Prince Harry phone hacking trial: The scandal at a Yorkshire country house that led to the last member of the Royal Family appearing in court before Prince Harry

The Prince of Wales in 1891 was Queen Victoria’s eldest son Albert Edward or ‘Bertie’, later King Edward VII. He was summoned to give evidence as part of a series of events that had taken place the previous year, later referred to as the Tranby Croft Affair or the Royal Baccarat Scandal.

The Prince was a guest of Hull shipping magnate Arthur Wilson at his country house in Anlaby, Tranby Croft, where a party had gathered to attend the races at Doncaster. One of those present, Scots Guards officer Sir William Gordon-Cumming, was later accused of cheating at the card game baccarat, and sued for slander.

Grade II-listed Tranby Croft was built for the Wilsons in 1874. Arthur’s father Thomas had founded the Wilson Line, and the great shipping company later became associated with the North Eastern Railway. When Arthur invited his party up for the races, he was a year away from serving a term as High Sheriff of Yorkshire, but his brother Charles was head of the family business while Arthur served as a director of the railway.

While it may appear surprising that a ‘trade’ family such as the Wilsons were mixing with the aristocracy and royalty in 1890, it was actually a deliberate policy of the Prince, who was 49 at the time of the house party and a father of five children, including the future King George V. He was fond of socialising with a ‘fast racing set’ that included wealthy industrialists, and was a keen baccarat player himself.

He travelled to Tranby Croft with two advisers and Gordon-Cumming, a close friend who had seen military service in the colonies. The baccarat game took place on the first night, and Arthur’s son Stanley Wilson thought he saw the officer illegally adding to his stake. The other Wilsons were told and watched him the next evening, when they again thought he was behaving suspiciously. The royal advisers were consulted, and with the Prince’s consent asked Gordon-Cumming to sign a document pledging to never play cards again in exchange for the events remaining confidential.

However, the story leaked, and Gordon-Cumming blamed the Wilsons, demanding a retraction of their accusation. They refused to, and he sued them for slander – defamation in modern parlance. The trial reached the High Court the following year, and Prince Albert Edward was the first royal to appear in court since 1411. However, Gordon-Cumming lost the case and was dismissed from the Army.

There were also rumours that Gordon-Cumming, an unmarried womaniser, had prepositioned Wilson’s daughter Ethel, who was present with her husband, Sir Edward Lycett Green.

The Prince enjoyed attending the Doncaster Cup, and usually stayed at Sir Christopher Sykes, the MP for Beverley’s, country home, Brantingham Thorpe. He was only accommodated by the Wilsons in 1890 because Sykes was in financial trouble, though he too was invited to Tranby.

However, the scandal changed the future King’s outlook, and he stopped playing baccarat in favour of whist. He never visited Tranby Croft again.

Arthur Wilson died in 1909, two years after his brother Charles; his son Stanley took over the business. He became an MP, but by 1916 the family’s involvement with the shipping line was ended when they sold to rival Sir John Reeves Ellerman. The business, under the Ellerman name, survived until the 1970s.

The Wilsons gradually lost their links to Hull. Stanley died in 1938 and his wife, a baronet’s daughter, soon after. They had two sons, who took their mother’s name of Filmer. Arthur’s other sons who lived to adulthood were Kenneth, who died in 1947, and Clive, a Boer War hero. Clive did retain business interests in Hull after the company’s sale, and was a local hunt master, living in Beverley with his wife and two children, but he died in 1921.

Stanley’s son Arthur Thomas was the last member of the family to live at Tranby Croft, his brother Robert having been killed in an accident while on active service during World War Two. The house had been used as the shipping company’s offices, but in 1944 – around 20 years before his death – Arthur Thomas sold it to Hull High School for Girls. The school later merged with Hull Grammar, and today is still used by a fee-paying school named Tranby. Clive Wilson’s grandson, also named Clive, retains a link with the school.