Royal baccarat scandal

The Royal baccarat scandal, also known as the Tranby Croft affair, was a British gambling scandal of the late 19th century involving the Prince of Wales—the future King Edward VII. The scandal started during a house party in September 1890, when Sir William Gordon-Cumming, a lieutenant colonel in the Scots Guards, was accused of cheating at baccarat.

Edward had been invited to stay at Tranby Croft in the East Riding of Yorkshire, the home of Arthur Wilson and his family. Among Edward's party were his advisers, Lord Coventry and Lieutenant-General Owen Williams; Gordon-Cumming, a friend of the prince, was also invited. On the first night the guests played baccarat, and Stanley Wilson thought he saw Gordon-Cumming illegally adding to his stake. Stanley informed other members of the Wilson family, and they agreed to watch him on the following evening. Gordon-Cumming was again seen to be acting in a suspicious manner. The family members asked the advice of the royal courtiers who, with the agreement of the prince, confronted Gordon-Cumming and pressured him into signing a document that declared he would never play cards again in exchange for the silence of the guests.

The secret was not kept for long, and Gordon-Cumming demanded a retraction from the Wilson family, whom he considered to blame for divulging the news. They refused, and he filed a writ for slander in February 1891. Despite the efforts of the prince's courtiers to have the matter dealt with by a military court, the case was heard in June 1891. The atmosphere at trial was described as being like a theatre, and Edward was called as a witness, the first time the heir to the throne had been compelled to appear in court since 1411. Gordon-Cumming's senior counsel, the Solicitor General Sir Edward Clarke, did not persuade any of the defendants to change their stories, but he highlighted several inaccuracies and serious discrepancies in their evidence. Despite a strong and well-regarded closing speech by Clarke on Gordon-Cumming's behalf, the judge's summing up was described as biased by some and the jury found against the lieutenant colonel.

Gordon-Cumming was dismissed from the British Army the following day, and was ostracised from society for the rest of his life. A leader in The Times stated that "He has committed a mortal offence. Society can know him no more."^[1] Public opinion was on his side and the prince was at his most unpopular for several years afterwards. The affair has been of subsequent interest to writers; two books have examined the matter, and there have been two fictionalised accounts of the events.