34 Facts About Aubrey Herbert

Colonel The Honourable Aubrey Nigel Henry Molyneux Herbert, of Pixton Park in Somerset and of Teversal, in Nottinghamshire, was a British soldier, diplomat, traveller, and intelligence officer associated with Albanian independence.

Aubrey Herbert was born at Highclere Castle in Hampshire, the second son of Henry Herbert, 4th Earl of Carnarvon, a wealthy landowner, British cabinet minister, and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.

Aubrey Herbert's mother was Elizabeth Catherine Howard, a daughter of Henry Howard of Greystoke Castle, near Penrith, Cumberland, a son of Lord Henry Howard-Molyneux-Howard, younger brother of Bernard Howard, 12th Duke of Norfolk.

Aubrey Herbert was a younger half-brother of George Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon, the noted Egyptologist who in 1922, together with Howard Carter, discovered Tutankhamun's tomb; he predeceased him by five months.

From early childhood Aubrey developed eye problems which left him nearly blind, and resulted in a total loss of sight before the age of 40.

Aubrey Herbert obtained a first class degree in modern history from Balliol College, Oxford.

Aubrey Herbert was famous for climbing the roofs of the university buildings, despite his near blindness.

Aubrey Herbert numbered among his friends Adrian Carton de Wiart, Raymond Asquith, John Buchan, and Hilaire Belloc.

Aubrey Herbert was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Nottinghamshire Yeomanry Cavalry on 12 January 1900, and promoted to lieutenant on 11 June 1902.

Aubrey Herbert was a close friend of T E Lawrence; their letters do not feature in the standard Lawrence collections, but are quoted by Margaret Fitzherbert in her biography of her grandfather, The Man Who Was Greenmantle.

Aubrey Herbert was in his own right a considerable Orientalist, and a linguist who spoke French, Italian, German, Turkish, Arabic, Greek, and Albanian as well as English.

Aubrey Herbert became a passionate advocate of Albanian independence, having visited the country in 1907,1911, and 1913.

Aubrey Herbert was very active fighting for their cause and is regarded as having considerable influence on Albania's success at obtaining eventual independence in the resulting Treaty of London.

Aubrey Herbert discussed the offer with Philip Kerr and Maurice Hankey, pursuing the idea of perhaps acting under the banner of the League of Nations; Eric Drummond, Aubrey Herbert's friend, had become its first secretary general, and by lobbying led to Albania's acceptance as a member in the League of Nations in December 1920.

Aubrey Herbert was an independent-minded Conservative Member of Parliament for the Southern division of Somerset from 1911 to 1918, and for Yeovil from 1918 to his death.

Aubrey Herbert did this by purchasing a uniform and boarding a troopship bound for France.

In January 1915, Aubrey Herbert was attached to the Intelligence Department in Cairo under Colonel Gilbert Clayton.

In November 1915, Aubrey Herbert was in Paris and Rome on a secret mission related to Albania.

Impatient with the Foreign Office indecision over Albania, at the start of 1916, Aubrey Herbert went prospecting for new opportunities.

The situation at Kut led Aubrey Herbert to send a telegram to Austen Chamberlain, Secretary of State for India, with the support of General Lake but still in breach of army regulations, condemning incompetence in the handling of the Mesopotamian campaign.

Back in England in July 1916, Aubrey Herbert started asking in the House of Commons for a Royal Commission to inquire into the conduct of the Mesopotamian campaign.

Aubrey Herbert's critics saw in his obstinacy a personal vendetta against Sir Beauchamp Duff, the commander-in-chief in India, and Sir William Meyer, the financial secretary, but his persistence paid off, and a Special Commission Mesopotamia was appointed.

In October 1916, Aubrey Herbert started his post as a liaison officer with the Italian army, whose front line lay in Albania.

Aubrey Herbert apparently was unaware of the clause partitioning Albania signed with Italy in the secret Treaty of London on 26 April 1915.

Aubrey Herbert took his notes to the Inter-Allied Conference in Paris.

In November 1917, Aubrey Herbert was again sent to Italy under orders from General Macdonogh.

An earlier Pan-Albanian Federation of America proposal of raising an Albanian regiment under Aubrey Herbert's command had been renewed.

Aubrey Herbert ended the war as head of the British mission to the Italian army in Albania with the rank of lieutenant colonel.

Aubrey Herbert declared: "if a man can have a second country, Italy is my second country".

Aubrey Herbert bequeathed the Villa to his wife Mary Vesey, and it later became "a veritable literary colony for poets, painters and writers", including their son-in-law Evelyn Waugh, Alfred Duggan, Peter Acton and Brooke Astor.

Aubrey Herbert's mother-in-law gave the family a fine house in London.

Aubrey Herbert received bad medical advice which persuaded him to have all his teeth extracted to help restore his sight.

Aubrey Herbert appears as a British liaison officer with the ANZAC troops serving in the Gallipoli campaign.

Aubrey Herbert was, in part, the model for John Buchan's Sandy Arbuthnot.