV series Downton Abbey.

I actually wrote to Lord and Lady Carnarvon in November 2014 when I was first thinking of trying to get Ethel North’s letters, that I inherited from my grandmother, published as a non-fiction book. I only wrote as a matter of courtesy, really. In places, Ethel is rather disparaging about certain members of the Carnarvon family, especially Almina, the 5th Earl’s wife and the current Earl’s great-great grandmother and I wanted to make sure that the family were OK with me doing this.

I’m quite sure that Ethel only picked up these views from her mistress Lady Burghclere (the 5th Earl’s sister and the current Earl’s great-great aunt) but I still felt it was only polite to let them know. As it happened, I didn’t receive a reply but decided at the time that no news must be good news.

Lady Carnarvon actually contacted me to ask permission to use the image of Lady Burghclere that is on this website and which I was fortunate to obtain from Ethel North’s nephew, Michael Foster. Images of Lady Burghclere seem to be quite scarce as unlike her more flamboyant brother, she doesn’t seem to have courted publicity.

In one of her emails to me, Lady Carnarvon mentioned that she loved reading old letters and found them fascinating. She is an historian and has had three books published herself on key members of the Carnarvon family, including one about Almina. (http://www.ladycarnarvon.

“There is a bit of an Indiana Jones style to that portrait of my great-grandfather, and it rather sums up his character.” George Herbert, 8th Earl of Carnarvon looks up at the image of his namesake forebear admiringly. A dashing 5th Earl of Carnarvon looks playfully down the barrel of a cigarette, rogueish grin etched upon his face. No wonder he’s smiling: George Edward Stanhope Molyneux Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon is an archaeological legend – the man who alongside Howard Carter unlocked the 3,200-year-old secrets of Tutankhamun, Egypt’s boy-king.

Adventure, it seemed, was in Carnarvon’s blood. Born into immense wealth, the young aristrocrat could have carved an easy life moving between mansions, estates and the family seat at Highclere Castle. “”He loved Highclere and he loved the very comfortable, Edwardian life here,” says his great-grandson. “But he also loved travel and adventure.”

“There is a bit of an Indiana Jones style to my great-grandfather, and it rather sums up his character.”

But it wasn’t just the ancient world which fascinated Carnarvon. Well versed in aviation, he helped Geoffrey de Havilland get one of his first designs off the ground in 1909. But cars were his greatest love. A lifelong petrolhead, he pioneered racers at the turn of the 20th century, travelling the continent in search of speed. It would nearly prove his end when, in Germany, he swerved, hit a pile of rocks and smashed into the scenery. Carnarvon escaped, albeit with a seriously damaged leg: doctors urged him to eschew the cold wet winters of Britain for warmer climes.

Egypt beckoned, but Carnarvon wasn’t happy with the high life of his peers: “A lot of people went out to Egypt as part of a social life in Cairo,” says the 8th Earl, “but that wasn’t his interest at all: he’d have been bo

American heiress (1900–1977)

Anne Catherine Tredick Mommand (néeWendell, previously known as the Countess of Carnarvon and Mrs Geoffrey Grenfell; November 25, 1900 – 1977) was an American heiress who married into the British aristocracy.

Early life

Catherine was born on November 25, 1900. She was the eldest daughter of Marian (née Fendall) Wendell (d. 1949) and Jacob Wendell III (d. 1911), of New York and Sandridgebury, Sandridge, Hertfordshire. Her younger sister, Philippa Fendall Wendell, was the wife of Randolph Stewart, 12th Earl of Galloway. Her brothers were Jacob Wendell (who married Eileen V. Carr) and Reginald L. Wendell.

Her father, a Harvard graduate and Broadway actor, died of pneumonia shortly before he was to appear in the leading role in What the Doctor Ordered at the Astor Theatre. Her maternal grandfather was Union soldier, Philip Richard Fendall III, and her great-grandparents were Elizabeth Mary (née Young) Fendall and Philip Richard Fendall II, the District Attorney of the District of Columbia. Her paternal grandfather was Jacob Wendell of Jacob Wendell Co.

Personal life

On 17 July 1922, Catherine was married to Lord Porchester at St Margaret's, Westminster. He was the son and heir of George Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon and Almina Herbert, Countess of Carnarvon and upon his father's death on 5 April 1923, Henry became the 6th Earl of Carnarvon and Catherine became Countess of Carnarvon. Before their divorce in 1936, they were the parents of two children:

After their divorce, Lady Carnarvon married, as his second wife, Lt.-Cdr. Geoffrey Seymour Grenfell (1898–1940) in 1938. Geoffrey was a son of Riversdale Francis John Grenfell (son of Charles Seymour Grenfell) and Cecil Blanche (née Lubbock) Grenfell. Grenfell died

American-born British aristocrat

Jean Margaret "Jeanie" Herbert, Countess of Carnarvon, MBE, (néeWallop; 29 April 1935 – 11 April 2019) was an American-born British aristocrat and chatelaine of Highclere Castle.

Early life and family

Jean Margaret Wallop was born on 29 April 1935 in Big Horn, Wyoming, to The Hon. Oliver Malcolm Wallop (1905–1980) and his wife Jean McGinley Moore (1908–1943). Her paternal grandfather Oliver Wallop, 8th Earl of Portsmouth, had emigrated to Wyoming and served in the Wyoming State Legislature before inheriting the British earldom of Portsmouth. Her maternal great-grandfather was American attorney and financier William Henry Moore.

Wallop had two older brothers, including Malcolm Wallop, United States Senator for Wyoming, and one younger sister. Her mother died when she was seven. She was educated at Garrison Forest School before briefly studying nursing at the University of Colorado.

Marriage and issue

In 1954, while visiting family in England, Jean met Henry Herbert, Lord Porchester. They married on 7 January 1956 at St. James' Episcopal Church in Manhattan. They had three children:

Jean and her husband, Lord Porchester, who succeeded to the earldom of Carnarvon in 1987, lived at Milford Lake House on the Highclere Castle estate. Lord Porchester (known as "Porchy") was one of Queen Elizabeth II's closest friends and served as her racing manager from 1969 until his death in 2001. The Queen stood as godmother to their eldest son. In 1984, the Queen and Prince Philip made a private visit to her brother's ranch in Wyoming.

In May 1979, she founded the Newbury Spring Festival, a classical music festival in Newbury. She served as the festival's president from its inception until her death. The Earl and Countess of Carnarvon opened Highclere Castle to the public in 1988, displaying treasures