Aubrey Herbert: Yeovil MP, ‘Greenmantle’ … and King of Albania?

Aubrey Nigel Henry Molyneux Herbert had a pedigree befitting his splendid name. He was son of the 4^th Earl of Carnarvon, a cabinet minister in late 19^th century Tory governments, and half-brother of the 5^th Earl, of Tutankhamun excavation fame. He was born in 1880 at the family seat, Highclere Castle, on the Berkshire/Hampshire border.

He was one of the last of the British independent ‘gentleman adventurers’, who travelled all over the world, especially in the Balkans and the Middle East. John Buchan said he modelled the hero of his novel, Greenmantle, on him. He became embroiled in the fragmenting Turkish Ottoman Empire in the Balkans, where small nations like Albania were seeking independence. His involvement in Albania was such that he was even informally offered the throne of Albania – twice!

Herbert had a Somerset connection through the family estate of Pixton Park, near Dulverton, which he was given on his marriage in 1910. This was very convenient, as in 1906 he had been invited by the Tories of the South Somerset constituency to be their candidate.

He failed to capture the seat in the two 1910 general elections, though he did cut the Liberal majority. It was third time lucky, when the sitting Liberal MP was given a peerage, and a by-election was held on 21 November 1911. He campaigned against the Government’s National Insurance Bill’s impact locally on outworkers such as glovers, and won with a slim majority of 148.

Appropriately, his maiden speech, on 14 December, was during a foreign affairs debate, and he devoted most of it to Turkey. However, he was not comfortable in Westminster party politics, and still had close social and personal links with prominent Liberals. Irish Home Rule was dominating politics, especially the situation in Ulster, and Herbert opposed his party’s policies which he feared would lead to partition. By early 1914, he was considering leaving Parliament to devote himself to the serious crises in the Balkans, especially in Albania. Then came the Great War, in which Herbert played a full part in Flanders, Gallipoli, and in the Middle East.

In the December 1918 general election Herbert was given the ‘coupon’, the seal of support given by the continuing Lloyd George Conservative/Liberal Coalition to its favoured candidates. In a Coalition landslide, Herbert easily retained his seat – now called Yeovil – with a majority of almost 3,000. His disenchantment with the Conservatives grew and he gradually became, in effect, an independent MP, and with a group of like-minded Members tried to form a new, more centrist party.

Ill-health made his political life almost impossible. He offered to resign his seat, but this was rejected by his local party. In the November 1922 general election he doubled his majority. This was described in a letter to him by his friend TE Lawrence (‘Lawrence of Arabia’) as “your re-election by your usual absurd majority which you would get if you declared yourself a Bolshevik or a Wee Free or a Prohibitionist or a Mormon.” However, he had served less than a year in the new Parliament when he died in September 1923, at the young age of 43.