Cleveland Street scandal
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The most famous name associated with the male brothel.
In 1889 it was alleged by the press at the time that several prominent aristocrats were regular customers of a male brothel in London's Fitzrovia. One of those whose name was associated with the Cleveland Street scandal, although his involvement has never been confirmed, was the second-in-line to the throne, Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale. Moreover, it was further alleged that high government officials were involved in a cover-up to keep the prince's name (as well as others) out of the scandal.
The scandal fueled attitudes against male homosexuality as an aristocratic vice that corrupted lower-class youths. This abhorrence prevailed up to and beyond the sensational scandal which involved Oscar Wilde in 1895.
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[edit] The male brothel
In July 1889 police were investigating the theft of some cash from the London Central Telegraph Office. During the investigation a telegraph boy named Thomas Swinscow was discovered to be in possession of the then princely sum of 18 shillings, representing several weeks' wages. Suspecting the boy's involvement in the theft he was brought in for questioning. After some hesitation the boy admitted that he got the money as a rentboy working at a male brothel operating in a house situated at 19 Cleveland Street for a man named Charles Hammond. According to Swinscow, he was introduced to Hammond by the latter's accomplice, an 18-year old by the name of Henry Newlove. In addition, he also named other boys who worked for Hammond.
Armed with this information, a team led by Inspector Frederick Abberline went to the brothel on July 6 with a warrant to arrest Hammond and Newlove for violation of Section 11 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1885. They found the house locked tight and Hammond had escaped, but Abberline was able to apprehend Newlove at his mother's house. The police were also able to arrest the other boys named by Swinscow.
[edit] Naming names
Newlove, Swinscow and the other boys were coerced by the police to name those who they serviced. Newlove immediately named Lord Arthur Somerset, head of the Prince of Wales's stables, as a regular client, as well as the Earl of Euston and an Army Colonel. For his cooperation, Newlove was given a reduced sentence for gross indecency and pandering in September of that year; the other boys were also given similarly light sentences as well. However, the police were slow to act on Newlove's allegation of Somerset's involvement. He was given enough time to flee to a comfortable exile on the continent for the rest of his life. He was even allowed to return for his mother's funeral.
[edit] Uncovering the story
The international press reported the Duke of Clarence's involvement in the affair. Some British newspapers merely hinted at a "prominent personage" linked to the affair. Note that the Duke of Clarence was mistakenly named as "Prince Victor Albert".
Because the press barely covered the story, the affair would have faded quickly from public memory were it not for a journalist by the name of Ernest Parke who picked it up. The editor of a radical weekly called The North London Press, Parke got wind of the affair when one of his reporters brought to him the story of Newlove's conviction. The relatively light sentence given to Newlove and the other boys got Parke to question why they were given such light sentences relative to the offence (the usual penalty for "gross indecency" was two years) and how Hammond was able to evade arrest. His curiosity aroused, upon investigation he was able to find out that the boys named prominent aristocrats. Parke consequently ran a story on September 28 hinting at their involvement but without naming specific names. It was only on November 16 when he ran a follow-up story specifically naming Somerset and Euston, further alleging that their exile was allowed to cover up the involvement of a more highly-placed person. It did not take a great leap of the imagination to know who that person was, for Prince Eddy's involvement was already rumored at the time.
While Parke was correct about Somerset's departure, the Earl of Euston was in fact still in England at the time and subsequently filed a case against Parke for libel. Since Parke was unwilling to divulge his sources, he could not call on witnesses who would have proved his allegations (such was — and is — the nature of libel cases in England, where it was the respondent who had the burden of proof). Thus, Parke was found guilty and sentenced to twelve months in prison.
While Parke's conviction cleared Euston, another trial that began on December 12 proved Parke's case for conspiracy when Newlove's barrister, Arthur Newton, was charged with obstruction of justice. It was alleged that he warned and assisted Charles Hammond in fleeing the country to prevent Hammond from testifying against his clientele. Newton was easily convicted and sentenced to six weeks in prison.
At this point, a motion was brought forth in Parliament to further investigate Parke's allegations of a cover-up. Henry Du Pré Labouchère, a Member of Parliament of the Radical wing of the Liberal Party and an ardent pedophobe, watched the Newton trial with interest. Having campaigned successfully for putting the "gross indecency" amendment to be added to the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1885, he was convinced that the conspiracy to cover-up the scandal went further up the government than assumed.
Labouchère first made his suspicions known in Parliament on February 28, 1890, and proposed a committee to investigate further. Despite a considerable and often passionate debate on the subject, the motion was defeated by a wide margin.
[edit] Fallout and aftermath
Public interest in the scandal eventually faded from memory. Nevertheless it reinforced attitudes against male homosexuality as a vice, presenting the telegraph boys as innocents corrupted by members of the upper class. This attitude reached its climax a few years later when Oscar Wilde was tried for gross indecency as the result of his affair with Lord Alfred Douglas and subsequently sentenced to two years hard labor.
Doubts of Prince Eddy's involvement surfaced when it was suggested that the solicitor of Lord Somerset, Arthur Newton, spread the rumours on the prince in order to protect his client from prosecution. In 1975, state papers on the case were released by the British Public Records Office. The Prince's involvement in the case was gossiped about by the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Goddard, to George V's official biographer Harold Nicolson, and the publication of the private letters of Lord Arthur Somerset in the 1990s, have also been taken to suggest the Prince's involvement.
[edit] References
- Aronson, Theo. Prince Eddy and the Homosexual Underworld. London : J. Murray, c1994.
- Hyde, H. Montgomery. The Cleveland Street Scandal. London : W. H. Allen, 1976.
- Lees-Milne, James. Harold Nicolson (two vol.), Chatto & Windus 1980-81.
- Simpson, Colin, Lewis Chester and David Leitch. The Cleveland Street Affair. Boston : Little, Brown, c1976.
