Letter revealing Edward VIII’S displeasure with ‘cornie stunts’ of royal life up for sale
A LETTER in which Edward VIII reveals his disenchantment with life in the Royal family, from meeting “deadly dull” heads of state to “cornie pompous stunts”, is to be sold at auction.
The 1919 letter, written by the then Prince of Wales to his mistress, insults the “pip squeak province” which hosted him on royal tour to Canada, and the “official wonk” of his speeches.
Written when he was 25, it spells out his distaste for royal life more than a decade before he met American divorcee Wallis Simpson, whom he would eventually abdicate for. Addressed to his lover, Freda Dudley Ward, who was at the time married to Liberal MP William Dudley Ward, the fourpage letter was written aboard HMS Renown as it took him on a tour of Canada. Their affair continued until 1934, ending when Edward became involved with Mrs Simpson. Charles Ashton, a director at auctioneers Cheffins, said the letter to Mrs Dudley Ward gives a window into his “disenchantment with his life as a royal”. In the letter, the future king referred to speeches he had made, writing: “What I think of all this official wonk and these cornie pompous stunts & I’ve made no less than 7 speeches today.”
He described Robert Borden, the Canadian prime minister, whom he had dined with, as “such a stick & deadly dull except re politics & I can’t tackle him on that subject”.
Expressing how much he misses her, he added: “I do love you, love you, my very own blessed little Fredie darling & I find life very hard & dour without you ...... it’s hell when we are parted sweetheart & when I can’t hear you say all your divine things which is what keeps me alive.”
The letter, accompanied by the original envelope bearing a black wax seal, is part of the Cheffins Library Sale auction in Cambridge on October 21, with a presale estimate of £400 to £600.