John van Der Kiste - George Vs Children

First published in 1991

This new edition published in 2003

The History Press

The Mill, Brimscombe Port

Stroud, Gloucestershire, GL5 2QG

www.thehistorypress.co.uk

This ebook edition first published in 2011

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John Van der Kiste, 1991, 2003, 2011

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Original typesetting by The History Press

W riting a biography of King George Vs children as a family presents problems not encountered in so doing with the lives of the children of his father and grandmother. Even more than half a century after the crisis precipitated by the abdication of King Edward VIII, thereafter Duke of Windsor, feelings still run high in the royal family. It is therefore too early for definitive judgements about an issue which divided family and country, and which still provokes forceful argument to this day. As Hugo Vickers so rightly noted in a review of a rather sensational account of the Dukes tenure as Governor of the Bahamas during the Second World War, Michael Pyes The King over the Water, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor seem never to be treated fairly. They inspire either undue loyalty or violent abuse.1

Of the ever-increasing titles about the Duke and Duchess which have poured off the printing presses since the formers death in 1972, most have been criticized on the grounds of varying degrees of sycophancy or unreasoned hostility towards their subject. Not until 1990, with the publication of Philip Zieglers masterly King Edward VIII: the official biography, written with full access to the Royal Archives, Windsor, were readers presented with a fully balanced portrait. Despite the restricted sources available to her at the time, Frances Donaldsons Edward VIII, published in 1974, was a perceptive and admirably balanced account, although the Kings most ardent defenders felt its tone to be uniformly unfavourable and unflattering.

Of those titles that appeared in the interim, it is best left to the reader to judge on their respective validity or lack of it. Perhaps the only really essential ones are Michael Thorntons exhaustively-researched and penetrating Royal feud: The Queen Mother and the Duchess of Windsor (1985), which is in effect partly a biography of the Duke, notwithstanding the emphasis in the sub-title; J. Bryan III and Charles V. Murphys The Windsor story (1979); and Michael Blochs works, notably The Duke of Windsors war (1986), and The secret file of the Duke of Windsor (1988), both written very much from the Duke and Duchesss view, with full access to their files in Paris.

The Duke published his memoirs, A Kings Story, in 1951. They are discussed in Chapter 11 of the present work.

King George VI has likewise attracted several biographers. The 800-page official life by Sir John W. Wheeler-Bennett, published in 1958, made extensive use of his diaries and letters, but was understandably circumspect on the abdication. That the Duke of Windsor was sent a proof copy of the book, but found nothing in the text to which he could object, says much about the authors caution. Sarah Bradfords biography, thirty-one years later, for which she had access to archive sources not available to writers of other interim studies (among them Denis Judd, Christopher Warwick, and Patrick Howarth), was less constrained in her retelling of the episode, and her portrait of the Duke of Windsor is not a flattering one.

Even if the abdication had not been such a traumatic episode in the history of the British monarchy, it would have been surprising if the biographies of both Kings, the two eldest children of King George V and Queen Mary, had not heavily outnumbered those of their younger brothers and sisters. For the three who lived to maturity, the literature can almost be counted on the fingers of one hand. Princess Mary, Countess of Harewood and Princess Royal, has yet to find a biographer, apart from M.C. Carey, who published his Princess Mary the same year as she was married. She is, however, also represented by brief chapters in two collected biographies of all the Princesses Royal, by Geoffrey Wakeford and Helen Cathcart respectively.

Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, is the subject of what reviewer Richard Usborne called a dutiful life history of a dutiful English royal prince whose widow and son are still alive,2 by Noble Frankland, published in 1980. The Duchess published her memoirs in 1983. To quote another review, it is a gentle, unpretentious volume that is delightful to read but gives away no secrets.

To the youngest son of King George V to reach maturity, George, Duke of Kent, more than a whiff of scandal was attached during his bachelor days, and Christopher Warwicks George and Marina (1988), and Audrey Whitings The Kents (1985) are both the soul of discretion on the subject of a Prince whose children are still only in middle age.

Not for many years, therefore, will all papers be made available to the biographer and reader who will be content with nothing less than a total warts-and-all portrait of the family. Meanwhile, I hope this will serve as a suitably objective account of the lives of two Kings, of whom one was arguably the most controversial ever to occupy the British throne and the other destined to be head of state in what has been called the countrys finest and her darkest hours, their brothers, and their sister. Anecdotes abound on the foibles, fancies and follies of this family of six, some of which may be discredited in time, others not. In attempting to distinguish between fact and fantasy, hagiography and demonology, I hope this account treads a fine line between undue loyalty and violent abuse.

I am grateful to the Hon. David Astor for permission to quote material from the correspondence between his mother, Lady Astor, MP, and members of the royal family, which is published here for the first time, and to the staff, Reading University, Department of Archives and Manuscripts, for access.

I am indebted to the following copyright holders for permission to quote from published works: William Collins Ltd (King Edward VIII, by Philip Ziegler); Macmillan & Co. (King George VI, by John W. Wheeler-Bennett); and George Weidenfeld & Nicolson (Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, by Noble Frankland).

My thanks for constant help, encouragement and advice during the writing of this book are due to my parents, Wing Commander Guy and Nancy Van der Kiste; Theo Aronson; Steven Jackson, of the Commemorative Collectors Society; Joyce Kilvington; Shirley Stapley, and John Wimbles.

John Van der Kiste

2003