TRANBY CROFT CASE

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 118, 21 May 1930, Page 11

TRANBY CROFT CASE

FAMOUS LIBEL ACTION

WHEN PRINCE WAS WITNESS

(Received 21st May, 11 a.m.)

LONDON, 20th May.

t The death is announced of Sir: William . Gordon dimming, aged * 81. He was accused of cheating at cards at Tranby\Croft in 1891, when King Edward, then Prince of. Wales, was a member of the houso party. The upshot was tho celebrated baccarat libel case, in which King Edward gave evidence.

Sir William Gordon dimming, the fourth baronot of that name,; was " a central,figure in the Tranby Croft ease of 1891, when England was deeply etirred by the revelations of gambling and high life on tho part of Edward, Prince of "Wales. The Prince's open, indulgence in sport, particularly horse-rac-ing, had attracted much attention, and added much to the growth of his popularity. But in 1891, there was a recrudescence of public impatience with his open devotion to amusement. An imputation of cheating at cards,-laid against Cumming led, to a libel action in which Edward, for the second time, appeared in tho witness box. The host was Mr. Arthur Wilson, a rich shipowner, of Hull, and tho occurrence took place at his residence, Tranby Croft. The evidence showed that the Prince had played baccarat for high stakes. A wave of reckless gambling had enveloped English society, - and • Edward, along with others, had yielded to the "perilous fascination." Cards had always formed part of his life, ' he had earlier impressed Gladstone with his "whist memory." On his tours at Cannes and Homburg he had also indulged in high play, and he was usually lucky. Middleclass opinion in England was'outraged at the revelations of the Tranby Croft case, and thore was a loud outburst of censure. Dr. Benson, Archbishop of Canterbury, expressed his "deep pain and annoyance" at the"most bitter and unjust attacks", which had'been made upon the Prince-not only by the Press but by ".the low church and especially the nonconformists." The scandal opened the Prince's eyes to the perils of the gambling habit, and he is stated to have set himself to discourage it. We are told that. '>fho gradually • abandoned other games of cards for bridge in which, though he played regularly and , successfully, he developed only.a moderate skill."