halomanuk

Those were conducted behind closed doors,not in public.Life was a lot different then dont forget.

Louise C

Well, divorce was still considered pretty scandalous in those days, and some people were genuinely shocked that the king wanted to marry a twice divorced woman.

But others reacted differently. In Crown and Shamrock, Mary Kenny writes about the reaction of her own familyto the abdication:

Even today, more than seventy years on, my brother becomes quite emotional as he recalls the impact that had on the company assembled round our family radio: neighbours and friends ranged from old Empire Loyalists to Free Staters to passionate Republicans. Poor King Edward! So sad! The man who had been the pin-up Prince of Wales and a well-liked king among the young and the disaffected was renouncing it all for a woman.

My mother, then a woman of 34 with three young children, thought it was simply the most romantic story in the world: she also saw it as a tribute to women in general that a woman could wield such power over a king. It meant much more to her - in terms of female empowerment - than carrying pacards and placing bombs in letterboxes as the suffragettes had done.

Brunel

On the day his reign officially ended, 11 December 1936, Edward made a BBC radio broadcast from Windsor Castle; no longer king, he was introduced by Sir John Reith (the founder of the BBC) as "His Royal Highness Prince Edward". The official address had been polished by Churchill and was moderate in tone, speaking about Edward's inability to do his job "as I would have wished" without the support of "the woman I love". Edward's reign had lasted 327 days, the shortest of any British monarch since the disputed reign of Lady Jane Grey over 380 years earlier. The day following the broadcast he left Britain for Austria.

Speculatin'

A lot of old heirloom type keepsakes, without intrinsic value, disappeared after my mother passed away a few years ago. But I remember a Sunday type of newspaper feature article, yellow with age, that was among scrapbooks, etc. in the closet, about that royal affair. My dad had a job in Baltimore, Maryland, when I was born (1937). My parents were from Wisconsin, and they, along with me, eventually went back there. Anyway, the woman in that royal affair was from Baltimore, I think; thus the big newspaper feature. As for myself, I have no memories of Baltimore, since I was only two years old when we moved to WI/MN.

larkin

I was visiting friends in a small flat off Cranley Gardens in London when the Duke of Windsor passed away. I remember that there was much buzz about Mrs. Simpson and whether or not she would talk with the Queen. I suspect that in the end, they did. I think that she walked unattended in the funeral procession.


I have a 1d, 2d, and 3d, postage stamps featuring Edward VIII
If you have a 6d coin, maybe you'll send it along to me..

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