Foreign News: Toby or Tom?

Queen Victoria had strong views about almost everything—especially actresses. She once said: “Any gentleman wishing to become an officer in my Household troops will not be eligible if he marries a woman on the stage.” George Charles Wentworth-Fitzwilliam, a 20-year-old militia officer who wanted a commission in The Blues, thus hesitated to wed pretty Actress Eva Raines.

In 1886 George and Eva got married in Scotland without benefit of clergy, “by mutual exchange [of vows] and consent.” Such a marriage was valid under Scots law. Two years later, just to make sure, George and Eva were married again in a quiet ceremony in London. Seven months before, Eva had given birth to a son. By this time George was an officer in The Blues. The regiment heard about the second wedding, and bounced him.

Last week Eva’s firstborn, George James Charles Wentworth-Fitzwilliam, 63, known as Toby, appeared before Justice Pilcher in London’s High Court to claim that his birth was legitimate. Toby asked to be legally recognized as the elder brother of Eva’s second son, Captain William Thomas George Wentworth-Fitzwilliam, 46, known as Tom. Tom is recognized as the present heir to the ancient earldom of Fitzwilliam, its $2,000,000 estate and the largest private mansion (365 rooms) in England. Why had Toby waited so long? Neither he nor Tom had a chance for succession until two years ago when the eighth earl was killed in an air crash. The ninth earl is 67 and childless, and Toby (if legitimate) is his lawful heir. This week, as their lawyers droned on, Toby and Tom came to court almost identically dressed in bowler hats, stiff collars, maroon ties. Each denied any animosity toward the other; it was just a family matter that the law should clarify.