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| Detail of the first page of the manuscript |
This episode, we attend an army barracks where a card game raises questions of honour in ‘A Regimental Scandal’, published in 1892.
You can read the story here.
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Synopsis
Major Errington is one of the most respected and popular officers in the Third Carabiniers, a veteran of numerous campaigns as both a soldier and a war correspondent. He is quiet, self-effacing and wise; he is also rich, but far from ostentatious. He is in fact more notable than the regiment’s nominal commander, Colonel Lovell, who is not unpopular but granted a degree of favour for his widely admired daughter, Violet. Lovell, or the Chief as he is known, is at heart an old-fashioned plunger who loves horses and gambling, but has also taken to playing the stock market and has had his fingers badly burned in American railway speculation. To recoup some of these losses, he takes to high-stakes games of écarté with Major Errington with little success. And then a rumour takes hold that the Major may be cheating…
Writing and Publication History
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| Illustration from The Indianapolis News, 14 May 1892. |
‘A Regimental Scandal’ was one of many stories written shortly after Conan Doyle quit medicine in 1891. The story was written from 12 Tennison Road, South Norwood. The manuscript survives on address-headed notepaper and was originally entitled ‘the Major’s Card’.
Richard Lancelyn Green believed that the story was written either in July 1891 or February-April 1892. Given the story’s similarities to the Tranby Croft affair – aka the Royal Baccarat Scandal (more later) – which went to trial in June 1891, July is perhaps the more likely option.
The story was purchased by the McClure syndicate and sold to American newspapers. S.S. McClure had asked ACD to write a new long story but he declined and offered instead the short works ‘A Sordid Affair’ and ‘The Major’s Card’. When it first appeared in the US the title had been changed.
The story was not published in the UK until the Gibson & Green Uncollected Stories in 1982. Then, in 1995, it became the first non-Sherlockian manuscript to be printed in facsimile when it was published by the Arthur Conan Doyle Society, with an excellent introduction by Richard Lancelyn Green.
It may well not have been published in the UK in 1891/2 precisely because of its similarities to Tranby Croft. Perhaps the success of ‘A Scandal in Bohemia’, which came out in July 1891, might be partially attributed to being issued days after the scandalous Tranby Croft trial concluded.
The Carabiniers and regimental life
The Third Carabiniers was not a real regiment, although one with that name was created in 1928. ACD places the regiment in many of the battle he was interested in, with action in Egypt and the Sudan.
The story demonstrate an acute observation of Victorian military identity and life. While morality was "loose," the regiment’s discipline was "tight", and a certain rakishness was permitted on conditions of fair play and bravery in all other matters. ACD wrote three regimental stories around this time that demonstrate his interest: ‘The Three Correspondents’ (1896), ‘The Adventure of the Crooked Man’ (1893) and this. Perhaps, having recently moved to London, he was sentimental for the regimental town he had left.
The socio-economic landscape of the 1890s plays a critical role in the story. The crisis of American agricultural imports and wealth redistribution in the 1870s and 80s led to a decline in the fortunes of the landed gentry who made up the officer class. Some turned to investments overseas as a way of protecting their income. Colonel Lovell is cash-strapped and has lost money on American railway bonds, reflecting recent financial scandals including the Baring Crisis of 1890. The British government stepped into to prevent the collapse of Barings Bank which was overexposed through risky investments (‘twas ever thus).
Our cast of characters
Major Errington is the richest man in the regiment, though he doesn’t show it. Hugely experienced and respected, he is the wise member of the group, with a touch of Sherlock Holmes in his deliberations on matters of regimental disagreement.
Colonel Lovell is a ‘born plunger’ – the traditionalist officer who has the British addiction to gambling. His financial ruin is a death blow to his pride - bankruptcy was not merely a financial state; it was a moral failure which could imply an officer was unfit for command.
Violet Lovell, the Chief’s daughter, does not appear but her plight is what drives the action.
Second Lieutenant Peterkin is a junior soldier with a keen eye and the shrewdness of a "fifty-year-old racing tout". Though street-smart, he is not wise...
Themes
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| Henry Wood in 'The Crooked Man' |
In the card games and the regiment’s internal discipline, we read something of ACD’s view of the purifying nature of sport as the teacher of fair play principles. In the course of the story, Peterkin may also learn something of wisdom, another theme that recurs in ACD’s work.
ACD’s view of regimental life is fundamentally optimistic; he believes in the self-correcting nature of the British officer. By contrast, Kipling’s stories, such as those found in Plain Tales from the Hills (1888) and Soldiers Three (1888), often portray a more cynical and complicated reality. That said, ACD does have a darker side in his ‘regimental’ stories, such as the betrayal and intended murder in ‘The Crooked Man’.
Tranby Croft: William Gordon-Cumming
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| William Gordon-Cumming |
William Gordon-Cumming, or Bill Cumming as he was known to the Prince of Wales (the future Edward VII), inherited his father’s title and estate aged 18. He bought a commission into the army in 1868 and served in the Zulu War of 1879, where he discovered the body of the Prince Imperial, Louis Napoleon, who had been killed in an ambush. He served in Egypt, in the Camel Corps in the Sudan and associated with military intelligencers like Kitchener and Tulloch, though was probably not a spy.
An enormously wealthy nobleman (his estate gave him an income equivalent to £10M a year), he was a fixture in high society, with a reputation as a womaniser, gambler and difficult personality. In 1890, the Sporting Times described him as “possibly the handsomest man in London, and certainly the rudest” and he boasted that all the society wives “gave him a go”. One of them was Daisy Brooke, a favourite mistress of the Prince.
The card game
The name ‘Tranby Croft’ has become synonymous with card scandals. In Moonraker (1955), M fears that the Drax business may be “Tranby Croft all over again.” Drax is a village near Anlaby (now home to a power station) and may have given Fleming the name for his villain.
Tranby Croft was the home of Arthur Wilson, a shipping magnate. New money, he “arrived” in high society in March 1889 when was admitted to the Marlborough Club, Edward’s exclusive set which included Bill Cumming.
In September 1890, the Wilsons hosted the Royal party and other guests for the St Ledger race week at Doncaster. Bill Cumming was a last minute addition, perhaps to liven up the party. He certainly did that!
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| The house party at Tranby Croft |
On the first evening, a game of baccarat was played at which Arthur Wilson’s son, Jack, suspected Bill Cumming of cheating. He shared his observations with Levett, a junior in Cumming’s regiment, Lycett Green and his mother. They decided to observe Cumming the second night.
The second night, Cumming was up £100 up, mostly off the Prince. Again foul play was suspected but Cumming was not confronted. News was shared with Williams and Coventry, the Prince’s courtiers.
On the third night, before a game could be played, Williams, Coventry and the Prince confronted Cumming. He denied cheating, insisting the juniors did not know the game or his system, but was induced to sign a statement that he would desist from playing cards on condition of the silence of the undersigned.
Inevitably, the scandal leaked out, probably innocently as the many guests at Tranby Croft must have sensed something wrong, especially after Cumming left unexpectedly on the morning of the fourth day. Daisy Brooke was accused of spreading the word too – her nickname was ‘Babbling Brooke’. Cumming accused the Wilsons and others of slander and took the matter to court.
The trial
Initially, the Royal party sought to have Cumming disgraced by having him thrown out by his regiment and the Guards club, but neither body agreed. The Duke of Connaught also sensibly refused to help his older brother. The Royal “fixer”, Sir George Lewis (referenced in ‘The Adventure of the Illustrious Client’, Episode 69) sought an out of court settlement but failed.
The trial began on 1 June 1891, with the Prince in attendance. Lord Coleridge, who it transpires was an early Sherlock Holmes fan, presided (with his pet ferret under his robes). The prosecution (Cumming) case was led by Sir Edward Clarke; the defence (Wilsons etc) by Sir Charles Russell.
This was an era of great trials. The 1890 divorce trial of Charles Parnell and Kitty O’Shea destroyed Parnell’s career and derailed the Irish Home Rule movement. Shortly after, there was the celebrated 1895 trial of Oscar Wilde for gross indecency. Clarke and Lewis both aided Wilde, such was the interconnected world of elite legal circles.
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| Gordon-Cumming at the trial |
Clarke demonstrated that those who accused Cumming had not themselves witnessed cheating and blew holes in the witness testimony. But Russell stuck to the killer point: if Cumming was innocent, why had he signed a document that could only imply his guilt? Coleridge’s summing up was leading in favour of the defendants. The jury returned after only 13 minutes to declare for the defence.
Cumming’s world collapsed, he resigned from his regiment and lived out his days on his Scottish estate. But the consequences were arguably more dangerous for Edward, whose reputation, already murky, was further trounced. W.T. Stead, the proto-tabloid newspaperman, damned Edward in the popular press, arguing that Edward was not fit to be King. Queen Victoria too felt the Monarchy was in a very perilous position in 1891.
ACD’s view of the Baccarat Scandal
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| Flashy knows the score... |
If you want to know what really went on a Tranby Croft, we recommend Geroge Macdonald Fraser’s Flashman and the Tiger (1999). It is an excellent reporting of the events and Flashy saw it all…
Next time on Doings of Doyle…
We welcome to the podcast Anastasia Klimchinskaya to talk about ACD and science fiction.
Acknowledgements
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Image credits: Thanks to Alexis Barquin at The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopaedia for permission to reproduce these images. Please support the encyclopaedia at www.arthur-conan-doyle.com.
Music credit: Sneaky Snitch Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
YouTube video created by @headlinerapp.
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