George Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon

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Discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb
BornGeorge Edward Stanhope Molyneux Herbert
(1866-06-26)26 June 1866
66 Grosvenor Street, Mayfair, London, England
Died5 April 1923(1923-04-05) (aged 56)
Cairo, Kingdom of Egypt
BuriedBeacon Hill, Burghclere, Hampshire
NationalityBritish
ResidenceHighclere Castle
Spouse(s)
Almina Wombwell
​
(m. 1895)​
Issue
Parents
  • Lady Evelyn Stanhope

    • George Edward Stanhope Molyneux Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon,

    Tutankhamun's tomb in the Valley of the Kings
    .

    Background and education

    Styled Lord Porchester from birth, he was born at 66 Grosvenor Street,

    Anne Elizabeth, Dowager Countess of Chesterfield in 1885, and succeeded his father in the earldom in 1890.[3]

    He was High Steward of Newbury.[4]

    Family

    Lady and Lord Carnarvon at the races in June 1921.

    Lord Carnarvon married

    £61.4 million in 2021),[7] and paid off all Lord Carnarvon's existing debts.[8] The Carnarvons had two children:[1]

    Horse racing

    Exceedingly wealthy due to his marriage settlement,[8] Carnarvon was at first best known as an owner of racehorses, and in 1902 he established Highclere Stud to breed thoroughbred racehorses.[10] He joined the Jockey Club[11] and in 1905 was appointed one of the stewards at the new Newbury Racecourse and acted as a steward at other racecourses.[12] His family has maintained the connection ever since. His grandson, the 7th Earl, was racing manager to Queen Elizabeth II from 1969 until his death in 2001.[13]

    Egyptology

    Further information: Discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun

    Lord Carnarvon was a keen motor-car driver. In 1903 he suffered a serious motoring accident near Bad Schwalbach in Germany, after which he never fully recovered his health.[citation needed] After a lengthy convalescence his doctors advised that he winter out of England and from then on he and Lady Carnarvon often spent their winters in Egypt.[14][11] Here he became an enthusiastic amateur Egyptologist and also bought Egyptian antiquities for their collection in England.[15]

    Lord Carnarvon, his daughter, Lady Evelyn Herbert, and Howard Carter at the top of the steps leading to the newly discovered tomb of Tutankhamun, November 1922.[16]

    In 1907 Lord Carnarvon undertook to sponsor the

    Deir el-Bahri, near Thebes. He employed Howard Carter to undertake the work[11] on the recommendation of Gaston Maspero, director of the Egyptian Antiquities Department.[17] In 1912 Carnarvon published Five Years' Exploration at Thebes, cowritten with Carter, describing their excavations.[18]

    In 1914 Lord Carnarvon received the concession to dig in the

    First World War but resumed in late 1917.[15] By 1922 little of significance had been found and Lord Carnarvon decided this would be the final year he would fund the work.[19] However on 4 November 1922 Carter was able to send a telegram to Lord Carnarvon in England, saying: "At last we have made wonderful discovery in Valley; a magnificent tomb with seals intact; re-covered same for your arrival; congratulations."[15]

    Lord Carnarvon, accompanied by his daughter,

    tomb was cleared and a seal containing Tutankhamun's cartouche found on the outer doorway. This door was removed and the rubble-filled corridor behind cleared, revealing the door of the tomb itself.[21] Carnarvon was also present when on 26 November Carter made a tiny breach in the top left-hand corner of this doorway, enabling him to peer in by the light of a candle. When Carnarvon asked, "Can you see anything?" Carter replied "Yes, wonderful things!" The tomb was then secured, to be entered in the presence of an official of the Egyptian Department of Antiquities the next day.[22] However that night Carter, his assistant Arthur Callender, Carnarvon and Lady Evelyn apparently made an unauthorised visit, becoming the first people in modern times to enter the tomb.[23][24][25] Some sources suggest that the group also entered the inner burial chamber.[26] In this account a small hole was found in the chamber's sealed doorway and Carter, Carnarvon and Lady Evelyn crawled through.[25]

    The next morning, 27 November, saw an inspection of the tomb in the presence of an Egyptian official. Callender rigged up electric lighting, illuminating a vast haul of items, including gilded couches, chests, thrones and shrines. They also saw evidence of two further chambers, including the sealed doorway to the inner burial chamber, guarded by two life-size statues of Tutankhamun.[27][28] In spite of evidence of break-ins in ancient times, the tomb was virtually intact and would ultimately be found to contain more than 5,000 items.

    On 29 November the tomb was officially opened in the presence of a number of invited dignitaries and Egyptian officials.[29]

    Lord Carnarvon travelled to England in December 1922, returning in January 1923 to be present at the official opening of the inner burial chamber on 16 February.[30] Before the opening Carnarvon had sold the exclusive newspaper rights to report the excavation to The Times. Whilst this helped finance the work it created resentment both from other newspapers and from the Egyptian authorities, whose own press was also excluded.[31]

    Towards the end of February a rift with Carter, probably caused by a disagreement on how to manage the supervising Egyptian authorities, temporarily closed excavation. Work recommenced in early March after Carnarvon had apologised.[31] This was to be Lord Carnarvon's last significant involvement in the excavation project since he fell seriously ill shortly afterwards.

    Death

    Lord Carnarvon's tomb on Beacon Hill

    On 19 March 1923 Carnarvon suffered a severe

    blood poisoning progressing to pneumonia.[32] On 14 April Lady Almina Carnarvon moved Lord Carnarvon's remains to England.[33] His tomb appropriately reflects his archaeological interest, being situated within an ancient hill fort on Beacon Hill overlooking his Highclere family seat.[citation needed
    ]

    After Lord Carnarvon's death Carter continued the excavation. However the Egyptian government took ownership of the contents of the tomb and in April 1930 provided a grant of £35,000 to his heirs (equivalent to

    £2.35 million in 2021).[7][34]

    Legends and speculations

    Encouraged by newspaper speculation,

    elementals’ created by Tutankhamun's priests to guard the royal tomb.[36] On 3rd April 1923, just six weeks after Howard Carter had unsealed the burial chamber in the tomb of Tutankhamun, Conan Doyle arrived in New York to begin a four-month lecture tour on Spiritualism.[37] Two days later he was asked by a reporter whether he connected the breaking news of Carnarvon’s death with the curse of the pharaohs. Conan Doyle responded to this question by drawing parallels between the death of Carnarvon and his late friend Bertram Fletcher Robinson,[38] and his comments were reported in an article, which appeared in the Daily Express newspaper on 7th April 1923, as follows: [39][40]

    It is impossible to say with absolute certainty if this is true…If we had proper occult powers we could determine it, but I warned Mr Robinson against concerning himself with the mummy at the British Museum. He persisted, and his death occurred…I told him he was tempting fate by pursuing his enquiries...The immediate cause of death was typhoid fever, but that is the way in which the elementals guarding the mummy might act. They could have guided Mr Robinson into a series of such circumstances as would lead him to contract the disease, and thus cause his death - just as in Lord Carnarvon's case, human illness was the primary cause of death.

    In 1998 it was argued in the

    Arthur Mace) showed symptoms that were at least arguably consistent with poisoning by its spores.[44]

    Some of the stories were clearly fabricated, including that a curse had been found inscribed on the wall of the tomb,[31][45] while a study showed that those involved in the tomb's discovery and clearance did not have a lower than average life expectancy.[46] In 2003 a study[citation needed] of documents and scholarly sources led The Lancet[citation needed] to conclude as unlikely that Carnarvon's death had anything to do with Tutankhamun's tomb, refuting[citation needed] another theory that exposure to toxic spores,[42] such as those of the toxic fungus (mycotoxin) Aspergillus flavus,[14][44] had contributed to his demise. Although he was one of those to enter the tomb on several occasions, none of the other 25 from Europe was affected in the months after their entries. The cause of Carnarvon's death was reported as ‘pneumonia supervening on [facial] erysipelas' (a streptococcal infection of the skin and underlying soft tissue). Pneumonia was thought to be only one of various complications arising from the progressively invasive infection that eventually resulted in multiorgan failure." The Earl had been "prone to frequent and severe lung infections" according to The Lancet and there had been a "general belief ... that one acute attack of bronchitis could have killed him. In such a debilitated state, the Earl's immune system was easily overwhelmed by erysipelas.”[14][citation needed] The above-mentioned Aspergillus flavus speculation was revived in a 2022 documentary by Channel 4 that argued that its spores were a possible cause of Carnarvon's death (and possibly also of the deaths of Gould and Mace).[44]

    In popular culture

    Works

    • Earl of Carnarvon; et al. (1912). Five years' explorations at Thebes: a record of work done 1907–1911. London: Henry Frowde.

    References

    1. ^
      ISBN 0971196621.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
      )
    2. ^ "Herbert, George Edward Stanhope Molyneux, Lord Porchester (HRBT886GE)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
    3. ISBN 978-0-375-83862-0
      .
    4. ^ "Queen Victoria Memorial at Newbury". The Times. No. 36920. London. 8 November 1902. p. 13.
    5. ^ Barnard Burke, 1914, p. 387
    6. ^ Burke's Peerage, 107th Edition p. 835, says Rothschild was 'possibly' Almina's father; her son Henry Herbert described him as his grandfather, see No Regrets: Memoirs of the Earl of Carnarvon, 1976, p. 6.
    7. ^ a b UK Retail Price Index inflation figures are based on data from Clark, Gregory (2017). "The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)". MeasuringWorth. Retrieved 11 June 2022.
    8. ^
      ISBN 978-1905914364
      .
    9. ^ Charles Mosley, editor, Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes (Wilmington, Delaware: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003).
    10. ^ "Architecture". House and Garden. 160 (1–4). Condé Nast Publications, Ltd: 54. 1994..
    11. ^
      ISBN 1905521049
      .
    12. ISBN 0297777637
      .
    13. ^ Charles Mosley, editor, Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes (Wilmington, Delaware: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003), volume 1, p. 698
    14. ^
      S2CID 45173628
      . Retrieved 18 September 2021.
    15. ^
      ISBN 978-1842432402
      .
    16. ^ Harry Burton's photos of Tutankhamun's Tomb, Griffith Institute Archive.
    17. ^ A letter of Maspero dated 14 October 1907 in his archives in the library of the Institut de France says: You have been kind enough to say to me that you could find a man who knows Egyptology to survey my works. Have you thought to anybody? I will leave the question of payment in your hands but I think I would prefer a compatriot (Manuscripts 4009, folios 292–293). On 16 January 1909 Carter writes to Maspero: Just a word to tell you that Lord Carnarvon has accepted my conditions. He will be there (in Egypt) from 12 February to 20 March. I have to thank you again... (Manuscripts 4009, folio 527) – from Elisabeth David.
    18. OCLC 474563606
      .
    19. ^ Carnarvon, Fiona (2011). Highclere Castle. Highclere Enterprises. p. 59.
    20. OCLC 471731240
      .
    21. ^ Winstone 2006, pp. 142–145.
    22. OCLC 471731240
      .
    23. ^ Lord Carnarvon, The Times (11 December 1922), cited in Winstone, p. 154.
    24. Annales du Service des Antiquités de l'Égypte
       (41): 135–147.
    25. ^
      ISBN 978-0815411864
      .
    26. ^ That the group entered the burial chamber is supported by Lucas and Hoving but dismissed by Carnarvon in The Times, 11 December 1922.
    27. ^ "Howard Carter's diary entry for 25–27 November 1922".
    28. OCLC 471731240
      .
    29. ^ Winstone 2006, p. 155.
    30. ^ "Howard Carter's diary entry for 16 February 1923".
    31. ^
      ISBN 978-1842432402
      .
    32. ^ "Carnarvon Is Dead of an Insect's Bite at Pharaoh's Tomb. Blood poisoning and ensuing pneumonia conquer Tutankhamun discoverer in Egypt". The New York Times. 5 April 1923. Retrieved 12 August 2008. The Earl of Carnarvon died peacefully at 2 o'clock this morning. He was conscious almost to the end.
    33. ^ "Howard Carter's diary entry for 14 April 1923".
    34. ^ "Egyptologist Howard Carter dies – The Guardian archive, 1939". The Guardian. 5 March 2018.
    35. ^ Pappas, Stephanie. Curse of King Tut's Tomb Turns 90, Live Science. retrieved on 10 June 2020. " 'As with all celebrity deaths, the story rapidly gathered its own momentum and soon there were reports of sinister goings on,' Tylsdesley said. 'At the very moment of Carnarvon's death all the lights in Cairo had been mysteriously extinguished and at his English home Carnarvon's dog, Susie, let out a great howl and died.' "
    36. ISBN 0001955322
    37. ^ Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. "Our Second American Adventure". www.arthur-conan-doyle.com.
    38. ^ – Fletcher Robinson & the 'Mummy' (Part I) by Paul R Spiring, – Fletcher Robinson & the 'Mummy' (Part II) by Paul R Spiring
    39. ^ Dr Catherine Wynn. "How Sherlock Holmes, ancient Egypt and a mysterious 'curse' inspired Agatha Christie". www.hull.ac.uk.
    40. ISBN 978-0-19-969871-4
      .
    41. ^ "People: Sylvain Gandon". Evolutionary Ecology and Epidemiology (within Centre d’écologie fonctionnelle et évolutive (CEFE) within French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS)). Retrieved 1 June 2023.
    42. ^
      PMC 1229876. [...] Dr Sylvain Gandon, a researcher at the Laboratoire d'Écologie in Paris, has shown that microscopic spores can become extremely potent and are capable of surviving for long periods outside a living host body. "The death of Lord Carnarvon could potentially be explained by infection with a highly virulent and very long-lived pathogen", says Gandon. His findings, which recently appeared in Proceedings of the Royal Society, support Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's conviction that Carnarvon died after breathing in germs in Tutankhamen's burial chamber. Doyle, the creator of the Sherlock Holmes mysteries, suggested that spores were deliberately placed there by priests to punish grave robbers. [...] Archeologist Nicholas Reeves, author of The Complete Tutankhamen, said there were reports of a black fungus inside the tomb. Carnarvon was already in poor physical condition when he reached Egypt and could have suffered a fatal infection as a result. "There are fungi that can survive in a peculiar environment like a tomb and could well have affected someone like him," Reeves says. [...] But how did the spores get into the tomb in the first place? "If the Egyptians were smart and really wanted to make a curse," notes Gandon, "they could have taken a pathogen well known to them and put it in the tomb." (If the current web address becomes out-of-date, Google Scholar versions are here (and here), giving alternative web addresses here, here (showing PMC), and (alternative PDF addresses:) here and here
      )
    43. ISBN 1905521049
    44. ^ a b c d Al-Shamahi, Ella (2022). "Tutankhamun: Secrets of the Tomb". Channel 4. Retrieved 1 June 2023.
    45. ^ Pappas, Stephanie. Curse of King Tut's Tomb Turns 90, Live Science. retrieved on 10 June 2020. "After Carnarvon died, Corelli spread the false rumor that the phrase 'death comes on wings to he who enters the tomb of a pharaoh' was carved on King Tut's tomb."
    46. ISBN 978-1842432402
      .
    47. ^ Winstone 2006, p. viii.
    48. ^ "Carnarvon (Character)". IMDb. Archived from the original on 9 October 2013. Retrieved 8 May 2008.
    49. ^ "Radio Times.com 23 Nov 2016 Did Howard Carter and Evelyn Carnarvon have a romantic relationship?". Retrieved 14 January 2018.

    Further reading

    External links
    Peerage of Great Britain
    Preceded by Earl of Carnarvon
    1890–1923     		Succeeded by

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