Berkeley Levett facts for kids
Berkeley John Talbot Levett, CVO (11 November 1863 – 1 November 1941) was a Major in the Scots Guards and later a Gentleman Usher for the Royal family. He was a witness in the Royal Baccarat Scandal of 1890 in which the future King Edward VII was drawn into a gambling dispute which painted him in an unflattering light.
Life and career
The son of Colonel Theophilus John Levett of Wychnor Park, Member of Parliament for Lichfield, and member of an ancient family, Levett enjoyed playing cards and saw himself as a dashing figure in society circles. He was commissioned a lieutenant in the Scots Guards on 16 December 1885, an appointment to one of the most prestigious regiments, which further allowed him to advance his contacts in the establishment.
On 8 September 1890, the Scots Guards officer was in the company of royalty and fellow socialites at Tranby Croft in Yorkshire when the incident which set off the Royal Baccarat Scandal occurred. At the time, Levett was a soldier and bon vivant said to be the best-dressed man in London. One society publication referred to him as the "noted soldier and dandy." The subsequent events led to a slander trial at which Levett was one of the defendants. Although the defendants won the case, public mood was against them.
During the parties feting the German Emperor Wilheim II during his July 1891 London visit, The New York Times noted, "the Pall Mall Gazette this afternoon, in referring to the garden party (for the Emperor), gives great prominence to the fact that Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Wilson, Mr. and Mrs. E. Lycett Greene, and Lieut. Berkeley Levett, all of whom were prominent in the Tranby Croft baccarat scandal, were among the guests at the garden party."
Berkeley Levett served as Aide-de-camp in India to William Mansfield, 1st Viscount Sandhurst who was Governor of Bombay from 1895 to 1900, during which he was promoted to captain on 15 November 1897. Back in England, Levett married on 2 June 1900 Sibell Lucia Bass of the Bass brewery family, daughter of Hamar Alfred Bass, Member of Parliament. In September 1902 he retired from the army. Having sold his share of the family's Staffordshire estates, he and his wife lived in Lancaster Gate, London; Cottington, Sidmouth, Devon; and Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, France, often turning up at society events before World War I.
Berkeley Levett kept up his royal connections while serving as one of the Gentleman Ushers for the Royal Household from 1 April 1919 to 1 December 1931. Later Levett was promoted to the rank of Major. He and his wife had two sons, one of whom was killed in World War I.
See also
- List of Gentlemen Ushers
