News
2005-12-28
Famed poet's gay
great-grandson found murdered
Hallam Tennyson
found murdered
The gay
great-grandson of famed British poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson
The gay
great-grandson of famed British poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson
was found stabbed to death in bed last week, and
police are investigating the incident as a homicide,
the Times of London reported. Family members
said that Hallam Tennyson, 85—a former BBC
executive—was found by a former partner in his North
London home on Wednesday night.
Family members
told police that Tennyson invited men back to his
apartment up to three times per week. The newspaper reported
that a boyfriend has provided investigators with a
list of Tennyson's former lovers. "Normally, you worry
about your teenage children, but we were worried about
him," Tennyson's daughter-in-law Janice told the
newspaper. "We are all absolutely devastated. We were all
very close to him, particularly our children, who
shared with him a love of drama." Tennyson had two
children and seven grandchildren.
In 1998,
Tennyson, writing about his sexual orientation,
said, "Lord Tennyson, my great-grandfather, lived from
1809 to 1892 and would, no doubt, be absolutely
horrified by me. He was a sexual prude, whereas I've
always been very liberal when it comes to sex."
According to the
newspaper, Tennyson was married for 30 years and was
up-front with his wife about his sexual orientation. "I told
Margo before we married that I was a homosexual, but
she did not know what that meant," he wrote in the
article. "I explained it to her, but she said she
didn't mind. Looking back, we were terribly rational about
it. I went to see a psychiatrist, who told me, quite
ridiculously, that it was just a passing phase and
that the love of a good woman could change me."
Tennyson also
penned an autobiography in 1984, discussing a gay-bashing
incident as well as his many trysts: "Instead of spending
hours haunting public lavatories or other pick-up
points, I might have read several books as long as
War and Peace—I might even have
written one." (Advocate.com)
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