"The Murder of Lord Errol"

The Murder of Lord Errol

Below is a complimentary preview of "The Murder of Lord Errol," one of the fascinating chapters from the book.

The aristocracy was widely seen as preoccupied with duels, London, adultery, foreign fashions, fox hunts, and gambling. Kirstin Olsen, Daily Life in Eighteenth Century England Happy Valley, in Northeast Kenya is renowned for its scenic beauty, fertile valleys, and breathtaking views.

But a century ago, the area had a much different reputation. Happy Valley was the center of British upper-class depravity. England was seeking to populate its expanded empire in Kenya. It reserved five million acres of the Kenyan highlands for Europeans and offered huge tracts of excellent land free. Some of this land became a favored destination for the black sheep of British society.

Feckless aristocrats who had embarrassed their families with financial, moral or other scandals, found the Happy Valley a congenial place to go. A luxurious life could be lived with none of the probity required in England, and for a fraction of the cost. It became known as the lifestyle of the rich and shameless.

Lord Errol, 5th in line to the Scottish crown, was one of the most notorious denizens

of Happy Valley. His murder in 1941 inspired headlines worldwide. In Kenya, people

speculated more about who did it, rather than why it was done.

The movie, "White Mischief," based on the book of the same name, by James Fox,

attempted to answer both questions. White Mischief, shot on location in Kenya is

visually stunning and recreates the atmosphere of the time. Playing the philandering

Lord Errol is a young, buff, Charles Dance, later known as Tywin, the sinister head of

the Lannister family in Game of Thrones. Other notables in the cast are Hugh Grant,

Geraldine Chaplin, Sarah Miles, and Trevor Howard, in his final role.

The movie begins in 1940, when the English are at their lowest ebb. The Nazis rule

Europe and are bombing London. In the first scene, we learn that Sir Jock Delves

Broughton, the Baronet of a family of wealthy English nobles, played by Joss

Ackland, is in financial difficulty, and is afraid that the Germans will win the war.

Broughton decides to sell part of his estates and move to Kenya with Diana, his

beautiful young fiancé, played by Greta Sachi. She has married Broughton for his

wealth, and he has married her for her beauty.

Soon after their wedding, Lord Broughton and his new wife Diana arrive in Kenya. Besotted with his young bride, Broughton quickly shows himself to be both pompous, and incompetent. He has turned a huge inheritance into a small estate, by betting on horses that lose, farming crops that fail, and breeding cattle that die. By contrast, Gilbert Colvile, played by John Hurt, is one of the few Europeans toprosper. Gilbert greatly admires the Maasai tribe, speaks their language and has become the largest landowner in Kenya. He has little to do with the Happy Valley crowd.

The tone of Happy Valley is quickly established when we see Irena, one of the

wives, standing naked in the living room, saying “This is dreadfully unsettling.

Doesn’t anyone want to fuck me?” “Gaming, wife swapping, crossdressing, drinking,

and taking narcotics appear to be their main activities. When Diana arrives, she quickly

becomes the center of attention. All the women are jealous, and all the men are

transfixed. Then, at a cocktail party she exchanges glances with Lord Errol.

Handsome and charismatic, Errol has already exhausted the supply of Happy Valley wives. He sees Diana as his next conquest. Broughton introduces Errol to her as a friend and a man of consequence. Errol dances with Diana and immediately makes a pass at her. “I’m a married woman,” she primly replies. We all know where this is going.

Shortly afterwards Lady Jane Carberry invites Diana to her estate for the weekend.

Lord Errol is also in attendance. In less than the time it takes to coddle an egg

Diana and Lord Errol are half naked, passionately kissing in the lake. Lady Carberry

gives Diana a bit of Happy Valley philosophy, telling her “I’d rather have a weekend

of ecstasy than a life of drudgery”

When Diana and Errol return to Nairobi, they continue their relationship in public.

Broughton, feeling humiliated, entreats Errol to end the relationship which Errol

refuses to do. Broughton’s position is complicated because he and Diana had a

pact that allowed whoever fell in love with someone else would be able to leave the

marriage. Lord Errol wants to marry Diana, but she is reluctant because the couple

wouldn’t have the funds to maintain their lavish lifestyle.

One night, when Diana does not show up for dinner, Broughton drives to the club

and finds her dancing with Errol. Diana refuses to come home and tells Broughton

she will be spending the night with Errol. Mortified, Broughton goes home alone.

The next morning Broughton has a change of heart. “I don’t want to be a bad

loser,,,It is much too boring”, he tells Diana,,” Broughton invites Diana, Errol, and

Lady Carberry to a dinner and toasts to the couple’s happiness. Errol agrees to

bring Diana home by 3:00AM. After dropping off Diana at Broughton’s estate, Errol

is driving back when he sees a flashing light on the side of the road. Errol stops and

rolls down his window to see what is happening. A hand with a gun appears and

shoots Errol in the head, killing him.

The next morning, as the news of the murder spreads, Diana is inconsolable.

Although Broughton is the most logical suspect, there are many others. Alice de Janze,

a rich but unstable American was in love with Errol, and she had shot a previous

husband. Creditors, other jealous husbands, even Diana are suspected.

Police find that the bullet which killed Errol came from the same gun that Sir

Broughton reported stolen shortly before the murder. He is jailed and put on trial.

The trial is a sensation with crowds swarming the courthouse. All eyes are on Diana,

who wears a different outfit each day, and Broughton. Broughton expensive lawyer

proves his worth by creating doubt about the prosecution’s evidence.

During a recess in the trial Diana is surrounded by the press shouting questions at her. Gilbert Colvile with two spear holding Maasai warriors in the back of his car, rescues her.

Broughton testifies effectively in his own defense. Though Broughton is acquitted, he

is not welcome in social circles anymore. Diana continues to wonder who killed Lord

Errol. Colvile takes an interest in Diana and invites her to his farm. He vows to take

care of her. While at his farm she discovers evidence that proves that Broughton

murdered Lord Errol.

Diana goes home immediately and confronts Broughton who becomes agitated and picks up a shotgun. As she tries to flee the house Broughton aims the shotgun at her. He then points the gun at himself and pulls the trigger. In shock, Diana gets on her horse and rides away. She comes upon a cemetery where the Happy Valley crowd is having a cocktail party on Alice’s grave. Gilbert Colvile appears. As the movie ends, super titles read “Gilbert Colville married Diana Broughton the next year.”

Who killed Lord Errol

Although Diana strongly suspected Broughton of killing Errol, she never knew for

sure. It wasn’t until 2012 when Broughton was finally revealed as the killer.

The information was on a tape recording which a witness made shortly before his

death and decades after the murder.

While Lord Errol was saying goodbye to Diana, Broughton slipped into the back

seat of Errol’s car. As Errol drove down the road, Broughton emerged and shot him

in the head. During the 1941 trial, the defense claimed that Broughton would not

have enough time to walk back to his house from Errol’s car by 3:30AM, when he

was seen by a witness. According to the tape recording, Broughton paid a neighbor,

Dr Athan Philip, to drive him back to his house after the murder.

The Real Story

As badly as the Happy Valley people were portrayed in White Mischief, they were

even worse in real life. Sir Jock Delves Broughton was a coward, a thief, a snob and a

murderer. He was born in 1883 to a disapproving father and a mother who died when he

was two years old. Despite the family wealth, his father kept Jock on a meagre

allowance until his death in 1914. Broughton inherited a huge estate, an unearned

sense of superiority, and an enormous case of self-pity.

Broughton went to Eton and then graduated from Sandhurst Military Academy, a

prominent school attended by the royalty of over twenty-six nations. At the beginning

of World War I, Broughton, then a captain, was due to sail to France with his unit

when he contracted a suspiciously convenient case of sunstroke and avoided

serving. He failed at almost every enterprise he attempted. Although he was part

owner of a racetrack he lost money. He was forced to sell almost all his family’s

34,000-acre estate to pay his gambling debts. He falsely claimed that his wife’s

valuable pearls had been stolen and collected a large settlement from the insurance

company. Broughton also embezzled a significant amount of money from his own

family.

Lord Errol used his pedigree and charm to marry wealthy women. His first wife,

Lady Idina Sackville, was a wealthy noblewoman, who divorced her husband to

marry Errol, causing a scandal., They moved to Kenya in 1924, and lived on Sackville’s money. They were divorced in 1930 when she caught him stealing from her. He married another rich divorcee who followed the happy Valley lifestyle and died in 1939 due to drug and alcohol abuse. Errol also joined Sir Oswald Mosely’s British Fascist Party.

White Mischief is quite accurate until the last fifteen minutes of the movie. Many of

the actions and dialogue that you might think were fictional, really occurred. But from

the moment when Diana learned that her husband had killed her lover, the movie slides

into fiction. Broughton did not threaten Diana’s life with a shotgun and then shoot

himself, though he did kill himself, with a drug overdose six months later in England,

Director Michael Radford defended this change by saying, “There is a difference

between fact and truth... You can be truthful without being factual,”

Despite wealth and glamour, many of the Happy Valley crowd had neither satisfying

nor long lives. A large number died by suicide, or drug abuse. Some died in plane

and auto crashes. One was murdered. In contrast, Diane Caldwell flourished to an

astonishing degree and was celebrated as the “White Queen of Africa. “

Born in 1914, Diana had a style and verve that captivated the early 1930s London

scene. She modeled, managed a jazz club and partied with the aristocracy.

She also mastered desirable skills such as horseback riding, piloting, and hunting. In

1938 Diana married Vernon Motion, a raffish pianist, with whom she shared a love of

flying and opulence. Each of them believed that the other was rich. When they

found out the truth, two weeks later, the marriage ended.

She married Sir Jock Delves Broughton in 1940. After Broughton was acquitted of

the murder of Lord Errol both he and Diana became pariahs in the community. For

Broughton this was to be expected. He was never well liked in the community and

many people believed he had gotten away with murder. Diana, who had played the

part of the loyal wife during the trial was also ostracized, and in some ways treated

worse. Seeing this woman who seemed to have everything, a rich husband, a

glamourous lover, and social position, lose it all, activated the envy and jealousy that

had been marinating for years into a full-fledged case of Schadenfreude, (pleasure

in the misery of others.) “She had it coming to her,” they thought smugly.

She was also blamed for bringing shame to the colony during England’s fight against

Nazism. A month after Broughton’s suicide, Diana married Gilbert Colvile, the richest

landowner in Kenya. On the surface it was a most unlikely pairing. Colville rarely

talked, he didn’t care about the trappings of wealth and had no apparent interest in

women. But Colville had been a close friend of Lord Errol, and he wanted to help. He

admired Diana’s toughness and inner strength and fell in love with her. Colvile

changed his miserly ways and gave Diana a half interest in his ranch.

He encouraged her active social life even though he did not participate in it. Diana

never forgot his kindness to her when she was down and out and was devoted to him.

Shetook an active role in running the ranch and Colville introduced her to Tom

Delamare, his closest friend.

Diana was curious and single minded when she wanted to learn something. She

became nauseous when she took up deep sea fishing, but she stuck with until she

became a champion fisherwoman. After twelve years of happy marriage, she fell in

love with Tom Delamere and divorced Colvile, though she stayed on very good

terms with Gilbert for the rest of his life. Colville left her his entire estate, of over

200,0000 acres and 29,000 cattle.

As Lady Delamere she became a social institution, perfectly coiffed and dressed,

and dripping with jewels. Even the Mau Mau rebellion, a native rebellion, which

targeted white settlers, could not dislodge her. When Kenya became a country in

1963 Diana maintained good relations with Jomo Kenyatta, the longtime President of

Kenya. In 1966 Diana received the Uhuru Cup for her racing stable from Kenyatta.

By the time of her husband Tom Delamare’s death in 1979 she was said to be the

most powerful European woman in Africa. She died in 1987 at the age of 73.

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