Sept. 29, 1941: Duke and Duchess of Windsor tour their Alberta ranch
The Duke of Windsor, who was King Edward VIII until his 1936 abdication and the Prince of Wales prior to that, visited his EP Ranch in southern Alberta for the first time in 14 years, along with his wife.
At Aldersyde, a hamlet of 50 people eight km southeast of Okotoks, the couple ended their long train ride to begin a 50-km drive to the ranch. A large gathering of farmers and ranchers crowded the small station platform. Aldersyde businesses closed so everyone could see the couple.
The duchess, feeling the cool breeze, wore a fur coat as she stepped from the railway car. They entered a sedan, driven by ranch manager William Levi Carlyle, and drove away as the RCMP cleared a pathway.
Driving up to the large ranch house near High River in perfect weather, the duke remarked that it was “like home,” and the duchess exclaimed: “My. It’s lovely.”
At the 41-hectare ranch, Inez Carlyle, the ranch manager’s wife, told the duke, “I am so glad to see you again, sir,” and warmly greeted the duchess.
While the duke was Prince of Wales, he purchased the property in 1919 from Frank Bedingfeld, who had established it in 1886. Breeding livestock — notably Shorthorn cattle, Dartmoor ponies, Shropshire sheep and Clydesdale horses — were imported from breeding farms in the Duchy of Cornwall in the United Kingdom.
Although the duke’s stock diversification initiatives proved unprofitable and the livestock were sold in the 1930s, he maintained a personal interest in the ranch until he sold it in 1962. He visited many times in the 1920s, while Prince of Wales, and in the 1940s and ’50s while accompanied by the duchess.