Berkeley Levett

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.

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.

[7] 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.

He and his wife had two sons, one of whom was killed in World War I. Levett was drawn into the scandal after a night in which Sir William Gordon-Cumming, 4th Baronet, a fellow officer from the Scots Guards, was accused of cheating at Baccarat, a card game.

Although Gordon-Cumming maintained that he had not cheated and the others had been mistaken, he had when confronted signed a statement pledging never to play cards again in return for an agreement that no-one present would speak again of what had happened.

For four months afterwards, Sir William split his time between his Scottish estates, his Scots Guards regiment, his wealthy American fiancée and his Paris club, hoping that the others would hold to their pledge.

[13] In circles like Berkeley Levett's, consensus was the King was to blame, but for a different reason: the contentious card game had transpired at the estate of a newly rich shipping millionaire.