Naps, Lord Alington by his friends

 NEW BOOK  IN 2019  

BY WILLIAM CROSS FSA Scot

Naps, Lord Alington, by his friends

A  TALE FROM THE ERA OF THE BRIGHT YOUNG PEOPLE

‘Naps, Lord Alington  by his Friends’  :  The  short but  shocking life  of  Napier  Sturt, the last Lord Alington of Crichel, Dorset.   

In 1919, within a year of  the  tragic death of his elder brother  Hon. Gerard Sturt,  Naps  Sturt  was  plunged  into  taking on the  role of   peer of the realm, landowner and  lord of the  manor at  the family’s  seat,  the   magnificent  Crichel House, in Dorset . The Sturts were a  wealthy family steeped in    Victorian  tradition  with a minor interest in politics,  but who played  the grand host to  British and foreign Royals,  and  maintained a successful  horse stud, running  several classic winners.

In the post Great War era Naps, a handsome,  fawn-like consumptive struggled with  chronic health whilst his  interfering mother Lady Feo pushed him into studying business and banking  in the USA.  Smitten  with a taste for the high life,  alcohol excess and sexual deviation Naps joined an illustrious  circle  of the   bright young things that included  the literary circles of the Cunards, Sitwells,  Noel Coward and Somerset Maugham, the artists’ coteries led by Augustus John at the Cafe Royal and the pansies and wall flowers of  the Effiel Tower sect in London’s  West End   whilst  Naps fell helplessly under the  spell of actresses Tallulah Bankhead and Terry Gerrard.

With a daring disrespect for the Establishment Naps joined  his equally rebellious sister Lois in seeking fun and  challenging authority. He travelled abroad in  the warmer climes of Italy to relieve his lung condition  but whilst taking ‘ the cure’ in a Swiss sanatorium  he still  strayed. Naps  was a generous  patron to music,  to exiles like the Marchesa Casati , ran his own  dining club and art gallery, he never failed to turn up for a Society fancy dress  party whether in London or  Venice  or  travelled  at a whim just to greet a friend  or be seen squeezed  into  the  latest night club opening  in the boom years of 1920s London, Paris and Rome   (  and with Royal Princes joining in the frolics).  He frequented gambling clubs,  enjoyed  jazz and  drugs and  seedy adventures  without  limits.  

But behind this  merriment  a  time bomb ticked.  Marriage and fatherhood failed to settle or calm him  and  even  those whom the gods had chosen had a rude awakening with  personal losses – in Naps’ case of a mother,  wife and a sister - and for him  an  inevitable early grave. In Europe the signs were that   world war was unavoidable, a war that would see Naps as a fatality and with it  his  memory erased. 

More than 70 years after Naps’ death  Society writer and biographer William Cross offers  testimonies he has  traced from varied sources  on  the  incomparable  Naps Alington.  

 PLEASE CONTACT THE AUTHOR WILLIAM CROSS FOR THE LATEST INFORMATION ABOUT THE NEW BOOK    

Will is available on these e-mails

williecross@virginmedia.com

williecross@aol.com