Listen to the episode here.

Another week, another set of stories that would never normally be told side by side.

This week, Theresa kicks things off with the story of Tsutomu Yamaguchi – the only (recognized) man who survived both the Nagasaki and Hiroshima atomic bombings. Learn more about how someone who finds himself within two miles of the blast radius, twice, and lives to tell the tale. Theresa also covers why, even though he is one of roughly 170 people who experienced this, he is the only one recognised.

Angie, ever the palate cleanser, shifts gears to share Henry Paget’s life with listeners. This man lived life to the fullest. He inherits a title and wealth and lives loud and proud, accumulating debts like it was his life’s goal. He was such an embarrassment to his family that they would try to wipe away his memory, until later descendants would treasure his antics.

This story pairs well with:
Paul Nobuo Tatsuguchi and the Battle of Attu
Lady Meux

Transcript

Angie: Hi, and welcome to the Unhinged History Podcast, the podcast where two absolute nut jobs are going to mainline history stories and then compulsively join forces and tell each other the story we’ve only recently learned. I’m Teresa, and that is host to that’s Angie. 

Okay, so we schedule these suckers and really record weeks in advance because we like to do things like live life and prepare for the inevitable needing a break and taking a bye week. And so for us this week in real time, we posted the story on episode 184 of John Batman. And in that episode, I end up using the word that was in all of my sources and textbooks growing up to describe the uh indigenous humans of Australia. That word turns to be not one quite in use or adopted by said peoples of Australia. Did not know, had no clue. Thankfully, I had humans who pointed it out, and as a result, we will not be using that word going forward. Now, if you saw the videos uh in response to that on uh social media, then you already know that Angie and I have made a donation to the shared Sharing Stories Foundation to uh one try to encourage and boast their efforts because they are doing some great stuff, uh trying to keep indigenous cultures alive, and two, we’re just trying to be better humans on our own, and we recognize language evolves, and just because that was the stor or the words that we saw in our sources or learned in our you know, whatever that things change, and we need to change along with that and continuing to be better humans we were yesterday. That’s all you can do. 

Better than yesterday. Yeah, and so on that episode, we now have a disclaimer right at the top going, oop, this happened. Uh and it actually say oop. I mean, no, because I didn’t quite know how to phonetically get that in a way that would be easily understandable to the rest of the world. 

That would be cute if we could. I mean, yeah, or it would be seen as incredibly insulting because it was so but you know what I mean. Like there people are Yeah, I guess. There’s people gonna be people who won in this region no matter what, and there’s other gonna be others who are going to give you a benefit of grace. So what are you gonna do? 

Angie: Yeah, can’t win. All right. Truth. 

Theresa: So that’s our goal. To be the transparent humans that we are, make the mistakes we’re going to make, and try to be better and not try to just sweep it under the rug because it never happened, dirty delete, and just be like, what? Me? No. 

Angie: I’ve never heard the phrase dirty delete before. It’s a real phrase. Sorry. No, it’s wild. 

Theresa: It’s a it’s a real phrase for like when an influencer or somebody um speaks out of their ass and they get called out on it, and they just delete. Don’t own it, don’t respond. And the rest of the people are like, that is they feel like you’re there, I saw it. 

Angie: Yeah. Yeah, okay. 

Theresa: Yeah, so that’s that’s a dirty delete. And so if you saw the video, saw my responses, because I was like, you know what? I don’t want to dirty delete. I’m going to show accountability as I’m trying to communicate with Angie, figure out a plan forward so that we can be in lockstep because Angie and I are in this together. And if I screw up on her watch and she doesn’t catch it, that’s her fault too. 

Angie: All that to say, we are transparent human beings, and when we learn something, we want to share it. And in this case, we learned something, and this is us sharing it. True. True. 

Theresa: But anyhow, fast forward. We are here today to tell each other stories. I have an incredible story. This one has been in the background of my brain for the longest. But I’m going to give a hat tip to user on Instagram whose name is J underscore D underscore H111. Nope, H117. 

Angie: Okay, JDH117. 

Theresa: And they suggested Tatsumu Yamaguchi. Okay. Only they actually didn’t include his name. They simply included the easiest way to find him if you do not know the names off top of your head. So my sources. 

Actually, Angie, take your headphones off for this. Couple of podcast episodes, ridiculous history. Tatsu Yamaguchi, the world’s only recognized double atomic bomb victim. Another podcast, Disaster Area, episode 137, The Story of Tatsu Yamaguchi. History.com, The Man Who Survived Two Atomic Bombs by Evan Andrew. ABC has an article, Tatsuku Yamaguchi, the man who survived both atomic bombs by North Asia correspondent James Oaton. PBS has an article on the Hapugutsuka Habakusha, and that is stories of survivors of Hiroshima Nagasaki by Ashley Sierra. So for those who got to hear the sources, Angie just put on her headphones. we are venturing to Japan. 

Angie: I’m shocked. But name didn’t give it away. 

Theresa: I know. I mean, it could have been a Hawaiian. Yeah, okay. Japanese national engineer. Yeah, okay. But anyhow. So Hatsumu Yamaguchi is 29 years old. He’s a naval engineer, and he’s been on this three month long business trip by his or for his employer. He works for Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. And right now it is August 6th, 1945. Okay. And this is his last day of this three month business trip. 

Angie: It why is it always the last day? 

Theresa: Would the because this story is remarkably true, but couldn’t have been written better. 

Angie: I love stories like that. 

Theresa: Now he is just itching to get home. He’s got a wife and an infant son. Okay. And he’s on his way to work. He’s working, he’s going in with two different coworkers. Um, they have been putting in some really long hours because they are trying to design a new oil tanker. 

Okay. Now, he, as he’s getting to work, he realizes he’s almost to the Hiroshima train station. Him and his co-workers, they they live in Nagasaki. Now, on his way, he realizes he forgot his hunkle. Now, Angie, a hunko, and for those of you living at home, um, not in Japan or haven’t lived in Japan. It’s a it’s a signature stamp. 

Angie: I own my own home. I just want to clarify. 

Theresa: Oh, I okay. I missed for those of you playing at home, right? For those of you who do not live actively in Japan, a hunkel is it is signature stamp. You use it like, you know, like how we sign documents, like, hey, sign this report, this is an official document. 

Angie: Oh, it’s his two-factor auth authenticator. 

Theresa: But it believe it or not, they don’t sign anything with a pen. They take their stamp and they stamp it. Love that. Okay. Yeah. And so, like all of my bills, I had to go get a custom stamp made. When I would go to get any paperwork signed, I had to use my stamp. That’s so cool. 

It is cool until it’s in your other purse or in your Gucci’s case, you left it at home or back at the place you were staying, and now you’ve got to leave your coworkers, go all the way back and get it to come back because you can’t go to work. Right. 

Angie: Because you need this to sign it. 

Theresa: You literally need it to sign documents. So he makes his way back. It’s around 8 15 in the morning. He is walking back to the Mitsubishi shipyard, and this is when he hears an aircraft overhead. And he looks up and he sees an American B-29 bomber. He’s not unaccustomed to seeing bombers in the sky. 

It is strange that there is not a legion of them. Okay. He then sees a parachute. And then the sky erupts in a blaze of light. And he would describe it later on by saying it looked like the lightning of a huge magnesium flare. 

Right. Now he dives into a ditch before this ear splitting boom rings out. And there’s this massive shockwave that hits. 

Uh it spun him around in the air like a tornado and sent him into a nearby potato patch. Okay. Now you need to understand he is less than two miles from ground zero. 

Angie: Holy cow. Okay. 

Theresa: Now, he would end up telling uh the British newspaper The Times. I don’t know what happened. I think I fainted for a while. When I opened my eyes, everything was dark, and I couldn’t see much. It was like the start of a film at the cinema before the picture had begun when the blank frames are just flashing up without any sound. Which is a brilliant description. 

Yeah. What he’s experiencing is the atomic blast that had kicked up tons of dust and debris and had basically blotted out the sun. So he is surrounded by torrents of falling ash, and he could see the mushroom cloud of fire rising in the sky over Hiroshima. At this point, his face and forearms are badly burned, and both of his eardrums have ruptured. Oof. 

Okay. So he wanders in a daze to what remains of work. And it’s there he runs into his two coworkers that had come with him from Nagasaki. Right, okay. They both had survived the blast. Oh wow. 

Okay. So they spend a restless night in the air raid shelter, and then they awake on August 7th, and they had heard that there is a train station that is still somehow operating, and they are wanting out of here. And so they are making their way. Yeah. Like, you know, I wanted to go home at the end of the day, but it’s the next day, and I just want out of here. 

I want to get home. Yeah. So the journey takes them through this hellacious landscape. There’s still fires that are ongoing. They’re going through shattered buildings, uh, charred and melted corpses are lining the streets. 

Many of the city’s bridges had just been completely abolished. They’re at one river crossing, and Yamaguchi is needing to swim through a layer of corpses. Mind you, he’s got open wounds. Right. They end up reaching the train station. He boarded a train full of burned and bewildered passengers, and they hunker down for an overnight ride to Nagasaki. 

Angie: So now we’re on day two? Like Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Um, Now, here’s what Okay, so when 

Theresa: Yamaguchi returned to his wife and child the whole world had really tried to focus in on Hiroshima, right? Because this is now about 16 hours after the explosion when President Truman gives a speech that is admitting that the atomic bomb existed. Right. 

Okay. Um and it’s at this point that Truman makes the quote it is a harnessing of the basic power of the universe. The fourth, the force from which the sun draws its power has been loosed against those who brought war to the Far East. 

So very presidential speech, basically like, yeah, they brought it on themselves kind of deal. Now you and I know, because this was this is in our history books that the B-29 bomber was the Enola Gay and it had flown 1500 miles before detonating Little Boy, which was the first atomic bomb over the skies of Hiroshima. This blast would immediately kill approximately 80,000 people, and tens of thousands would end up perishing afterwards in the weeks that follow. And Truman goes on to say basically, if Japan doesn’t surrender, there’s more where that came from. 

Right. Now, Yamaguchi, it is now the morning of August 8th. He arrives early in Nagasaki, and he makes his way to the hospital. He ends up getting to see a former or a doctor who’s a former schoolmate of his. But he is so burned. And his burns have blackened and they’re so severe. His schoolmate doesn’t recognize him. Now he makes it home. His family doesn’t recognize him. Yeah, that makes sense. Right. He is at this point feverish, covered in bandages. His mother accuses him of being a ghost. That is how she he looks to her. Oof. 

Angie: So like dead man walking, huh? Yeah. Ugh. Now, I don’t know why in my mind he never looks like that. 

Theresa: I mean, when you see reenactments, when you look at clips of things first off, there is a documentary on him called Twice that is in some markets on Netflix. It is not currently in the American market. Ask me how I know. But the reenactments, they all have somebody with just a little minor, you know, little moulage makeup on the face, nothing much, just cosmetic. This dude is absolutely tore up. 

Angie: I would so okay, that is in all like the reenactments. You you’re right. It’s just a little right. Yeah. 

Theresa: A hint of of an oh no. 

Angie: Yeah, like, oh, I might have tripped. I have ne that is never sat well with me. Like, how, how? Where were you when this happened? Ten miles underground. 

Theresa: Well, I mean, I think because if you made first off, if you put somebody in the makeup chair long enough to make it look like him, you would not be able to watch that video. Yeah. As a general audience member. You know what I mean? Like, if you look that tore up, everyone would watch with their hands covered, just listening to the audio. Yeah, that’s fair. 

So it could be that. Now this dude survived an atomic blast. It is days afterwards. He is unrecognizable to those closest to him. So he does the next logical thing and drags himself out of bed on August 9th and heads to work at Mitsubishi’s Nagasaki office. 

Angie: Despite the fact that like he can barely move. Yeah. 

Theresa: Like despite the fact that I have crawled in dead to life for just not wanting to be at the date on the calendar and deciding it’s a great beach day. This dude goes to work. God love him. Now he uh around 11 a.m. He’s in a meeting with his company director. 

The company director is like, dude, what the hell? Because apparently Japan seems, and I couldn’t get a lot of um collaboration on this, so but apparently they’re Japan didn’t necessarily want to cause a lot of panic, so they try to clamp down the information on Hiroshima. 

Angie: Okay, that kind of makes sense, yeah. Right? 

Theresa: Okay, so uh the director is like, what is all of this, please? Oh, why are you here? A single bomb did all of this, that’s absolute hogwash. I have seen what it takes to lay waste to an area, and it is not one plane, one bomb. You’re full of shit. 

Angie: So he’s nobody, I’m not. Right. 

Theresa: He’s being read the riot act by his boss. Now this engineer, Yamaguchi, he is trying to recount everything he has cobbled together since August 6th. The blinding light, the deafening boom. His supervisor basically says that he’s insane. Now, as he is trying to explain himself, the landscape outside explodes with another iridescent flash. And he’s like, that so this dude, because he has some survival instincts, hits the deck before the shockwave shatters the office windows, sending debris through the room. This bomb would kill 40,000 people instantly. He would go on to tell the independent newspaper that he thought that mushroom cloud had followed him from Hiroshima. Oh wow, okay. So that is some survivor’s guild. 

Angie: For for real, yeah. 

Theresa: Now, the bomb that hits Nagasaki is even more powerful than Hiroshima. Despite like I just said Hiroshima, like 80,000 people, and then Nagasaki, there’s 40. But what would what Yamaguchi would would really learn eventually is that the city has this very hilly landscape, and the office he is in is there is a reinforced stairwell that helps muffle the blast inside his office. Oh, okay. Despite the stairwell, the hilly landscape and him hitting the deck, his bandages are blown off of his body. 

Angie: Oh my gosh. 

Theresa: And he gets hit with another cancer-causing surge of radiation. God loving. 

Angie: This boy needs a vacation. Yeah. 

Theresa: So this is the second time in three days that he has been within two miles of a nuclear explosion. And somehow crazy is he has survived. 

Angie: And he’s still alive today, and he doesn’t look a day older. 

Theresa: Okay. He just completely regenerates, and this is where Marvel movies come from. Yep. So he ends up fleeing the skeleton of what is left of the Mitsubishi building. And he is trying to rush home through Nagasaki to check on his wife and baby. Right. So he panics because once he gets home, he sees that a section of his house is rubble. But he finds out that both wife and child only have very minor superficial injuries. 

Why? They weren’t at home. They were out getting burn ointment for him. Oh, okay. And so they had ended up taking refuge in a tunnel. 

So this has been another incredible twist of fate. Because basically a lot of the reports are like if he hadn’t been at Hiroshima, then his he never would have gotten injured. He never would have gotten burned. His wife would not have had to leave the house. 

Angie: Right. And that’s crazy. 

Theresa: So he is not okay because these double doses of radiation, they’re starting to really hit, and they’re hitting hard. His hair starts to fall out. His wounds on his arms are turning gangrenous, and he starts vomiting incessantly. This is radiation poisoning. 

Yeah. Um, he is in a bomb shelter with his family on August 15th when Emperor Hirohito announces the company surrender or the country surrender on the radio broadcast. This was the first time that the Emperor’s voice had been heard by most of the population. Mm-hmm. And Yamaguchi would say, I had no feeling about it. I was neither sorry nor glad. I was seriously ill with fever, eating almost nothing, hardly even drinking. 

I thought I was about to cross to the other side. Within months, there would be an additional 74,000 humans that would die from radiation sickness. Wow. Now uh the bombing of Nagasaki is tends to be overshadowed by overshadowed by the deadlier attack on Hiroshima, which had killed 140,000 by the year’s end. But this is this is kind of interesting. I didn’t know this. Nagasaki was not the intended original target. 

Okay. There were two bombers that were sent to destroy the industrial city of Kokura, which is a major hub for ammunition manufacturing. If you’re wanting to end a war, you want to go after the manufacturing hubs or the municipality hubs, right? This makes sense. The city was nearly invisible under cloud cover. So the pilots had to divert to their secondary target, Nagasaki. 

Angie: That’s crazy. So all the things that had to line up for him to be in in both places at the same time. Right. That is insane. 

Theresa: Now there are tons of victims of radiation exposure, but unlike most of them, Yamaguchi starts to slowly recover and he begins to lead what looks like a relatively normal life. He would go on to serve as a translator for the U.S. armed forces during the occupation of Japan. And later he taught school before resuming his engineering career at Mitsubishi. And his wife and him would go on to have two more kids in the 50s, both of them girls. Okay. 

Now this is something that where things are going to take a little bit of an interesting turn. In 1956, survivors across Japan formed activist groups to demand compensation and medical help. The next year, they got atomic IDs that granted them free health examinations and benefits. 

One source said they also had like a what’s him called a stipend for funerals. If you were caught up in the atomic blast. These humans are called the Hakabutska. Which basically means bomb survivors. Now some hakabutska had hit the fact that they’d been exposed to radiation. And there’s a there were a lot of moral dilemmas whether they disclose this information to their spouses and have children. One survivor’s son would eventually develop leukemia, not because the son was a hakabutska, but because his mother had survived the bombs long before he was born. That’s crazy. So you’ll get people who are heavily discriminated against. Like they’ll have a miscarriage and the mother-in-law will be like, it’s because you’re cursed. 

Angie: Okay. Yeah. Humans. 

Theresa: We’re gonna be the same, right? Like we are going to be consistent. So this this is just painting a picture of what is happening in the background, because this is going to color what is coming. Um Yamaguchi, he has horrific memories from being in two bombings. And he would try to deal with this by writing poetry, but he doesn’t discuss his experiences publicly until the 2000s. Oh wow. 

Okay. Now he would end up releasing a memoir and become part of the anti-atomic weapons movement. Later, he journeys to New York in 2006 and spoke about nuclear disarmament before the United Nations. 

Angie: I feel like if anybody has the right to speak on that. 

Theresa: It would be him. And he is quoted in saying, having experienced atomic bombings twice and survived, it is my destiny to talk about it. 

Angie: Good for him. Wow, okay. 

Theresa: Now he is not the only person to endure two atomic blasts. 

Angie: That is crazy. 

Theresa: Because he had his co-workers that he was in Hiroshima with, and then they all went back to Nagasaki, right? Well, there’s also another man who was a kite maker who had survived Hiroshima despite being a half mile away from ground zero. 

Oh my God. But for decades, this dude keeps his his story under wraps and works just blue-collar jobs. So many of these uh hikabutska are compelled, they feel compelled to speak out and they really want to get everybody, the world to drop atomic weapons because they’ve been there, they’ve done it, don’t do it. But the Yamaguchi’s family, they look at him and they’re like, you look too healthy. People aren’t going to believe you because of how healthy you look. He has ongoing health issues, but it when you see his outwardly, yeah. 

You know, his his disability looks almost invisible. But if you look at a smell chart, you go, oh my God. Right, yeah, no, that makes sense. And so they’re basically afraid that if he were to try to speak out, his visage would undermine his message. Because if you can look this good and survive two atomic blasts. Right. But here’s the crazy thing. So we have nearly a hundred like a ba basically 165 humans would have survived both atomic blasts. 

Yamaguchi is the only person officially recognized by the local governments of Hiroshima and Nagasaki for surviving both. Wow. Okay. Now, this is this is where we get into first off, bureaucracy is strong in many, many countries. Japan is very bureaucratic. 

Right. Now there the reason why he has this distinction is pretty interesting because to be a hikabutsuka, you ended up filing paperwork and getting your atomic ID. When he he did it at Hiroshima, and then he goes to to get it at Nagasaki, and they’re like, it doesn’t change anything. Your benefits don’t improve. You still get same same. We’re not giving you the extra stamp. It’s silly. It’s additional paperwork. 

It doesn’t change how you’re treated. Move forward. Right. 

Okay, that makes sense. And so he continues to push for this. And it’s in 2009, he wins this distinction. 

This is a year before he would pass away at 93 years old. Oh wow. Now this makes him the only government recognized Niju Hikabutsuka or twice bombed person. 

Wow. According to the Japan Times, the number of Hakabutska fell below a hundred thousand for the first time as of July 2025. As of March, that number was 99,130. People that survived. People that survived at least one bombing. 

Angie: Wow. It’s so wild when like it was, you know, 80 years ago. Yeah. But in my brain’s like, uh how the that’s crazy. So that wow, okay. Okay. 

Theresa: But that is the story of Tatsumu Yamaguchi. Okay. 

Angie: Wow. I’m gonna veer us in a very different direction. 

Theresa: Please and thank you. Now you are texting going like, um, I uh we I I know I go first, and I hope that you’re letting me go because this is a palette cleanser we all need. 

Angie: I I have to say I’m I I didn’t know I knew of him. I did not know like I thought he survived Hiroshima and like walked to Nagasaki and just was like, huh. I didn’t realize like I didn’t know the backstory, so I’m like, wow, okay. 

Theresa: And I had no idea there were additional humans that were in his boat. I thought that he was a one off. So did I. 

Angie: To s and the fact that there is like a whole government entity to care for them is wild. I mean it makes sense. Yeah, it makes sense. There should be. 

But but like, could you imagine having to be the receptionist when that sit section opened? Like, uh you’re gonna care for those twice bombed. Here you go. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that’s great. Wow, okay. All right, let me get my notes. Because I need those. 

They’re helpful. My sources, the National Trust of UK, the Fifth Marques and Place de Nude. There is a facts, excuse me, fact factoids and the fabulous lives of the Fifth Marques of Anglesey by Viv Gardner. This is a June of twenty-five article. 

Um, obviously the Wikipedia page. it’s got some great imagery. A couple of BBC articles, one titled How Embarrassing Ancestor Went from Bit of a Giggle to Icon by Natalie Grace, also July twenty-five, and then another one called Tierra and Scandals, the Dancing Marques of Anglesey, uh, March 2020 article by George Heard, and then a YouTube video from the uh history tea time with Lindsay Holliday podcast. 

I have uh never heard of them, and I am saddened that I’m only just now catching on, but theirs is titled Henry Paget, the mad fabulous Marques of Anglesey. And I’m like, okay, I love this. So with all that said, I do need to share my screen with you for a split second. Go on. Because I I you have to have the visual. It would not be right to not give you something to look to look at for a split second. Here you are. 

Theresa: Okay, and she is showing a black and white photo of an extremely dapper man reclined back in what looks like a linen suit straw brimmed hat with the ribbon across. This man looks like he is a professional dandy. 

Angie: Good word, good word. All right. So now that you have that, allow me to follow that up with a quote from Viv Gardner. There are excuse me, there aren’t many historical aristocrats that in 2025 feature in both a list of quote hot Victorians and a variety of peach tree, or whose purple striped silk underpants are on display in the National Museum of Scotland. 

Theresa: So what you’re saying is we now have new life goals. 

Angie: Truly. So on June 16, 1875, a beautiful boy called Henry Cyril Pageant is born in France. The British National Trust, however, says he was born in London, but all my other sources say France. So do with that what you will. I want to believe the National Trust, but everything else says France. 

So unclear. He is the only child of the 4th Marques Marquez of Anglesey, and he is also called Henry Paget. And his second wife, his second wife’s name is Blanche Mary Boyd. 

Now two things you need to know right off the bat. One, the Pagets are a proud family with strong ties all the way back to serving as advisors to Henry the Eighth. In fact, a Marquez is the second highest rank in the British parage. 

It is positioned directly below a Duke and right above an Earl. So like these are not just your run of the mill. Yeah. And I additionally have to tell you this next part because it would be an absolute crime if I left it out and did not tell you in particular. But the man who would become the first Marquez was also called Henry Pagett, and he fought in Napole in the Napoleonic Wars. But specifically Waterloo. So Padett gets put in charge of the Calvary in Belgium during the Hundred Days. And at Waterloo, he leads this massive charge against the Comte de Errond and it in his column. And this basically wrecks part of the French army. Then one of the very last cannon blasts shoots excuse me, then the last canon like shot of the whole battle takes out his leg. Yes. 

Theresa: Okay, break out your bingo cards. It wasn’t me this time. 

Angie: Yep. And depending on which account you choose to go with, he either turns to Wellington and says, By God, sir, I’ve lost my leg. And gets this very chill, by God, sir, so you have back. Or it was even less dramatic than that. 

But either way, they’re very like, meh about the whole thing. The amputated leg, it itself becomes a tourist attraction in the village of Waterloo. It’s buried there, everything. Okay. Paging to Anna fitted. 

Theresa: This literally isn’t the first time we’ve had this storyline. Right? 

Angie: Only they don’t dig his leg up. Um Paget gets fitted for this like super fancy at the time jointed prosthetic leg. And um it becomes so popular, it gets named after him. It’s called the Anglesey leg. So he loses a leg and it becomes a fashion trend, and he picks up the nickname one leg. He gets made the Marquez of Anglesey, and then they build him an eighty-nine foot tall column near his near his estate, make him a knight of the garter, and eventually bump him up to a full general. I think by the time he dies, he’s a field marshal. 

So that’s the oversimplified version, but like if I did not tell you that side quest that there was a Battle of Waterloo lost leg ancestor in this man’s family tree, I would be doing a huge disservice. 

Theresa: When I figured out eventually you would have been called to the carpet for it. Exactly. 

Angie: And I cannot have that. So the other thing that is worth noting about the fifth Marques is that from the very moment of his birth, there are rumors flying around about how he was in fact not the son of Paget, but rather this very famous French actor at the time called Benoit Constant Coquilin. But if that were true, the good Lord Page, his father never says a word, and he claims the boy as his own from the very get. So okay. now in eighteen seventy-seven, when our guy is just two, his mother dies. 

And there was originally some confusion as to who cares for him during his younger years, but it seems that he was raised in Paris by his father’s aunt. Okay. So the fourth Marquis is his mother’s sister. His what? Great aunt. 

Yes. Now her name is Edith Marion Boyd. And here’s where I think rumors get fueled, but eventually she is gonna marry a man called Gustave Cochelin, and he is the brother of the famous actress of the famous actor that everyone said the fifth Marques belonged to. But she wouldn’t marry him until years after the boy leaves her care and returns to his father. So I think there was just some timeline initial timeline issues that were like, Oh, because she raised him and she was married to his whatever. 

I don’t think that was the case. But anyway, um he returns to his father at eight years old, so it’s like eighteen eighty-three. She marries Coquilin in 1891, and it is really important to point out that in Paris, our little guy has been exposed to theater of all kinds, and that is going to matter a lot later. 

Theresa: You say exposed, like he was exposed to botulism or tuberculosis. 

Angie: No, like they loved the theater, and he loved the theater even as a little guy. And to get back on track with his wife, he gets a new stepmom in 1880 and she is an American called Mary Livingston King. She is also a widow, and from what I understand, she was not a warm woman towards him, which I hate, but he had like a host of tutors and one elderly nurse that cared for him, and that was pretty much his childhood. 

Like he didn’t have 800 eight hundred siblings to play with, it was just this one old lady and a bunch of tutors. Um as I mentioned, when he’s eight, he’s recalled to the family seat of Plaza Nouetta on the island of Anglesey, where he’s gonna take up all the things that are required of a gentleman of his stature. He is educated at home, and then at Eton, he’s taught to paint, he can sign, he speaks several languages, including. 

Theresa: He can sign as in sign language or he can paint a billboard? Like sign, like I can so he knows British sign language then presumably as American. I’m gonna assume. 

Angie: Um he is obviously very fluent in French, and he then, because as a proper gentleman, you have to serve your military service, is commissioned as a Lieutenant in the second volunteer battalion of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers. By January of eighteen ninety-eight. He is styled as the Earl of Uxbridge and he marries his first cousin. 

Her name is Lillian. On paper, they are a perfect match. Aside from being first cousins. 

Aside from being first cousins, yeah. They spend their honeymoon doing the the traveling thing, and while in Paris, several sources say that they were like window shopping, and they bought everything that was on display in the window window of a jeweler they liked. Like they have that kind of money. Like I’ll just take the whole thing. Just put it in the bag. Pretty much, yeah. 

So um good for you, I guess. Now anywhere between six weeks and two years, depending on the source after they get married. I think it’s just because paperwork takes a long time, but um she files for uh to have the marriage annulled on grounds of non-consummation. 

Theresa: Uh quite a while for Yeah. 

Angie: She says that the only time her husband ever saw her naked was when he had her model all the jewels on her fair, delicate skin. That does sound like quite a hot. 

I mean, good for you. She’s gonna eventually recall the annulment, but they never get back together. Now, just nine months after they marry, Henry’s father dies, and this makes him the fifth Marquez Paget and one of the richest young men in Britain overnight. In fact, the fourth Marquez left his son an estate worth five hundred and thirty five pounds, which equivalent today is a hundred and twenty million dollars. 

Theresa: Not bad. I would take it. Yeah. 

Angie: in addition, the family homes and estates generate an annual income of back then a hundred and twenty thousand pounds, which is s about twenty-six million dollars today. 

Theresa: Yaha. Okay. Right? 

Angie: There is thirty thousand acres that span the areas of Staffordshire, Dorset, Anglesey, and Derbyshire, like he’s got some space. When he inherits the estate, he renames the castle from Plaza Noued to Anglesey Castle, and almost immediately turns the family chapel into a hundred and fifty seat theater called The Gaiety. Like immediately. 

Theresa: That is the first one. is how to make your ancestors roll over in their graves. 

Angie: Pretty much. Initially, he hosts these shows with amateurs, including friends, servants, and the locals, but in nineteen oh one he hires a theater company to put on pantomimes to show Oscar Wilde plays, which at the time are a bit of a scandal. Because he was scandalous. Honestly, he’s living his best life. They’re showing Shakespeare, and in all of them, he is the star. Of course, of course. 

Theresa: I mean it’s your stinking theater. 

Angie: Exactly. And he is seen in these spectacular costumes just dripping in jewels. He would invite both the notables and the local people in for free so that they could like witness his magnificence. 

I love him. The National Trust says, quote, they also took their productions to some local venues donating the box office to local charities. The fifth Marquez would sometimes hand out postcards of his self in costume to the audience. So there is a variety of images that I will show you in just a little bit, and we have them today because he was basically handing out selfies to the audience. Old school headshots. Mm-hmm. 

Okay. I but I loved that they donated their proceeds to local charities. I thought that was so cool. Um he loved to dance. His most famous little jam was called his butterfly dance, which he used multicolored lights that would project onto these flowing silk white silk costumes that he would wear, and then he would do this. I can’t really describe it, but there’s videos of the American dancer who he got the idea from. 

Of course I didn’t include her name in my notes and I don’t remember it, but um this is gonna earn him the nickname of the dancing Marcus. Wow. Now meanwhile, he is buying all the costumes and jewels a girl could ever dream of. No costume jewelry whatsoever for him. All of it was real. 

Some of those pieces are worth over a million dollars today. The actor and writer, Serial Davies, he writes and performs this acclaimed musical called How to Win Against History that’s based on Henry Padgett’s life. And he says, quote, he didn’t understand the concept of costume jewelry. He thought it all had to be real. 

Theresa: With that much money, I agree with him. Honestly. 

Angie: In fact, he had this diamond-encrusted costume that was made for the pantomime of Aladdin, and it was worth $100. 10 million pounds at the time. It’s over a million dollars today. 

Yeah. Um Davies goes on to say that that costume was worth more than the house, and he would just leave it in the dressing room and somebody nicked it. So so he had another one made. 

Because when you’re that rich and idle, I do it do what you want, I guess. He had his carriages to be outfitted to be just as extra as him. He even had an automobile designed to spray rose perfume out the exhaust. 

Wow. Our guy was deeply obsessed with his looks and his skin and would cover even the slightest blemish with all the finest makeup. Like he just could not be the prettiest person in the room. 

Theresa: So when I called him a dandy, I nailed it. Nailed it. 

Angie: He changed out his estates hunting dogs for a small army of poodles that some sources say he would have died to match the outfit he had on that day. So I’m wearing a blue jacket, I’m carrying the blue poodle. Wow. Yeah. 

Um he won he one of his great passions besides theater was ping pong, and he wanted a ping pong jacket to be made in the shade of green, so he had it made with emeralds. You know. That would have to be heavy. 

I has to be uncomfortable. Speaking of theater, because everything in this man’s life is theater, he takes his troop on tour across Britain and Europe, and he is doing this with all his own money. He’s not um taking he’s not taking proceeds from box offices. He’s paying them from his own wallet. 

And and catering this tour. While he is in London, he is at the premiere of a Sherlock Holmes play at the Lycean Theater, it’s 1901. His his French ballot steals a fortune in jewelry from him while he’s at the theater. Today that jewelry would be worth over two million dollars. Oh my gosh. And our guy Henry, he does the most reasonable thing ever, and he calls Arthur Conan Doyle for help. Like what? He could just do that. Okay. 

Theresa: To be fair, Arthur Quinn and Doyle was doing things like getting involved in the disappearance of Agatha Christie for giggles. 

Angie: And and hunting fairies. So I mean, this checks, right? Now eventually the the thief, he’s gonna be caught and arrested at Dover, and he testifies in court that he had been instructed to steal the jewels by a French woman he knew, and she evidently took the jewels to France and was never found. His testimony is believed to be true. He pleads guilty at the old Bailey on the twenty second of October, and he is second, he is sentenced to five years in prison. A year later, a British detective that’s disguised as pageant arrests a gang in a Parisian cafe that are trying to sell off some of the booty, including a pear-shaped pearl that today is worth one point two million dollars. 

Theresa: So he was telling the truth? Mm-hmm. I thought this was all hogwash and he buried it in the sand somewhere. 

Angie: No, he gave it to the French lady. Then 1904 happened, and to sum up the next part, I’m just gonna quote the BBC. The spreading the spending continued unabated until the inevitable happened. Paget ran out of money. In the summer and autumn of 1904, bankruptcy proceedings were started against him. He had debts of about 560 pounds or like sixty-five million dollars today. Trustees were appointed Yeah, right? I mean, by by like 1899, he was already mortgaging properties. Trustees were appointed to run his estates, and then began 40 days of auctions selling off the items he had collected over the previous five years. 

One day alone was set aside to sell his collection of dogs from poodles to collie’s. Another day saw 900 lots of silk lined suits and fur coats put under the hammer. Wow. 

Right. He leaves Wales and he departs for a new life in France. He is sad, he is dejected, things are not going the way that he wanted them to do. 

And now he’s only got an allowance of the equivalent of about two hundred and forty thousand a year. Or baby. I know crazy. 

and bye. Just barely. While in France, he tells a French journalist, quote, in six years I have run through that fortune. Just how I could not tell you. He goes on to say that, quote, I had braces woven of threads of gold instead of the usual elastic webbing that other men rely upon to support their trousers. The buckles were of gold too. It’s not hard to see where that good deal of my money went. Maybe mean, I don’t know where it went to. 

Theresa: second thought. It’s got a great idea. 

Angie: Um perhaps his three thousand pound a year bill for underwear revealed this extent of his spending problems, you know. Good night. In Monte Carlo. I w I should rewind and tell you that his estates in Wales were like lush and known for their mining and a lot of other like industry. So the fact that this man was able to burn through the family fortune when his estates are capable of making the money that they are capable of is ungodly to me. Like how did you how? But okay, he’s got gold thread underwear, so I guess that makes sense. 

Theresa: So in Monte Carlos underwear will never end up in a museum. For the same reasons that his did. 

Angie: In Monte Carlo, he tries to win against the against the casinos, and he wanted to like break the bank with this new gambling system that he invented, but it didn’t work. And on March 14th, 1905, he does the very fashionable thing and dies of tuberculosis induced pneumonia. Wow. 

Yeah. He was never super healthy, but this would be the end of the most extravagant man’s life at just twenty nine years old. He died with his former wife by his side. 

Theresa: The one who may or may not have ever consummated. This may have been a lavender marriage. 

Angie: I think it was. And, okay, so when I was first reading about him, I’ll tell you a little bit more, but when I was first reading about him, I thought to myself, I wonder if he was just asexual. Like, because… There’s no documentation to prove either direction, like if he had any feelings for anybody, let alone anything. Like a lot of sources say that they think that he could only love himself. 

And I don’t think they mean that in like a narcissistic way, but just in that he just couldn’t. But all that to say, hopefully his body is brought home and buried on Anglesey. And the locals mourn him deeply. He had apparently been very, very good to them. 

And so they were like, oh, we liked him. Now, the title is going to pass to his cousin because obviously he doesn’t have any children of his own. And this cousin will destroy most of Henry’s private papers. And he immediately turns his theater back into the family chapel. 

The family are then forced to sell other properties to, like, foot the bill. And today, Plaza Newwood or the Anglesey Castle is cared for by the National Trust. His photographs and like in costume are featured there. So like you can go and visit and like see this room of his artwork, which is really fun. 

His immediate successor may not have been a big fan, but his current successor, Alex, the eighth Marquez of Anglesey, is quote, happy to celebrate Henry Surreal’s rather extraordinary and marvelous life. And I do have a couple more pictures, and I can get you a bunch more because they’re so much fun. I love this for me. Okay, so I love this top one is so dramatic. 

Theresa: Okay, so she is showing a black and white photo. Uh he is sitting with a I’m assuming backless chair, his arms are extended behind his neck. He is reclining back with a long flowing wig, crown, and gobs of what can only be silk. Yeah. 

Angie: Um the next photo is a Tierra that actually went on the um auction block in 2020 that was part of his jewel collection that I believe he inherited when he became the Marquez. I mean I just think is stunning. 

Theresa: It’s it’s honestly something that you would see articles written that you know, Kate Middleton, Don’s Crown created by Yeah. Yeah. 

Angie: Um here’s his underpants. 

Theresa: Okay, by underpants. These suckers are Victorian as they get. They go from belly button to ankle. Mm-hmm. They have got what look like four pearl buttons that go from the male version of a fupa to the very top. Um they taper. They are gorgeous and striped. They honestly, you would wear these with a billowy blouse and go to yes. 

Angie: Yes, I thought that too. Like, I want those today. Those look so comfy. Um, but let me show you the picture that is like um is on the cover of everything for this man. I love this picture. What is this? 

Theresa: Okay, so same um Vogue-esque Vogue esque over the top. This guy has this face of like complete boredom, but cool. This is this is a Vogue cover, is what it is. 

Angie: Um Yes. He’s getting Freddie Mercury to me. Like we would have been friends. Yeah. 

Theresa: He’s got this winged headdress on. With shoulder pads that they come out, they’re not pads, they’re more tunnels that his arms fall out of the bottoms of. There is a lot happening in this image. That’s what I’m trying to communicate. 

Angie: It’s a whole thing. I just I absolutely love it. Oh, there’s that one. And um this is you can sort of see it standing. 

Theresa: Okay, so very ornate dress, winged helmet or winged headdress, and some scepter of some sort. 

Angie: Okay, so I don’t have this image, but in the musical that is that features him, the this headdress is there, and in the image, the headdress is like a yellow and purple, but the helmet looks like somebody took an old football helmet and took the face mask off of it and then added the wings. I’m like, this is the best thing I’ve ever seen. I love prop people. Fantastic. In here is also, and I cannot find it, he um played Boudica at one point as well. Of course. he did Of course, right? And then there’s this banger. 

Theresa: Uh black and white photo. He is basically cosplaying a king on Coronation Day. 

Angie: That’s from start to finish. The whole thing. Just absolutely insane. So that is the story of the dancing Marques Henry Henry Padgett. Here is his wife. I think she’s just beautiful. 

Theresa: She is honestly, you would see her in any period piece. She’s got a pearl choker on. She has got a v-neck blouse or v-neck dress with very billowy lace. Her hair is a controlled chaos of curls. Yeah. And she’s got the big doe eyes. 

Angie: Yeah, she does. So that’s that’s my guy. That’s my palette cleanser. Well, we needed it. 

Theresa: If you’ve enjoyed this palette cleanser, if you really enjoyed the whiplash of the twice bombed man and the incredible dandy who just had more money than sense until he had no money. 

Angie: Then read reviews and well 

Theresa: can’t you can’t game, which you never had. Rate, review, subscribe, and send this to somebody else who is really just looking to get all the feels out. In one go. And on that note, goodbye. 

Speaker 3: Bye.