Now squire’s ex-aide hits out at National Trust for ‘outing’ him
A SQUIRE would never have left his home to the National Trust if he had known it would ‘out’ him, his former personal secretary said yesterday.
Peggy Garrad reignited the row that began after the charity produced a film revealing that bachelor Robert Wyndham Ketton- Cremer, who owned Felbrigg Hall in Norfolk, was gay.
Scores of volunteers then walked out after being ordered to wear rainbow-coloured ID cards and lanyards as part of the organisation’s Prejudice and Pride campaign, publicising the sexuality of some of its donors.
Now Mr Ketton-Cremer’s former personal assistant has waded into the dispute.
She said: ‘I never heard any suggestion that he was gay and am heartbroken that the National Trust has shown no remorse for “outing” him.’
In a letter to The Daily Telegraph, she added: ‘He would never have left his ancestral home to them had he known they would defame him.’
Mrs Garrad, 86, who worked with him until a few years before his death aged 63 in 1969, told the Daily Mail yesterday: ‘He has been maligned for something he never, ever discussed. He’d have been mortified if they had done it when he was alive and of course he can’t answer back now.
‘ They are going by hearsay. Because he was a gentleman and a shy man and never married, I suppose some people thought he was that [gay], but he wasn’t.’
She added: ‘He wanted people to enjoy Felbrigg Hall and its history, not delve into his private life. The word “trust” has been abused.
‘He put his trust in them. He left Felbrigg Hall to them but he’d never have done it if he thought this would happen.’ Mrs Garrad also criticised the trust over the rainbow lanyards, saying he ‘wouldn’t have involved himself with anything like that’.
At least 75 volunteers quit or refused to work at the 17th century property after being told to wear the colourful ID badges in support of gay rights.
They were also dismayed by the short film The Unfinished Portrait, in which narrator Stephen Fry says ‘many accounts [of Mr KettonCremer] openly acknowledge his homosexuality’.
The presenter adds: ‘Today we must celebrate our LGBTQ [Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer] histories in plain sight. To do any less is to suggest that same-sex love and gender diver- sity are somehow wrong and lets past prejudice and discrimination go unchallenged.’
The charity later relented and let volunteers choose whether or not to wear the lanyards. But the film remains on display to visitors, despite being criticised by Mr Ketton-Cremer’s godchildren.
The National Trust said: ‘ The people we interviewed were clear that we weren’t “outing” Robert Wyndham Ketton-Cremer because amongst those who knew him, his sexuality was widely accepted.
‘As a renowned researcher who studied and published biographies of important literary persons, he would most likely have known that future research on his works, life and times might be studied and published.’
We must celebrate our LGBTQ histories. To do any less is to suggest same-sex love and gender diversity are somehow wrong Stephen Fry in the film