Duke and Duchess of Windsor (1894-1972) and (1895-1986)

[Jacqueline]

Thursday, 9 January, 2003, 20:39 GMT
Simpson's 'Nazi past' led to abdication

The Windsors controversially met Adolf Hitler in 1937

By Emma Simpson
BBC New York correspondent

Newly released FBI files suggest the alleged Nazi connections of Wallis Simpson prevented her marrying King Edward while he was monarch.

The revelations are contrary to the long-held belief that the stumbling block was the American's status as a divorcee.

King Edward abdicated the throne in December 1936, following a constitutional crisis, and married her in exile the following year.

These FBI files were written in the 1940s but are now released under America's Freedom of Information Act.

They suggest stronger connections between the Duchess of Windsor - as she was known after marriage - and the Germans than previously believed.

The documents are a combination of surveillance, informants and hearsay.

One memo said that the British Government, headed by Stanley Baldwin, had known for some time that the Duchess was exceedingly pro-German in her sympathies.

The FBI believed she was considered so obnoxious by the British that they refused to permit Edward to marry her.

Reports emerged last year that the FBI also sent agents to spy on the royal couple after allegations that the Duchess might have been passing secrets to a leading Nazi with whom she was thought to have had an affair.

It is suggested the surveillance had been ordered after President Roosevelt expressed concern about the couple's politics.

Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/2644123.stm

 

[Julia]

Records Shed Light on Royal Love Triangle
Thu Jan 30, 1:39 PM ET

By JILL LAWLESS, Associated Press Writer

LONDON - Friends and relatives remember Guy Trundle as a handsome charmer, a vicar's son who became a dashing air force pilot. They were shocked to find that, according to police, he was also the lover of a woman who would marry a British king.



In secret papers released by the government Thursday after more than 65 years, police name Trundle as the paramour of Wallis Simpson, the American divorcee whose affair with King Edward VIII led to the king's abdication in December 1936.


Detectives said Simpson was having an affair with Trundle in 1935, while she was still married to her second husband, Ernest Simpson, and was developing a relationship with the future king, then the Prince of Wales.


Police reports show detectives were certain Simpson had another lover and conducted surveillance to find out his identity. A police report dated July 3, 1935, names him as Guy Marcus Trundle, an engineer and salesman for the Ford Motor Co.


The report describes Trundle as "a very charming adventurer, very good looking, well bred and an excellent dancer. He is said to boast that every woman falls for him."


Trundle, it said, "meets Mrs. Simpson quite openly at informal social gatherings as a personal friend, but secret meetings are made by appointment when intimate relations take place."


The report said Trundle had admitted receiving money and gifts from Simpson.


"I'm absolutely amazed," retired navy Capt. Val Bailey, a longtime friend of Trundle, was quoted as saying by The Daily Mail newspaper. "Guy was an enormously likable man, good looking but quiet, and he never had any money at the time. I honestly can't think how their paths would have crossed."


A photo of Trundle printed Thursday in The Times newspaper showed a dapper man with a dimpled chin, trousers sharply creased and hat tilted at a rakish angle.


Royal historian Andrew Roberts said the revelation that Simpson "was two-timing the Prince of Wales" raised new questions about the abdication crisis.


"The (police) Special Branch knew about it, the Home Office knew about it. Why didn't the prime minister and the king know about it?" Roberts said on British Broadcasting Corp. radio. Had Edward known, "it could have stopped the abdication crisis, possibly."


Trundle was born in 1899 in York, the son of a Church of England priest. As a teenager toward the end of World War I he joined the Royal Air Force, flew in Greece in the 1920s and became a Wing Commander.


By the early 1930s, he was a car mechanic and salesman in London and had married Melosine Cary-Barnard, daughter of a retired army officer. In 1937 the couple had a daughter, Pamela, who died in infancy.


It is not known how long the relationship with Simpson lasted.


The king's affair with Simpson created a constitutional crisis for Britain, because Edward's plans to wed were thought to conflict with the monarch's position as head of the Church of England, which forbade divorce.


On Dec. 11, 1936, the king announced he was abdicating after less than a year on the throne. He and Simpson married the next month.


Trundle, who died in 1958, seems to have kept the romance a secret.


"I have been looking through our family photographs and there is nothing," said 82-year-old Pauline Trundle, widow of Guy's older brother Alwyne. "Half of it I do not believe — but it must be true if the police say so."

Richard Kay, royal correspondent for the Daily Mail, said police reports could have been exaggerated to made Simpson look bad.

"I don't think the police had an agenda, but the establishment had an agenda. They wanted to see her off because they saw her as a threat to the monarchy," Kay said.

 

[Julia]

The Duke and Duchess of Windsor pose after their wedding at the Chateau de Cande near Tours, France, on June 3, 1937. King Edward VIII hoped to tell Britons of his love for American divorcee Wallis Simpson and persuade them he should marry her and still keep his throne, records unsealed Thursday, Jan. 29, 2003 showed. After his abdication, Edward and his new wife became the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.(AP Photo)

 

[Jacqueline]

Wallis's lover: Mr Trundle the dancing car salesman
By Peter Foster
(Filed: 30/01/2003)

Wallis Simpson lavished money and expensive gifts on a "secret" married lover after she became romantically involved with Edward, Prince of Wales, according to confidential Special Branch documents released today.

He is named as Guy Marcus Trundle, a car salesman from York described as "a very charming adventurer, very good looking, well bred and an excellent dancer" in a highly confidential 1935 report to Sir Philip Game, Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police.

"He is said to boast that every woman falls for him. He meets Mrs Simpson quite openly at informal social gatherings as a personal friend, but secret meetings are made by appointment when intimate relations take place."

Special Branch began inquiries into Mrs Simpson's background and friends after being alerted to her close relationship with the Prince, later Edward VIII. "She is reputed to be very attractive and to spend lavishly on dress and entertainment," said the first of three reports.

Her friends were said to include "Lady Emerald Cunard who is a great friend of Mrs Alice Preston and reputed to be a drug addict". Through her the Prince met Sir Oswald Mosley, the fascist leader.

Lady Cunard is described as "the mother of the notorious Nancy Cunard, who is very partial to coloured men and who created a sensation some few years ago by taking up residence in the negro quarter of New York".

Mrs Simpson's second husband, Ernest, was "the bounder type" police reported, who gloried in his wife's royal association to "make what capital he can out of it".

They also believed that Mrs Simpson had lived at two London addresses under the name Mrs Earle Spencer, the name of her first husband, and "regarded as a person very fond of the company of men and to have had many 'affairs'. She was with different men at these addresses".

Although Special Branch had heard she had a "secret" lover kept by her, they at first did not know his identity. But the surveillance they maintained on her movements soon unearthed her growing closeness to the Prince when they were overheard by the owner of a South Kensington antiques shop calling each other "darling" as they shopped together for items for his private bolt-hole, Fort Belvedere in Sunningdale.

"The lady seemed to have the PoW completely under her thumb" observed the antiques dealer.

"The Simpsons are regarded in some circles as Jews," Special Branch officers reported back. And she was anxious not to lose the Prince's affection for "financial reasons" states the second report in June 1935. "She is therefore extremely careful and spending as much time as possible with PoW and keeping her secret lover in the background."

Her husband, meanwhile, was said to be "bragging" he expected to get "high honours" for sharing his wife. "He has mentioned he expects, at least, to be created a Baron. He is very talkative in drink."

By July that year the police had "definitely ascertained" her secret lover was Mr Trundle. Despite Mrs Simpson being said to live beyond her or her husband's means, the commissioner was told: "Trundle receives money from Mrs Simpson, as well as expensive presents. He has admitted this."

He was "a married man" born in York in 1899 and the third child of a Cambridge-educated clergyman who served as minister in several York churches, including St Martin-Le-Grand, York's civic church whose nave was destroyed by a Luftwaffe bomb during the "Baedeker Air-Raid" of April 29 1942.

Mr Trundle came from an apparently well-to-do household. The 1901 census shows the family had two young maidservants and a nurse. His father, a prominent member of the York establishment, lived in smart accommodation in Petergate, close to the city's minster, and owned land in the nearby village of Askham Bryan.

"He [Trundle jnr] was married in 1932 to Melosine Vivien Helen Mary Cary-Barnard, daughter of a retired colonel of the tank regiment and said to be employed as a engineer and salesman by the Ford Motor Company."

No further reports on Mr Trundle were evident, although it is understood he had a daughter, Pamela.

After serving on the Meteorological staff as an RAF reservist from 1927-35, he entered the RAF proper in July 1938, leaving in 1945 as a wing commander and was decorated after the Second World War.

He died in Stepney, east London, in 1958.

Article From: news.telegraph.co.uk

 

[Jacqueline]

Copies of private correspondence between the Duchess of Windsor and an Irish duke ( 7th Duke of Leinster) have been stolen....

Friday, 7 February, 2003, 16:56 GMT
Duchess revelations stolen

Copies of intimate letters between the Duchess of Windsor and an Irish duke have been stolen, it has emerged.
The Duchess and Edward, Prince of Wales, became friends with the late Edward FitzGerald, 7th Duke of Leinster, after World War II.

Royal experts said the stolen letters could further embarrass the Royal Family following revelations alleging that the Duchess had an affair with a car salesman.

Those claims came to light in previously secret government files on the 1936 abdication crisis.

The letters were stolen from a car owned by company director Adrian FitzGerald, the Duke of Leinster's illegitimate 50-year-old son.

Mr FitzGerald, who is researching a book about his father's life, said the theft from a BMW parked outside his mews house at Trevarrian, near Mawgan Porth in Cornwall, was suspicious.

He said: "The car was full of expensive power tools, but they ignored those.

"They took only my writing case, containing all my personal documents and also some rather sensitive papers used for research for my book concerning my father and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.

"This had all the appearance of a robbery to order, but I have no idea by whom."

He added: "The wrong spin could be put on these documents if they fell into the wrong hands."

Michael Thornton, Royal biographer and former trustee of the 7th Duke of Leinster's estate, said the stolen papers could embarrass the Royal family.

He said: "There was a very close friendship between the Duke of Leinster and the Duchess.

"I think Adrian FitzGerald feels that if this material falls into irresponsible hands it would be capable of an interpretation which could cause embarrassment."

The stolen correspondence did not include love letters, said Mr Thornton.

"If one read them you would conclude that there was a certain amount of intimacy between these people, but they are not expressed in passionate or sexual terms.

"They certainly show a very close relationship and it is not conclusive precisely what that relationship was," he said.

Sold inheritance

Most of the letters and diary entries date from 1946 onwards, when the Duke of Leinster and his third wife had a villa in the South of France.

During this period the couple became close friends with the Windsors, who had returned to France from the Bahamas after the war.

Mr Thornton said the original versions of the stolen photocopies documents were still in existence.

"Adrian FitzGerald was indebted to various people for this material.

The originals are still in existence but they are in other people's hands. He feels very responsible for them," he said.

A Devon and Cornwall Police spokesman said officers were investigating the theft of various documents from a car at Trevarrian between 21 and 23 January.

Article From: BBC News

 

[Duchess]

although there weren't many details, here's the story in a nutshell:

A lady from Ontario, Canada, that passed away several years ago, claims that she was married to the Duke of Windsor for a brief period. She also claims to have given birth to a child that he fathered during the marriage. The child was taken away and she never heard anything about it again and the marriage "disappeared". She always told people that she couldn't talk about it but after her death everything would be revealed. The night she died, her home was broken into and ALL of her personal papers were stolen and never found. Family members say that they have seen pictures of her with the Duke and that they also remember seeing correspondence from Buckingham Palace. The timing would be right as the Duke had a ranch in Canada at the time. None of this has ever been proven...or disproven.

 

[Alexandria]

Interesting story, Duchess. Where did you read this story?

Without having read the story myself or what the source of the story is (i.e. credible media source or not), I have to say that I am a bit skeptical. All too convenient isn't it that she does not know where the baby is and that any documents or photos concerning the baby and her relationship with the Duke of Windsor have disappeared. It makes me wonder what she or her estate stand to gain from all this, financially I mean, rather than just 15 minutes in the media spotlight.

 

[TOMMIX]

Here is another interesting story......The late Duchess of Windsor had a baby out- of-wedlock when she was a teenager. She had a daughter. That daughter had at least one son. He is currently a County Commissioner in Washington County, Maryland, USA. I will not mention his name, he is well known in that area, and he does not deny this story! Ask anyone in Hagerstown, MD about it!

 

[Duchess]

Actually I heard it on a radio interview. A Canadian author that has written a book about different Canadian "stories" was talking about it. I missed the name of the lady that made the claim. I agree with you. All too convient isn't it.

I did however, go to a site today that has photos of a lady and her children and grandchilren that bear a striking resemblance to the late Duke and Duchess of Windsor. This lady claims to be their daughter. The url is We3.com. Check it out and see for yourself. It's fun, if nothing else.

oooooooh Tommix. How am I going to get any sleep tonight if I don't the name of the guy??? Haha

 

[Adeema]

I came across this site from another board, the alleged daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Winsor is named Elizabeth. Be sure to click on the link for the pictures of her sons and grandsons.

Here is the site http://we3.org/


This story I have heard about before but the wife and child in Canada is new to me.

 

[Duchess]

So sorry Alexandra. The correct address is www.we3.org. Thanks to Adeema!

 

[mybags]

Wow!! The family resemblance is amazing! This is a story I have never heard before. Thank you Duchess for making us aware of it!!

 

[thissal]

Apparently Wallis Simpson was also having an affair with another man besides Edward at around this time. That was a story I remember in Hello from about 3 or 4 months ago.

 

[Alexandria]

Originally posted by mybags@Jul 1st, 2003 - 6:08 pm
Wow!! The family resemblance is amazing!

I totally agree! If I weren't told that they were two different people in many cases I could believe that it was the same person at various stages of their lives. Maybe there is some plausibility to this seemingly far-fetched story afterall!

 

[Alexandria]

Originally posted by thissal@Jul 1st, 2003 - 9:13 pm
Apparently Wallis Simpson was also having an affair with another man besides Edward at around this time. That was a story I remember in Hello from about 3 or 4 months ago.

www.hello.com - I think I know the story you're referring to, thissal, and I am trying to find it. But this is what I've come up with so far.

Wallis' Secret Lover Was Also Cheating
31 JANUARY 2003

The controversy surrounding Wallis Simpsons' affair with Guy Trundle has gathered momentum after further revelations about the handsome car salesman.

It was reported on Wednesday that Wallis was involved with Guy while she was romancing Edward VIII and still married to her husband Ernest Aldrich Simpson.

Secret police files also disclose that her lover Guy Trundle, who was himself a married man, was in turn keeping a mistress, Eileen Fearnley-Whittingstall. Eileen too was married.

The web of romance and deception has provoked a storm of controversy and questions over how the protagonists managed to keep it secret for so long. Trundle, a former World War I pilot, never mentioned his affair with Wallis to anyone – not even his closest friends and loved-ones. He kept their relationship absolutely secret right up until his death in 1958.

His silence has prompted speculation that he was working for the intelligence services in a bid to test Wallis' character. "Knowing Guy as I did, I simply refuse to believe he entered into an affair with Wallis Simpson for its own sake," said his old Air Force pal Captain Val Bailey. "She was absolutely the kind of woman he was not interested in," continued the 82-year-old.

"I know it may sound very John Le Carre-ish, but I can't help feeling Guy may have been put up to it by the security people so they could test how vulnerable Wallis might be to this sort of thing…he wasn't a blabber, but it defies belief that he didn't mention at some time that he had known the Duchess in the Thirties."

 

[Alexandria]

:important: www.hello.com - Found it!

Police Surveillance Files Reveal Wallis Simpson's Secret Lover

30 JANUARY 2003
Secret intelligence files on Edward VIII and his wife have revealed that the former Prince's lover cheated on him with a car salesman. The documents, which have just been released after 70 years under lock-and-key, say that Wallis Simpson lavished gifts on Guy Trundle and concealed their relationship from both Edward and her husband.

At the time she had become deeply involved with Edward, but was still married to her husband Ernest Aldrich Simpson.

The extent of the files suggests the American divorcee, whose affair with Edward cost him his throne, was the subject of a large surveillance operation. Her then-husband was also being watched.

In 1935 a senior Special Branch officer wrote: "Contact with the Simpsons is being maintained but the identity of Mrs Simpson's secret lover has not yet been established ... Mrs Simpson is apprehensive of losing the affection of the Prince Of Wales which she is anxious to avoid for financial reasons." The same officer later reported to his superiors, saying: "The identity of Mrs Simpson's secret lover has now been definitely ascertained. He is Guy Marcus Trundle, now living at 18 Bruton Street in Mayfair ..."

"Trundle is described as a very charming adventurer, very good looking, well-bred and an excellent dancer ... Secret meetings are made by appointment when intimate relations take place."

The documents also reveal that the then Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin prevented Edward from appealing to his subjects in a broadcast. The heir to the throne had apparently hoped he could win the nation's approval to marry Mrs Simpson and retain the throne. Winston Churchill himself is thought to have engineered plans for the appeal.

It is also made clear that the Queen Mother played a pivotal role in forcing the couple's exile and it's thought her recent death may have played a role in the timing of the information's release.

 

[Jenna1186]

I don't belive this, I mean come on my niece Jessica was born on Nov. 14 same as Prince Charles, and my other niece Madeline was born on June 10 same as Princess Madeleine of Sweden and Prince Hashim Of Jordan doesn't that mean their related to them? NO.Do they have the same birthday? Yes.

As for looking alike, Princess Diana and Sophie, Countess Of Wessex look a great deal alike are they related as far as anyone knows, no they aren't related.And you all are forgeting that are people who are lookalikes, who get paid to go party and what not, dressed up as members of the royal family.

I won't belive anything this woman says until a DNA test is done proving she's the Duke and Duchess's Daughter.

 

[Alexandra]

Oh yes, the resemblance is really very striking! But anyway, I agree there with Jenna, it is only a story made for some or other reasons. It is, of cource, a very romantic story and the most of us like to hear stories of lost and found princesses and princes. But could a dramatic story of this kind have remained a secret for so long. Sure, earlier in the world the press was discreet, especially concerning to royal people, but even then there are always rumours. And are there pictures proving the pregnancy, the Simpson was very well known to the press. And if it was true, wouldn't they have adopted the child later. Or perhaps not, when you think over...
But as Jenna says, it is only DNA which could prove the relationship.

This is just my opinion to the matter, and in the whole, it is not my porridge at all!

 

[thissal]

Ah ha, thanks Alexandria. That was the article I was referring to. But it is strange that such information would be released on the Duke and Duchess of Windsor after all this time. It seemed purposeful, but for what?

One thing it made clear is that if Edward VIII had supposedly fathered a child, then here's the evidence that maybe the child was not his. At any rate, I wouldn't think it would alter the rules of succession since children born out of wedlock may not inherit the throne anyway, unless they are adopted?

But if Edward VIII could have formally adopted this child before he abdicated, would the child then have become Queen? If so, I could see why some people would have them believe the baby was stillborn. Nothing like a good royal mystery!

 

[Josefine]

Could someone tell me about their life after his abdication

 

[Bubbette]

There have been many books on this. Basically, long lunches and lush parties, on someone else's tab if possible.

 

[gaoshan1021]

Edward VIII (Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David Windsor), 1894–1972, King of Great Britain and Ireland (1936). He was born on the 23rd June 1894 at White Lodge, Richmond Park, Surrey, England, the son of King George V and Mary of Teck (Queen Mary).
King Edward was styled as "By the Grace of God, of Great Britain and Ireland and the British Dominions Beyond the Seas, King, Defender of the Faith, Emperor of India". Known within his family as David, Edward did not get along with this father, according to some sources he was terrified of him. King of Great Britain in January 1936 he abdicated the throne on December 10th 1936 for his love for Wallis Simpson.
Plans for Edward's coronation, upset by the abdication, were left in place for his brother George VI. in May 1936 while riding back from an army parade in Hyde Park, Edward survived an assassination attempt made by an Irish journalist who was angry at the Home Secretary. The would-be killer, George McMahon, pulled out a gun, which came loose during a struggle with police and fell under the King's horse. The police retrieved the gun and Edward kept on riding. Edward known as the Duke of Windsor after his abdication published his autobiography, "A King's Story" in 1951. The Duke was the subject of a 1965 documentary, "A King's Story".
Edward married Wallis on the 3rd of June 1937 at Chateau de Cande, Monts, France. He was 43 years old, there are no known children from this marriage. The Duke died on 28th may 1972 at the age of 78 from natural causes, he is buried at Windsor, Berkshire, England.

 

[gaoshan1021]

H.M. King Edward VIII
www.hultonarchive.com

 

[gaoshan1021]

Windsor, Wallis Warfield, duchess of, 1896–1986, American-born wife of Edward, duke of Windsor, who, as Edward VIII, abdicated the British throne in order to marry her. In 1916 she married a naval lieutenant, from whom she was divorced in 1927. The next year she married Ernest Aldrich Simpson, an American businessman residing in London, where she met Edward, who was then prince of Wales. The friendship between Mrs. Simpson and the prince continued after he succeeded to the throne in Jan., 1936. In Oct., 1936, Mrs. Simpson obtained a divorce decree nisi. Rumors of a projected marriage of Edward and Mrs. Simpson preceded the crisis of Dec., 1936, which resulted in Edward's abdication. On Apr. 27, 1937, the Simpson divorce became final, and Mrs. Simpson legally changed her name to Wallis Warfield. On June 3 she married Edward in France, where they made their home. By special letters patent it was provided that the duchess of Windsor should not share her husband's royal rank. Exiled, she and Edward remained in France and became prominent in international social circles. She was not officially invited back to Britain until 1967. She attended Edward's funeral in England in 1972 and was buried next to him at her death.

 

[gaoshan1021]

H.G. Walllis Simpson the Duchess of Windsor

 

[gaoshan1021]

H.G. Walllis Simpson the Duchess of Windsor

 

[sky]

Does H.G mean Her Grace?

 

[justine]

Originally posted by sky@Dec 24th, 2003 - 12:44 pm
Does H.G mean Her Grace?

yes HG does mean Her Grace...because I am sure you know that she was never given/granted the (or allowed to use) the style of HRH.
HG is the style for a Duke/Duchess who are not Royal Princes/ss I believe. I believe there are a few other titles or nobility that also are styled w/ HG.

 

[sky]

I know that he became an HRH after his marriage but was his title HRH prince Edward, Duke of Windsor or just HRH Edward, Duke of Windsor?

 

[justine]

Originally posted by sky@Dec 24th, 2003 - 1:50 pm
I know that he became an HRH after his marriage but was his title HRH prince Edward, Duke of Windsor or just HRH Edward, Duke of Windsor?

he was born HRH...and I don't believe that becoming HM he lost that. Just reverted to it when he abdicated.
I believe he was HRH Prince Edward, Duke of Windsor.