Almina Wombwell, 5th Countess of Carnarvon : A Slave To Duty

                Almina Wombwell, 5th  Countess of  Carnarvon

                                               A Slave To Duty

Almina Wombwell, later Herbert, 5th Countess of Carnarvon

Almina,  Lady Carnarvon,  was a slave to duty.

She demonstrated this most admirably as a nurse in the Great War running two military hospitals for wounded soldiers/officers at Highclere Castle and 48, Bryanston Square, London.

Almina glowed like a beacon of light when  she later turned down an honour from King George V  for this  heroic work,  saying  she considered  she was only doing her duty!

    George Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon of Highclere Castle & Tutankhamun

Almina  saw it  as  duty too (but not for love) when she  saved her husband’s life – and on more than one occasion.

The climax to these rescues   was to  end  the 5^th Earl’s  life, painlessly and  peacefully, when he was brought down in the last stages of terminal cancer,  and lay poleaxed  at a Cairo hotel, in March,  1923.  Almina famously  hired an areo- plane and travelled 3000 miles with her medicine bag crammed full with morphine, declaring :

  “ I am a nurse, my duty is with my husband. I will fly to Egypt….”

 Almina, ruling the roost,  JTS to her right, Tiger the dog, Tony & Annie Leadbetter 

Almina also saw it  as  her duty ( and, perhaps it was  love) when she performed another act, an act of remembrance at Monte Carlo, Monaco, during her  holiday pilgrimages to the French Riviera.

These holidays  lasted  at least  a month at a time, and were  undertaken in the period 1946-1962, staying at rented villas, paid by scrounging donations from her son and daughter.

Almina was usually  accompanied  abroad by  the small entourage from her homes in Somerset  and Bristol,  viz,  her partner  JTS, their dedicated  housekeeper, Annie Leadbetter,  and Annie’s son Tony.    

 

                               Monaco Cemetery, Monte Carlo

On each trip to Monte Carlo  Almina performed a special  ritual, a ritual too sacred to share with anyone else.  

Only Years later, when she was too infirm  to travel did she confide to  her godson, Tony Leadbetter the truth about  her disappearances at Monte Carlo.

Dressed in mourning  black –  so befitting solemn respect- Almina would hire a local taxi and have the taxi driver take her high up onto the hill to the Monaco Cemetery.  

              Another View  of  Monaco Cemetery, Monte Carlo

The taxi driver was instructed to return  to collect her after an hour.

Almina spent that hour in quite contemplation  at the grave of Prince Victor Duleep Singh  (1866-1918)  her old friend,  a friend too of her husband, the 5^th Earl.

But  Victor much more than just a friend!

 

 Prince Victor Duleep Singh ( Devonshire House Ball, 1897) &  Almina

Extract from  a new book to be published in 2022.

 “More on Prince Victor Duleep Singh & the Curse of the Carnarvons: The Final Twists”  by William Cross, FSA Scot. Book Midden Publishing. 

ISBN 98781905914739

ANY QUERIES : PLEASE CONTACT THE AUTHOR WILLIAM CROSS, FSA SCOT  BY EMAIL

williecross@aol.com

ALMINA, COUNTESS OF CARNARVON AS A YOUNG PEERESS 

PLEASE EMAIL WILLIAM CROSS

williecross@aol.com