When we think of Queen Elizabeth’s father, King George VI, 70 years after his death, we’re most likely to remember him as the reassuring presence that helped anchor England during World War II with radio addresses and stony-faced diplomacy. This stands in stark contrast to his brother King Edward VIII, who was known as a “greatest catch” long before he ascended to the throne, and a family disgrace after he abdicated to marry Wallis Simpson. But a recently unearthed letter is a reminder that they were actually very close for a time—and George VI, known as Prince Albert or Bertie before he took the crown, also had a rebellious period of his own.
In the century-old letter, which is going up for auction on February 10, Edward describes a day trip to his mistress, Freda Dudley Ward. Edward and Albert head to Lankhills house, a gothic manor near Winchester, to visit its inhabitants, Sheila, Lady Loughborough, and her husband, Francis St. Clair-Erskine, Lord Loughborough. Albert had been carrying on a relationship with Sheila, and her husband, who was commonly called Loughie, seemingly had no idea.
“After tea I managed to lure Loughie away on the pretext of wanting to play a few more holes of golf on the local course, so as to give Sheilie a chance of being alone with Bertie; they said they were tired and we left them but imagine my horror darling when on arriving at the links we found they were closed on Sundays!!” Edward wrote. “However, I kept my head and took Loughie for a walk instead!”
Simon Luterbacher, a books and manuscripts consultant at Forum Auctions, described the letter’s importance in an interview with The Times. “A bit of sibling solidarity was at play as they tried to get Albert alone with Lady Loughborough,” he said. “It was a bit conniving on their part, and it is unusual to find a letter which goes into such personal detail. The brothers clearly had a strong bond at the time, but this would change in later years with the abdication.”
It’s possible to feel sorry for Loughie in this situation, but by all accounts his marriage with Sheila, a wealthy Australian woman who became a London socialite in the years after World War I, was apparently troubled. According to her biographer, Robert Wainwright, Loughie struggled with gambling and “drank too much.” A newspaper account of his 1924 bankruptcy filing shows that his father, the 5th Earl of Rosslyn, had to bail him out of £20,000 worth of gambling debt over the years, and that Sheila was supporting him and their two children, Anthony and Peter, on her income.
The two married in 1915, after meeting in Cairo after Loughie suffered injuries while serving in the war. When he was discharged from the army, they moved to London, where Sheila became popular with the aristocratic set. Loughie, however, became a fixture at the Soho’s gambling clubs, and Sheila was convinced he was having affairs.
Sheila befriended Freda, and Freda’s close relationship with Edward meant that she was introduced to Albert at a dance in spring 1918. (According to a letter Sheila wrote about the meeting, she said goodbye to the princes with a joke about her Australian heritage. “It was an enjoyable evening, and I told them my grandmother was a kangaroo.”) Edward wrote to Freda nearly daily, and his letters give insight into the relationship as it developed. Wainwright writes that the two couples gave themselves a nickname, The Four Do’s, coined by Edward to poke fun at Albert’s stutter and perhaps point out that they were all doing something they weren’t allowed to do. In May 1919, Edward wrote, “What marvelous fun we 4 Do’s all have, don’t we angel & f--k the rest of the world.”
In Wainwright’s biography of Sheila, he provides a bit more context for exactly what happened the day Edward tricked Loughie into giving her and Albert some time alone. The day before Edward told Freda in a letter that they planned to go to Lankhills—though perhaps joking, Edward called it “Rankhills”—after a game of golf. “I suppose I shall have to try & amuse Loughie so that they can have a talk, though I’ll do anything for their sakes, poor darlings.” In a later letter, Edward mentions that he hates Loughie for what he’s done to Sheila, who had once written that Loughie waved a revolver at her while despairing over his gambling debts.
According to biographer William Shawcross, Albert said, in a letter to Edward, that Sheila was “the one & only person in this world who means anything to me,” but ultimately the relationship was short-lived. When Albert’s father, King George V, heard that his second son was seeing a married woman, he was not pleased, and in an April 1920 letter, Albert told Edward that his father would only make him the Duke of York if he ended the relationship. Shawcross notes Albert explained the situation to Sheila in a conversation and they agreed to remain friends. He continued to write letters to her for years and despite his fear that he was being spied on, he even danced with her at a summer party.
"Love" - Google News
February 04, 2022 at 02:28AM
https://ift.tt/XRUzLAN
Inside King George VI’s Complicated Love Life - Vanity Fair
"Love" - Google News
https://ift.tt/M1BxCQA
https://ift.tt/nXAGbvw
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Inside King George VI’s Complicated Love Life - Vanity Fair"
Post a Comment