Sir Philip Magnus on a royal Peter Pan
Biographies of monarchs who have reigned for Many years are normally richly documented. They make in consequence a substantial Contribution to history, but this rule is Inapplicable to the few months' reign of Edward VIII. "His history," Lady Donaldson writes*, "is that of an abdication," and the facts of that episode have been detailed from every Point of view again and again. The author's task, therefore, is almost purely biographical and it is evident that she has not used the Royal Archives. Her purpose is to account for her subject's resounding failure, and her method has been to tap every available sOurce of personal recollection before it is silenced by death. But in seeking to explain bow "the beautiful, eager English boy," "the most popular Prince of Wales in history," declined into the sad-faced Duke of Windsor flitting incessantly and aimlessly between Paris and New York, she encountered a snag which Will be readily understood.
Most of the Duke of Windsor's surviving friends and associates were willing to talk but Unwilling to be quoted, and the author was Inhibited accordingly from providing custoMary proofs of her good faith in the form of reference notes. She has adopted instead the expedient of marking one master-copy of her Manuscript "with the source of every piece of formation or any opinion which cannot be FURY documented." This manuscript will be available to historians ten years after the death of the last person named in this way. It may seem unlikely that an official life of Edward VIII will ever be commissioned by the Royal Family. If it were, however, its author would be considerably indebted to Lady Donaldson. Without revising accepted views in any significant manner, she has rescued much Illuminating and interesting detail which might Utherwise have perished and has painted a balanced, compassionate and convincing portrait.
In August, 1914, the Prince of Wales was aged iloventy, and was endowed with a beauty of face and a grace of form and movement which stole the hearts of men and women. He was the embodiment of that generous and, at first, ecstatic mood of self-sacrifice which swept the youth of Europe into the maelstrom, and he experienced a traumatic frustration when he refused permission to go into battle with nis regiment, the Grenadier Guards. Employed on staff duties, the Prince often Psited the front line surreptitiously, "and 'Pond it deeply distasteful to wear war uecorations which he was denied the opportunity of earning." "I believe," he wrote, "it will 11,0I be misunderstood if I confess how often I uePlored my status at this time. Oh! not to be a Prince," A Many intangible aspects of democracy which `tirnericans absorbed during their struggle to ,aPie a continent, seeped into England by way ui the trenches in World War One. The Prince Edward VII/ Frances Donaldson (Weidenfeld and Nlicolson £4.95)
always maintained that wartime experience had caused him to rebel against his position, but he deceived himself. He was supremely well contented in fact with that position, while refusing to understand the nature of the bedrock upon which it rested; and his father's courtiers, who did their best to enlighten him, feared that he was unteachable.
In a changing world the Crown is cherished as the oldest of the nation's institutions, and as a human symbol of authority which its wearer cannot personally exercise. It has thus become an article of faith which supplies a psychological need, and as such its foundations are laid deeply and securely in public opinion. But that metaphysical concept which defies rational analysis was misconstrued by the Prince of Wales.
The Prince always equated his foundation in public opinion with personal acceptance and success, and was content to rely upon his physical attributes. These enabled him, as the late James Pope-Hennessy wrote, "to personify for millions the longings and aims of a new post-war generation, with its driving wish for freedom from tradition and convention, whatever the cost." That role was so novel for a member of the Royal Family that it dismayed King George V, but it delighted Lloyd George who resolved to exploit it politically. The structure of the Empire had been shaken severely by the stress of war, and the Prime Minister persuaded King George and Queen Mary to despatch the slim and radiant Prince of Wales upon a series of official tours to thank its component peoples for their help. Between 1919 and. 1925 four immensely strenuous but enjoyable overseas tours constituted the Prince's main occupation. In Canada he eliminated some of the scars which resistance to conscription had left in the minds of French Canadians; and in Australia he caused Labour politicians to discard much of their distrust of the monarchy. In India where the shadow of Gandhi obscured the royal sunshine, and in South Africa where the Boers would not be reconciled, the Prince was less successful. The figurehead role which he was required to sustain was played with inimitable gusto. Never sparing himself he developed an extraordinary restlessness, and the image of a golden-haired Prince Charming was stamped upon the minds of the masses wherever he went. His prestige soared continuously until by 1930 his boyish figure had become invested with a sentiment bordering upon idolatry. Highest among the factors which fed that idolatry was the Prince's prowess as a sportsman. He had taken in India to polo and pig-sticking; he learnt to fly; and horsemanship became a passion. While watching his weight with the care of a jockey, hunting and especially steeplechasing meant more to the Prince than exhilarating exercise and a means of keeping fit. They satisfied a deep-seated urge to compete on level terms with his contempor aries.
As the years passed the Prince's outlook and interests diverged ever more widely from those of his parents. Whereas George V reigned in dignified seclusion, cherishing tradition, caution and routine, the Prince's life became one of vivid contrast and commotion. Novelty and experiment were pursued for their own sakes and his intimate friends were a mixed grill of peers, Americans, Guards' officers, business tycoons and ladies in search of romance.
Lady Donaldson handles very well the prOmiscuous nature of the Prince's intimate life. It was protected from public criticism by a taboo, observed loyally by the British Press, on comments about the private sectors of royal and other highly placed lives. The Prince's childhood lacked warmth; he was never happy in his parents' homes; but his instincts were as domestic as were those of his married sister and brothers. He formed accordingly a series of what the Duchess of Windsor termed "attachments and even infatuations before our meeting." These were formed always with married women of outstanding personal attractions, one of whom, an American, Thelma Lady Furness, published long afterwards an account of her friendship with the Prince of Wales. Lady Donaldson acknowledges "a very great debt" to Mrs Dudley Ward who absorbed the Prince's unassuageable devotion for many years, after entering his life, to the great distress of King George V and Queen Mary, as early as February, 1918.
For the years of voluntary exile the author has relied inevitably, and to a great extent, upon the Duchess of Windsor's undervalued and well-constructed volume of memoirs, The Heart Has Its Reasons. For details of the Duke's service in France during the opening phase of World War Two she is much indebted to Lady Alexandra Metcalfe, widow of Major Edward Dudley ("Fruity") Metcalfe who was closer to the Duke, and who probably knew him better, than any of his other men friends.
Although the Duke hotly resented the boycott of the Duchess by all members of his family, as well as her exclusion from the designation "H.R.H." when that rank was conferred upon him, he had not, as the Duchess wrote, "a mean bone in his body or a snide thought in his mind." A sunny resilient nature, which saved him from thinking ill of others, made him also appeal irresponsible and incapable of understanding why others should think critically of him. Queen Mary had to spell out to him, at his request. why she felt so strongly about his abdication, and why it seemed inconceivable "to those who had made such sacrifices during the War, that you, as their King, refused a lesser sacrifice." He saw her and King George VI immediately after the outbreak of World War Two, when he visited London and obtained employment in the rank of major-general with the British Military Mission in Paris. George VI informed Neville Chamberlain that his brother had appeared "not a bit worried as to the effect he left on people's minds as to his behaviour in 1936. He has forgotten all about it."
If James Barrie's Peter Pan can be accepted as a symbol of the doomed generation of 1914, the beautiful romantic boy who refused to grow up and who flew away to exile in a Never Never Land may serve to symbolise Edward VIII. Lady Donaldson shows clearly that after abandoning throne, family, country, friends, fame and fortune, the Duke of Windsor behaved with exemplary self-restraint. He scrupulously avoided embarrassing his successors by courting publicity, and never allowed bitterness to poison or invade his mind. His marriage was described by Winston Churchill as "one of the great loves of history." and he displayed invariably in public a serenity which commanded respect. It must be said finally that Frances Donaldson's well-written, excellently illustrated and most interesting biography deserves to hold the field for many years.
Sir Philip Magnus-Allcroft has most recently written King Edward VII
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