Berkeley John Talbot Levett

Berkeley John Talbot Levett CVO (11 November 1863 – 1 November 1941) was a Major in the Scots Guards and later a Gentleman Usher for the Royal family. He was a witness in the Royal Baccarat Scandal of 1890 in which the future King Edward VII was drawn into a gambling dispute which painted him in an unflattering light.

The son of Colonel Theophilus John Levett of Wychnor Park, Member of Parliament for Lichfield, and member of an ancient family, Levett enjoyed playing cards and saw himself as a dashing figure in society circles. On 8 September 1890, the Scots Guards officer was in the company of royalty and fellow socialites at Tranby Croft in Yorkshire when the incident which set off the Royal Baccarat Scandal occurred. At the time, Levett was a soldier and bon vivant said to be the best-dressed man in London. One society publication referred to him as the "noted soldier and dandy." The subsequent events led to a slander trial at which Levett was one of the defendants. Although the defendants won the case, public mood was against them.

During the parties feting the German Emperor Wilheim II during his July 1891 London visit, The New York Times noted, "the Pall Mall Gazette this afternoon, in referring to the garden party (for the Emperor), gives great prominence to the fact that Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Wilson, Mr. and Mrs. E. Lycett Greene, and Lieut. Berkeley Levett, all of whom were prominent in the Tranby Croft baccarat scandal, were among the guests at the garden party."

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