(Transcript of presentation by Professor Pride/ Powered by Rainbow, link below)
William Lygon Beauchamp was born in 1872 and succeeded his father
in 1891 to become
the Mayor of Worcester,
at the age of 23.
In 1902 he got married to
Lettice Grosvenor, who was
the sister of the second
Duke of Westminster.
Basically, his family had power and he married someone who also had power, making him even more powerful
of a man.
He would climb the ranks in England to eventually be appointed the
Lord Warden of Cinque Ports.
For this new role, his new residence became the Walmer Castle, which was built in 1540.To guard the English coast from foreign invasions, he had seven children with his wife there, and he would often times visit foreign dignitaries on behalf of the king.
But while William's life looks like any other Lord’s at the time period, his life was far from average.
During the 1920s he would hold
massive parties at his castle, where he would invite high class friends, along with fishermen and other men whom he and his friends could enjoy the company of.
In the 1930s, he embarked on a journey around the world, spending two months in Sydney, Australia.
There, he was accompanied by a valet, who lived with him and his lover. The Australian Star newspaper even reported on him having a same sex man living with him.
Following the report, his brother-in-law, who was the Duke of Westminster, hired detectives to gather evidence on his activities in Australia. But the Duke had a long standing one sided feud with William because of his appointed position.
So, in 1931, he publicly denounced his brother-in-law, William, and reported him to King George V as a homosexual. Both of them insisted William be arrested, and since William was still in Australia, he was able to escape into exile.
William first fled to Germany, and would later split his time between Paris, Venice, and San Francisco, all of which were accepting of him being gay.
During this time, his then wife filed for divorce and forced their seven children to testify against their father, but they all refused and stood behind their father for being gay.
In 1936, King George the sixth came into power and finally lifted the warrant for
William's arrest.
The following year, in July,
he moved back to his family home, where he and his seven children painted over his ex wife's image in their personal Chapel and
threw her bust into the Moat.
He later died of cancer in 1938, but his life inspired the novel
Brideshead Revisited
in 1945
Comments