EARL AND THE PHARAOH

The fifth earl of Carnarvon grew up at Highclere, known to the world as the location for Downton Abbey, and in 1923 with Howard Carter he was responsible for opening up the tomb of Tutankhamun. Carnarvon died soon afterwards of an infection, and speculation about the "Mummy's curse" was fuelled by the interest of the occultist Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who pronounced that "an evil elemental may have caused Lord Carnarvon's death." Theories implicating toxic spores are regarded as doubtful. In his early years Carnarvon was known as Lord Porchester, or "Porchey" (like his grandson the late Queen's racing manager), and in spite of being sent to Eton, having a private tutor and scraping a place to Trinity College Cambridge, Porchey's heart was always on the racecourse, together with gambling, hunting, shooting, fast driving and a decadent high life with his friend Prince Victor Duleep Singh. Marriage to the fabulously wealthy Rothschild heiress Almina Wombwell took care of his debts and started him on a more settled life, which included ownership of racing stables and a motor car syndicate. Driving in Germany, and now styled Lord Carnarvon, he crashed his car to avoid hitting some farm carts and was left with permanent head and back trauma. At this point, while engaging with the new thrill of airborne flight in collaboration with de Havilland, he turned his attention to Egyptology, inviting notable archaeologists to stay at Highclere. In 1907 he engaged Howard Carter as his aide-de camp, and although the war set him back, Carnarvon relentlessly pursued his goal, leading eventually to the spectacular discovery of Tutankhamun in 1923 in the much-excavated Valley of the Kings. 381pp, photos in black and white and colour.