Sir Alfed Jermyn is a fictional character created by H. P. Lovecraft for his short story "Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family".
Background[]
Alfed Jermyn was the son of Nevil Jermyn and the father of Arthur Jermyn. His mother, an unnamed dancer with whom Nevil eloped in 1849, died when Alfred was an infant. Nevil and Alfred returned home to Jermyn House the following year to live with Nevil's father Robert Jermyn.
When an explorer named Samuel Seaton visited the Jermyn home in 1852 with a manuscript of notes collected in Africa, Robert discovered to his horror that there was a simian strain in his own family originating from a union between his grandfather Wade Jermyn and a female member of a race of African white apes. The unhinged Robert murdered Seaton along with his own three children including Nevil, but the two year old Alfred survived.
Sir Alfred became a baronet before his fourth birthday, but his tastes never matched his title. At the age of twenty he joined a band of music hall performers, and at thirty-six he deserted his wife and son to travel with an itinerant American circus. His death was particularly brutal after developing a fascination and kinship with a trained circus gorilla. One morning in Chicago as Alfred and the gorilla were rehearsing a performative boxing match, the gorilla delivered a blow more forceful than usual, hurting both the body and the dignity of the amateur trainer. The enraged Alfred attacked the gorilla which defended itself. Alfred was killed and his body was left beyond recognition.