Straight on Till Morning (14 page)
Read Straight on Till Morning Online
Authors: Mary S. Lovell
Owing to the seriousness of the situation, a series of special transport arrangements were laid on for the Prince of Wales's party and by travelling day and night the prince arrived home only ten days after leaving Dar es Salaam. He drove straight to Buckingham Palace and went to the king's room. âNow,' commanded his father, âtell me about the elephants.'
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But the king was a desperately sick man and his illness reached a crisis on 11 December, the very day that the Prince of Wales reached London. The king was suffering from pleuropneumonia and a severe case of toxaemia caused by an untreated abscess seated behind the diaphragm. By 12 December he was unconscious and his physician, Lord Dawson of Penn, decided that it was a âdo or die' situation. In a daring piece of surgery he located the abscess and drained it. By the end of the month the papers and medical journals were reporting that âconvalescence is now in sight'.
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The Times
of 27 February 1929 carried the announcement, âMarkham: On February 25th, at 9 Gerald Road, Eaton Square, to Beryl, wife of Mansfield Markham, a son.'
Beryl's son was called Gervase. According to the birth certificate, the birth was not registered for sixteen months, which delay actually rendered the mother liable to prosecution. None the less, an adequate explanation for the delay was given to the registrar general. who personally approved the certificate.
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The precise date of the child's birth is of obvious importance, for it completely invalidates the theory that Prince Henry could have been the father of the boy. This theory, which has been given much credence in Kenya and was never denied by Beryl, was even believed by members of the Markham family. However, it was almost a year before Gervase's birth that Beryl had embarked on her voyage to Kenya with her husband. On arrival in Kenya her whereabouts are well documented. Prince Henry's movements too are well documented. He was in England and his diary crammed with formal duties at the time when, even allowing for an unusually long or short pregnancy, Gervase was conceived. Beryl had been in Kenya for some time before she conceived her child, and it is therefore impossible that Prince Henry could have been the father. One wonders why Beryl did not deny the speculation during the years which followed â perhaps she enjoyed the notoriety, though this seems out of character. Much more likely is the theory that she didn't care what people thought.
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Tania Blixen, writing to her mother of the child's birth, said, âThey are probably not coming out here again for the time being. The Duke of Gloucester, who was out here, is said to be very attentive and attending on [Beryl] day and night, and I think everyone in Kenya was counting on their fingers like Corfitz in
The Lying-in Room
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to see if the child could be reckoned to have royal blood, but unfortunately it doesn't work out.'
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The name chosen for the baby was an old family name, and in view of his mother's background at least, it was highly appropriate. Gervase Markham, his ancestor and namesake, wrote a book on horses and training as long ago as 1599:
The secrets and arte of trayning and dietting the horse for a course: which we commonly call running Horses.
Touching the day in which your horse must runne for your wager, thus shall you use him; First, the night before, you shall gui him but a verie little supper, so that he may be passing empty in the morning, when you are to haue him out and ayre him an howre or two before day, taking great care that he empty himself thorowly while he is abroade, then bring him in; and after you have well rubd all his four legges, and annoynted them thorowly either with Neates-foot oyle, Treame oyle, Sheepes-foote oyle, or Linceed-oyle, all which may be the most excellent oyles that may be had for a horse, then give him this food: Take a good bigge penny white loafe and cut the same into toastes, and toaste them against the fire, then steep them in Muskadine, and laye them betweene hot cloathes, and dry them, and so give them to your horseâ¦This be so comforting and pleasant that your horse's empties shall little aggreive him. When he hath eaten this, put on his mussell, give him great store of lytter, unloose his sursingle that his cloathes may hang loosely upon him, and so let him stand to take his reste till the howre in which he must be led forth to runne, not suffering any man to come within your stable, for fear of disquieting your horse. When the howre has come for you to lead him out, gyrd on his cloathes handsomely, bridle him up and then take your mouth ful of strong vinegar and spirt it into your horse's nosethrils, whereof it will search and open his pypes, making them apt for the receite of wind. This done, lead him to the race, and when you come at the end therfor where you must uncloathe him, having the vinegar carried after you, doo the like there, and so bequeath him and yourself to God, and good fortune.
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Beryl and Prince Henry took up their friendship surprisingly soon after Gervase's birth, and this is given by those interviewed as the reason that the prince âtried to wriggle out of going to Japan'. That the prince was not keen to go on this Garter Mission is a well-recorded fact.
Plans for his Garter Mission to Japan had by now for some months been the subject of exchanges between the Foreign Office in London and the British Embassy in Tokyo. The decision, however, rested with the King, or such as in his grave illness, could speak for him. On the morning of 8 January 1929 the Prince of Wales summoned into his almost regal presence at St James's Palace Mr F.G. Gwatkin of the Foreign Office. He said that although the King was somewhat better he would be unable to undertake any public engagements before the summer. The Duke of Gloucester, the Prince of Wales therefore explained, could not be spared for the Garter Mission to Japan. Perhaps, the Prince suggested, some non-royal eminence could be spared to take his place or perhaps the Japanese could wait until 1930. By that time, the Prince of Wales thought, Prince Henry would be serving with his Regiment in India and therefore might the more easily visit Japan. The British Ambassador, Sir John Tilley, was to be consulted. And so, in these senses the matter was ventilated in the Foreign Office with Sir John Tilley in Tokyo until on 21 January Lord Stamfordham put the issue beyond doubt. He then told the Foreign Office that the matter was not for the Prince of Wales but for the Queen âwho alone', he boldly asserted, âI regard as the mouthpiece of the King. Her Majesty', he continued, âtold me that the previous evening she had explained to the Prince of Wales that what had been arranged by the King could not be changed and that His Royal Highness understood that it must now be settled that the Duke of Gloucester goes as previously, arranged with the Garter Mission'.
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So, despite the Prince of Wales's assistance it was decided that the Garter Mission would depart at the end of March, and in the meantime Prince Henry officially, according to his biographer, âkept up his spirits by galloping up and down steep hills at Melton Mowbray and then, when hard frosts made hunting impossible, by coming up to Buckingham Palace and skating on the lake'. Many years later when Prince Henry was told of the attack on Pearl Harbor, he retorted, âTo think they made me travel ten thousand miles to give the Garter to that damned Mikado!'
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In fact Prince Henry spent much of his time with Beryl. She was a frequent visitor to his apartments at Buckingham Palace where, James Fox says, âShe ran about the palatial corridors, barefoot, like a Nandi warrior.'
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Beryl confirmed her visits to the palace and told a close friend of an incident when the prince's mother, Queen Mary, paid an unexpected call on her son. Beryl hid in a cupboard until the visit was over.
Until his father's illness Prince Edward had had no state role or responsibilities. Now, for the first time, he was given the feel of the reins of power, serving on the council which temporarily absorbed the power of the monarch. For many years Prince Edward had hunted and steeplechased in defiance of his parents' fears and wishes. But following a visit to the coal fields in the bitterest winter Europe has known this century, he decided to sell his string of horses. On the evening before the sale in late February the stablehands were astonished to receive a visit from the prince, exquisite in evening clothes. Sadly and all alone, he visited each horse in turn, with a pat and a whispered goodbye. In his autobiography the prince recalled this event as a reluctant abandonment of the only pursuit which gave an outlet to his competitive spirit.
Between the birth of Gervase and Prince Henry's departure for Japan, Beryl and Henry had only a few short weeks to enjoy each other's company. On the eve of his departure Beryl gave him a small silver cigarette case. Inside, engraved in her own handwriting, was the message â28th March 1929. From Beryl. A sad day after many happy times.'
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When Gervase was only months old, Beryl and Mansfield separated and Beryl left the baby with her mother-in-law, Lady Markham. This incident followed a tremendous row between Beryl and Mansfield, which reportedly erupted after Mansfield found some love letters from Prince Henry addressed to Beryl in her writing table. Beryl was more annoyed that her privacy had been breached than that her royal liaison was discovered. Indeed, if Mansfield had not known about the affair until that time, he must have been the last person in London and Kenya to find out. Gervase was subsequently raised by his grandmother; he saw very little of his mother during his entire childhood.
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A close friend said, âIt wasn't an entirely selfish action. She knew she would make a hopeless mother and thought the baby would be better off with the wealthy Markham family, who could give him far more than she could provide.'
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My own belief is that because of her own peculiar childhood, when she was abandoned by her mother and â because of his work â received insufficient attention from her father, she had no understanding of normal family life and any maternal feelings she might have developed were submerged in her love for animals. One must not, either, overlook the fact that a baby would have been a distinct hindrance to the continuance of her liaison with Prince Henry.
When Prince Henry returned to England in July after his mission to Japan, he had several months free with no employment. He was appointed a personal ADC to the king, but since he had no regimental duties he was placed on half pay of eleven shillings and one penny per day.
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With Beryl now free of all strings and the prince himself at a loose end, the couple were able to be together a great deal and were anything but discreet. According to journalist James Fox, when the prince took her to the races Beryl tied ribbons in HRH's racing colours to her dog's collar, and the prince hired a pony cart drawn by a Shetland pony and sent cartloads of white flowers to the Royal Aero Club in Piccadilly where Beryl had been staying since she left Mansfield.
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Beryl introduced Prince Henry to her circle of friends at the London Aeroplane Club
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and he decided he would like to learn to fly. This caused ripples of concern in royal circles because neither Prince Henry nor his brother Prince George (who also wanted to learn to fly) held commissions in the RAF and it was felt that there might be some criticism if they were to learn in RAF machines. Eventually however a private aeroplane was purchased in which both princes were taught. Prince Henry subsequently soloed in 1930.
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Meanwhile Beryl's royal romance had begun to cause Mansfield such embarrassment and annoyance that he could no longer tolerate it. Towards the end of 1929, acting on the advice of his elder brother, Sir Charles, he approached his solicitors in London armed with the packet of love letters, and advised them that he intended to divorce Beryl, citing Prince Henry as correspondent. Although the Markham family believe that a petition was actually lodged, there is no evidence that this is so, and Cockie Hoogterp, whose brother Ulick was Keeper of the Privy Purse at the time,
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says that her brother told her that it merely reached the stage of a threat. Beryl, questioned in 1986, remained as discreet as ever, and claimed it was all so long ago she could not remember. The solicitor who, according to the present Sir Charles Markham, handled the matter for Mansfield, died on the very day that I contacted him.
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What is known is that Sir Charles Markham (Mansfield's elder brother and the titular head of the Markham family) was hastily summoned to the palace to be interviewed by Queen Mary, who told him very severely that it would not do. âOne simply could not cite a Prince of the Blood in a divorce petition.'
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However, Mansfield was understandably reluctant to maintain his wife when she was seen everywhere with the duke, and the pair provoked almost constant gossip in society. His response therefore was that unless some satisfactory settlement could be reached, and quickly, he was going ahead with the divorce proceedings with the implication that the prince would be charged with enticement and Mansfield would sue for appropriate damages.
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The law in England at that period did not cater for amicable divorces. Apart from desertion, adultery was the only acceptable way out of an uncongenial union. Under the rules of play, the gentleman concerned usually provided the evidence in a situation where a woman (usually met only once for this specific purpose, which was known as collusion) would be seen by hotel staff who were prepared to swear that the two had spent the night together. The problem with this arrangement was that unless the wife was proven to be âthe guilty party' the husband had, necessarily, to continue to support her, and this Mansfield was clearly not prepared to do.
