Henry Herbert, 6th Earl of Carnarvon

Styled Lord Porchester from birth, he inherited the Earldom of Carnarvon on the 1923 death of his father – who was famously funding archaeologist Howard Carter when he discovered the tomb of Tutankhamun. The 6th Earl attributed the death of his father to the "Curse of Tutankhamun", claiming that the moment his father died on 5 April in Egypt, the family dog howled and died a sympathetic death at Highclere Castle, the family seat.[2] In his memoirs, he described an unloving upbringing by his parents. After his father died, he became responsible for the upkeep of Highclere Castle while his mother refused him an inheritance. She remarried only eight months after the death of her first husband.

He had a younger sister, Lady Evelyn Beauchamp.

Henry Herbert, 6th Earl of Carnarvon married Anne *Catherine* Tredick Wendell on 17 July 1922 and they divorced in 1936. They had two children:

• Henry George Reginald Molyneux Herbert, 7th Earl of Carnarvon (19 January 1924 - 11 September 2001). He married Jean Margaret Wallop, daughter of Hon. Oliver Malcolm Wallop and Jean Moore, on 7 January 1956. They have three children:
  • George Herbert, 8th Earl of Carnarvon (10 November 1956)
  • The Hon. Henry "Harry" Herbert (2 March 1959)
  • Lady Carolyn Herbert (27 January 1962).
• Lady Anne Penelope Marian Herbert (3 March 1925 - 1990). She married her second cousin Captain Reinier *Gerrit* Anton van der Woude, son of R.A.G van der Worse and his wife Mary Wendell, daughter of Harvard professor Barrett Wendell, on 21 April 1945. They had three children:
  • Michael Gerrit van der Woude (25 March 1946)
  • David Anthony van der Woude (7 November 1947)
  • Penelope *Catherine* Mary van der Woude (19 August 1952).

Following his divorce from Catherine, Lord Carnarvon married Austrian dancer Tilly Losch on 1 September 1939. They divorced in 1947.

His obituary by Hugh Massingberd famously described him as a "most uncompromisingly direct ladies' man".[3]

Late in life he published two books of memoirs:

• No Regrets: Memoirs of the Earl of Carnarvon (1976) Weidenfeld and Nicolson.
• Ermine Tales: More Memoirs of the Earl of Carnarvon (1980) Weidenfeld and Nicolson.

• Carnarvon, Fiona, Countess of (2013) Lady Catherine and the Real Downton Abbey. Lonson: Hodder & Stoughton ISBN 9781444762143
• Cross, William, Lordy! Tutankhamun's Patron As A Young Man , Book Midden Publishing, 2012 (ISBN 978-1-905914-05-0).
• Cross, William, The Life and Secrets of Almina Carnarvon : 5th Countess of Carnarvon of Tutankhamun Fame , 3rd ed. 2011 ( ISBN 978-1-905914-08-1).
• Cross, William, Catherine and Tilly: Porchey Carnarvon's Two Duped Wives: The Tragic Tales of the Sixth Countesses of Carnarvon, Book Midden Publishing, 2013 ( ISBN 978-1905914-25-8).