A.N.Mathew:

Dead Man Walking

by G.M.B Maynard

ISBN: 978-1-903908-73-0

MATRIX: What made you think of writing this book?
GMBM: Good question. Two things, really... A comparison was made between the behaviour of Arnold Harris Mathew and Baron Corvo...
MATRIX: Baron Corvo. I take it you mean the homosexual paedophile who was in the habit of procuring young boys for Venetian Tourists?
GMBM: Yes, his real name was Frederick Rolfe but he liked to be known, styled himself, as Baron Corvo. He was a contemporary of Arnold Harris Mathew who in 1896 claimed a dormant title in the Irish Peerage. The Earldom of Landaff. The other thing, trigger really, is having information I provided a "reputable" genealogist twisted to mean something quite else.
MATRIX: Am I right in saying that Arnold Harris Mathew's father was the half-brother of your ggg-grandfather?
GMBM: Yes, sons of Arnold Nesbitt Matthews, nee Mathew, the de jure earl of Landaff. Arnold Nesbitt M. was of the generation that "took India seriously". He translated the prophet Muhammad's sayings, The Mishcat, into english. He took a Muslim wife, my ancestor...
MATRIX: An Indian?
GMBM: Yes. As soon as news of the first earl's death - in a Welsh hotel - reaches India, Arnold Nesbitt M. [who had lost a leg in the battle of Delhi] marries a pretty Italian nearly half his age...
MATRIX: Because his son by a Muslim could not inherit the earldom?
GMBM: Exactly. For whatever reason she leaves him, her husband of a few weeks, giving birth to the claimant's father on board a ship. Her niece...
MATRIX: Yes?
GMBM: ...marries into the extended family of the Mathews of Landaff.
MATRIX: Why did you dedicate your book, A.N.Mathew, to Arthur Hinde?
GMBM: My great-grandfather. He died of heart failure in his forties, 1898.
MATRIX: It was a difficult time for him, his wife, the great-granddaughter of Arnold Nesbitt M.?
GMBM: Yes. Queen Victoria took a personal interest in A.H.M.'s claim. Her raison d'etre - as empress of India - was as a racist. Apartheid. And we were both Indian and related to her first cousin through Baron Truro.
MATRIX: And it was to you that the claimant looked for supportive evidence?
GMBM: Yes - because his father was born at sea, in European waters [and never returned to India in the life of Arnold Nesbitt M.] we had to provide information in support of the claim. Arnold Harris M. was so broke he could not pay his legal bills. It was assumed, wrongly, that we needed the money the claim might provide. It was never about money, there was none; it was about an unimportant title in the Irish Peerage. And a self-important man...
MATRIX: Did Queen Victoria know what was at stake?
GMBM: I imagine she would have been kept informed.