Gwyneth Ericka Morgan's Chaotic Start In Life

 

Gwyneth Ericka Morgan's Chaotic Start In Life

 

Gwyneth's Parents  Lady  Katharine Carnegie and Captain Courtenay Morgan

 when they married in 1890  at Kinnaird Castle, Brechin, Angus


The only clue on record about the exact nature of Gwyneth Morgan's birth is a remark by the literary critic Alan Pryce-Jones (1908-2000) in his autobiography The Bonus of Laughter.   Pryce-Jones, a boyhood friend of Evan Morgan ( Gwyneth's brother), said Gwyneth had  “a chaotic start in life” suggesting initial problems either at birth or during her early years.

It may have been that she was not expected to live, or was born premature. In 1895, childbirth was a risky business; infant mortality was high, irrespective of the family’s social class.  As the Morgan roots were steeped in Welsh history Gwyneth was an appropriate name.  Katherine was a Carnegie from Angus; in 1895 this Scottish County in North Britain was known as Forfarshire. At least one Carnegie - Katherine’s sister Lady Helena  ( Auntie Nellie) - was working to have replacement of the name back to that of Angus.  

Gwyneth’s parents marriage, of five years, from 1890 onwards, was already topsy-turvy. The parties were  a miss-match.  Both were stubborn and highly-strung. The were unsuited as each wanted different things.  Significantly, they had no other children after Gwyneth was born. The Morgans of Tredegar had secured their male heir in the shape of Evan; thus Katharine had fulfilled her primary function. Gwyneth’s hatch was as much of  the humiliation of childbirth  and increasingly of the obligations in her marriage vows that Katharine could stomach.


William Cross, FSA Scot

Culled from the early drafts of  the book on Gwyneth :

 “A Beautiful Nuisance”: The Life and Death of Hon. Gwyneth Erika Morgan:  by Monty Dart and William Cross

Hon. Gwyneth Ericka Morgan (1895-1924).

Only daughter of Courtenay Morgan and Lady Katharine Agnes Blanche Carnegie,  the 3rd Lord and Lady Tredegar of Tredegar House, Newport.

NB : Contact the Author William Cross by email on williecross@aol.com

6 January 2021

 



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Birth of Gwyneth Ericka Morgan: Of Tredegar House, Newport

Image
  The Birth of Gwyneth Ericka Morgan  Of Tredegar House, Newport   Gwyneth’s Birth “ the icy fang and churlish chiding of the winter’s wind” Shakespeare   The story opens on Saturday, 5 January, 1895.   As Lady Katharine Morgan fell in and out of birth-pains at No. 39, Portman Square , Marylebone, London ,  across the English Channel in Paris another ordeal was being played out on the main parade ground of the Ecole Militaire .  French Army officer, Alfred Dreyfus, was being publically stripped of his rank and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil’s Island . Queen Victoria was 75 years old and had already reigned  for 57 years. Her son Bertie, the Prince of Wales, (who later became King Edward VII) was within earshot of Katharine’s cries. He was at No. 15, Portman Square enjoying lunch with his daughter, Louise, the Princess Royal and his son in law, Alexander William George Duff, the Duke of Fife . London of the time still re...
Read more

Welsh Mystery: Heiress Gwyneth Ericka Morgan : ‘A Beautiful Nuisance’

Image
  WELSH MYSTERY 1925 Honourable  Gwyneth Ericka Morgan ‘ A Beautiful Nuisance’ 'POOR GWYNETH' Honourable Gwyneth Ericka Morgan (1895-1924)    Poor Gwyneth!  The Honourable Gwyneth Ericka Morgan, was the only daughter of Courtenay Morgan, the third Lord Tredegar. She was one of the Bright Young People of the post  Great War era who disappeared from a house in Wimbledon in 1924 and whose body was later discovered in the River Thames . Gwyneth was born in London in 1895, the second child of Courtenay Morgan and Katharine Carnegie, later Lord and Lady Tredegar, of Tredegar Park, Monmouthshire. The family history on both her father and mothers sides is filled with a variety of the rich, the famous and the notorious. The Morgans had their roots in South Wales . The Carnegies in the Highlands of Scotland . Gwyneth spent a great deal of her life in London, or abroad, and in the Surrey home maintained by her mother, near Dorking. She also spent time with her m...
Read more