Evan Morgan, 2nd Viscount Tredegar - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Evan Frederic Morgan, 2nd Viscount Tredegar (July 13, 1893 – April 1949) was a Welsh poet and author. The only son of Courtenay Morgan, 1st Viscount Tredegar

Courtenay Morgan, 1st Viscount Tredegar

Courtenay Charles Evan Morgan, 1st Viscount Tredegar OBE, VD , was a British peer.Morgan was the eldest son of the Honourable Frederick Courtenay Morgan, of Ruperra Castle, third son of Charles Morgan, 1st Baron Tredegar. His mother was Charlotte Anne, daughter of Charles Alexander Wilkinson, of...

, of Tredegar Park

Tredegar House

Tredegar House in Newport, set in the 90 acre Tredegar Park, is one of the best examples of a 17th century Charles II country house mansion in the United Kingdom.-History of the Building:...

, Monmouthshire

Monmouthshire (historic)

Monmouthshire , also known as the County of Monmouth , is one of thirteen ancient counties of Wales and a former administrative county....

, and Lady Katherine Carnegie, he was a chamberlain

Chamberlain (office)

A chamberlain is an officer in charge of managing a household. In many countries there are ceremonial posts associated with the household of the sovereign....

to Popes Benedict XV

Pope Benedict XV

Pope Benedict XV , born Giacomo Paolo Giovanni Battista della Chiesa, reigned as Pope from 3 September 1914 to 22 January 1922...

and Pius XI

Pope Pius XI

Pope Pius XI , born Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti, was Pope from 6 February 1922, and sovereign of Vatican City from its creation as an independent state on 11 February 1929 until his death on 10 February 1939...

yet, as an accomplished occultist, was hailed by Aleister Crowley

Aleister Crowley

Aleister Crowley , born Edward Alexander Crowley, and also known as both Frater Perdurabo and The Great Beast, was an influential English occultist, astrologer, mystic and ceremonial magician, responsible for founding the religious philosophy of Thelema. He was also successful in various other...

as "Adept of Adepts".

Morgan came from what the Duke of Bedford described as "the oddest family I have ever met"; his mother is rumoured to have built bird nest

Bird nest

A bird nest is the spot in which a bird lays and incubates its eggs and raises its young. Although the term popularly refers to a specific structure made by the bird itself—such as the grassy cup nest of the American Robin or Eurasian Blackbird, or the elaborately woven hanging nest of the...

s big enough to sit in; in 1925 his sister, Gwyneth Erica Morgan, was found dead aged 29 in the River Thames

River Thames

The River Thames flows through southern England. It is the longest river entirely in England and the second longest in the United Kingdom. While it is best known because its lower reaches flow through central London, the river flows alongside several other towns and cities, including Oxford,...

, while his father owned one of the largest yacht

Yacht

A yacht is a recreational boat or ship. The term originated from the Dutch Jacht meaning "hunt". It was originally defined as a light fast sailing vessel used by the Dutch navy to pursue pirates and other transgressors around and into the shallow waters of the Low Countries...

s in the world.

A noted eccentric, he kept at his seat of Tredegar House

Tredegar House

Tredegar House in Newport, set in the 90 acre Tredegar Park, is one of the best examples of a 17th century Charles II country house mansion in the United Kingdom.-History of the Building:...

in Newport

Newport

Newport is a city and unitary authority area in Wales. Standing on the banks of the River Usk, it is located about east of Cardiff and is the largest urban area within the historic county boundaries of Monmouthshire and the preserved county of Gwent...

a menagerie

Menagerie

A menagerie is/was a form of keeping common and exotic animals in captivity that preceded the modern zoological garden. The term was first used in seventeenth century France in reference to the management of household or domestic stock. Later, it came to be used primarily in reference to...

of animals including a boxing kangaroo, honey bear, baboon and macaw. His weekend house parties, which attracted such figures as Aldous Huxley

Aldous Huxley

Aldous Leonard Huxley was an English writer and one of the most prominent members of the famous Huxley family. Best known for his novels including Brave New World and a wide-ranging output of essays, Huxley also edited the magazine Oxford Poetry, and published short stories, poetry, travel...

, H. G. Wells

H. G. Wells

Herbert George Wells was an English author, now best known for his work in the science fiction genre. He was also a prolific writer in many other genres, including contemporary novels, history, politics and social commentary, even writing text books and rules for war games...

, Augustus John

Augustus John

Augustus Edwin John OM, RA, was a Welsh painter, draughtsman, and etcher. For a short time around 1910, he was an important exponent of Post-Impressionism in the United Kingdom....

and Aleister Crowley, gained local notoriety, as did the host's extravagant lifestyle.

Morgan succeeded to the titles of 4th Baron, 2nd Viscount Tredegar in May 1934 on the death of his father.

Despite his known homosexuality and reputation for dissipation, he married twice. His wives were:

Hon. Lois Sturt (1900–1937), an actress and daughter of Napier Sturt, 2nd Baron Alington; they married in 1928.
Princess Olga Sergievna Dolgorouky (1915–1998); they married in 1939 in Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...

and the marriage was annulled in 1943.

See also