Spilling the Beans on Evan Morgan's Last affairs, financial and carnal

Evan Frederick Morgan ( 1893-1949), 2nd and last Viscount Tredegar died at Honeywood House, Dorking, Surrey on 27 April 1949. There was no heir to the viscountcy and Evan's elderly uncle Frederic George Morgan ( 1873-1954)  inherited the barony of Tredegar, originally granted in 1859, and with it the Baronetcy of Morgan, granted in 1792. Later, in 1954 Evan's cousin John Morgan ( 1908-1962) became the 6th and last Lord Tredegar. John died without leaving a son.

Evan struggled with increasing ill health in his final years. He was also a much changed figure following some troubled events during and after the Second World War, including a humiliating Court Marital,  a tangled divorce from his second wife, Princess Olga Dolgorouky,  and his exposure as a homosexual deviant, all of which  resulted in Evan being cut off socially by many relatives ( especially his Royal cousins ) and he was even snubbed some of his  friends.

Several of Evan's closest male friends were estranged as they were worried that they might also be brought down  in the aftermath of Evan's shame and disgrace, fully explained in the recent book by William Cross entitled  " Not Behind Lace Curtains : The Hidden World of Evan, Viscount Tredegar".

Homosexuality was illegal in Britain at the time of Evan's last years.  The lawyers focused on covering up the  seams of Evan's scandalous gay past linking him to vice and a variety of  men and boys across several continents.   

Combating terminal cancer, Evan virtually closed down the family seat of Tredegar House, Newport, South Wales, whilst he considered his financial options, marriage being one solution, Irish citizenship another. A return to his calling in the Roman Catholic Church provided a quiet, spiritual sanctuary at stressful times, and  with it the wise counsel of the monks of Buckfast Abbey.  The Abbot of Buckfast promised Evan he could buried at the Abbey after his death.

Evan continued to travel to his favourite holiday sex haunts in Thailand, Italy and the west coast of Ireland, spending his dying days in Britain at his aging mother's residence in Surrey.

Evan had always enjoyed a larger than life public profile, a coveted place in Society and in  the high life, spending his money freely. The truth was now stark.  His own personal finances  were in tatters, leading to him being forced to sell off some of the Morgan family heirlooms.

In the years following Evan's death the Inland Revenue struggled for more than a decade to unravel Evan's fiscal affairs, and as the lawyers and his Executors agitated to track down the details of Evan's assets, and minimise the damage and uproar that some aspects of Evan's sexual adventures could bring, the whole situation was a huge tinderbox waiting to explode.

Not least those who were responsible for tying up Evan's family estate had to provide for the continuance of it's wealth base of the Tredegar Settled Lands and  find a solution to the issues of death duties, surtax and focus on  how from a bankrupt state Evan's promised dependents could be paid off includng an army of small trade creditors in Newport and Dorking.

In this new book, by William Cross draws on previously unpublished sources from several Archives. Cross  spills the beans on Evan's final affairs, carnal and financial,  and explains how  one great Welsh family and Estate was finally brought down after hundreds of years of fabulous wealth fame and glory.