Portrait of George Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon

Birthday profile

George Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon

George Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon, English archaeologist and banker, backer in the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb (died 1923)

Born
June 26, 1866
Died
April 5, 1923
Zodiac sign
Cancer
Birth year
1866

About George Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon

George Edward Stanhope Molyneux Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon (26 June 1866 – 5 April 1923), styled Lord Porchester until 1890, was an English peer and aristocrat best known as the financial backer of the search for and excavation of Tutankhamun's tomb in the Valley of the Kings. == Background and education == Styled Lord Porchester from birth, he was born at 66 Grosvenor Street, Mayfair, London, the only son of Henry Herbert, 4th Earl of Carnarvon, a distinguished Tory statesman, by his first wife Lady Evelyn Stanhope, daughter of Anne and George Stanhope, 6th Earl of Chesterfield. Aubrey Herbert was his half-brother. He was educated at Eton College and Trinity College, Cambridge. He inherited the Bretby Hall estate in Derbyshire from his maternal grandmother, Anne Elizabeth, Dowager Countess of Chesterfield in 1885, and succeeded his father in the earldom in 1890. He was High Steward of Newbury. == Family == Lord Carnarvon married Almina Victoria Maria Alexandra Wombwell, alleged to be the illegitimate daughter of millionaire banker Alfred de Rothschild, of the Rothschild family, at St Margaret's Church, Westminster, on 26 June 1895. Rothschild provided a marriage settlement of £500,000 (equivalent to £56.8 million in 2025), and paid off all Lord Carnarvon's existing debts. The Carnarvons had two children: Henry George Herbert, 6th Earl of Carnarvon (1898–1987), who married Anne Catherine Tredick Wendell (d. 1977) and had one son (the 7th Earl) and one daughter.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Career and life highlights

The world when George Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon was born

George Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon was born in 1866. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1866

  • Best-selling bookCrime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Headlines and milestones

  • Top headlineReconstruction era begins in the South
  • Technology milestoneTransatlantic telegraph cable successfully laid
  • World population~1.46B

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderAndrew Johnson
  • U.S. population34.0M

1866 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in George Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure18662026
Population34.0M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Library of Congress, Wikidata. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.