Archivist given right to view Duke’s will

A SENIOR judge has given a royal archivist permission to see the will of the Duke of Windsor, who died in 1972 and was King Edward VIII until his abdication in December 1936.

Leeds-born Sir James Munby decided that the seal on the envelope containing the will can be broken and a copy made for Oliver Irvine, assistant keeper of the Queen’s archives.

The judge, president of the Family Division of the High Court, announced his decision in a written ruling published yesterday. He said he had analysed the issue after Mr Irvine wrote asking for a copy.

The case was listed as: “In the matter of His Royal Highness the Duke of Windsor (deceased).”

Judges in Sir James’s position have responsibilities for the sealing and unsealing of royal wills.

Ten years ago Sir Mark Potter, the then President of the Family Division of the High Court, explained how wills made by members of the royal family were normally sealed on the order of the President of the Family Division of the High Court and could only be unsealed by order of the President of the Family Division of the High Court.

He explained the procedure after a man claimed to be Princess Margaret’s illegitimate son and asked for her will to be unsealed. Sir Mark dismissed the application.

Edward VIII, who was born in 1894, was the only British sovereign to voluntarily abdicate. He became King in January 1936, following the death of George V, and stepped down in December 1936 in order to marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson.

broke the story of the abdication crisis under the editorship of Arthur Mann.