Person    | Male  Born 23/6/1894  Died 28/5/1972

King Edward VIII

Categories: Royalty, Seriously Famous

Born as Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David, at White Lodge in Richmond Park. Known to friends and family as David. 

Reigned 20 January - 10 December 1936 when he abdicated in favour of marriage to the twice divorced Mrs Simpson, to the sound of Londoners singing "Hark the herald angels sing, Mrs Simpson's pinched our king". Also successfully introduced plus-fours to America. After the abdication he was given the title of Duke of Windsor, and his younger brother, Bertie, became King George VI.  Thereafter the Windsors lived abroad and he died in Paris. The Guardian published a much more unusual picture of Edward, as the Prince of Wales in 1920, surfing in Hawaii. 

More seriously, he was aged 42 when he succeeded as King and had already, as Prince of Wales since 1911, spent many years representing his father, King George V, on gruelling tours of the Empire, and unveiling what he described as a never-ending stream of foundation stones. The choice he had was: more of that, or the woman he loved?

2021: The Guardian ('Saturday', 9 October) published a review of 'The Secret Royals' - Aldrich and Cormac, by David Pegg in which he writes: "... nobody emerges from the book in a more unflattering light than Edward VIII. He is grasping, lazy, greedy, dishonest, unreliable, anti-Semitic, self-pitying, treasonous ...".

2023: Reading Patrick Hamilton’s 1935 ‘Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky’, we were interested to see, on page 254, a discussion that takes place in a pub about “His Majesty’s illness”. Bob hopes that he will be “more successful as an Edwardian than as a Georgian” and “The Governor had got it into his head that the Prince of Wales would Never Come to the Throne but that the Duke of York would be Elected instead.” No basis is given for this view but it was remarkably prescient.

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
King Edward VIII

Commemorated ati

Duchy of Cornwall almshouses

This building was erected in 1914 by HRH Edward Prince of Wales to provide ac...

Read More

Foundation stone for Royal Commonwealth Society

Edward Prince of Wales laid this stone in the 26th year of the reign of King ...

Read More

Meard Street

2022: We were contacted by David Bieda who wrote: "Meard Street plaque. I’d l...

Read More

Monarchs - board in Wine Office Court

When they add Charles III we wonder if they will remember to also increment t...

Read More

Monarchs - board on Fleet Street

This board reads as if the pub has been rebuilt in each of the monarchs' reig...

Read More

Show all 6

This section lists the memorials created by the subject on this page:
King Edward VIII

Creations i

Cavalry Memorial

Unveiled in its original location, at Stanhope Gate by the Dorchester Hotel, ...

Read More

E G Anderson Hospital and the Prince of Wales

This hospital was formally opened by H.R.H. The Prince of Wales, Patron of Un...

Read More

HMS Crystal Palace

This trophy was originally placed on the old quarter-deck (presumably constru...

Read More

Islington war memorial arch - foundation stone at the right

In 1923 the Prince of Wales was Edward, who later became, briefly, King Edwar...

Read More

Other Subjects

Charlton House

Charlton House

Regarded as the best-preserved Jacobean house in Greater London. It was built by the crown to house Sir Adam Newton and his royal charge, Prince Henry, the son of King James I. The interior feature...

Building, Property, Royalty

1 memorial
Silver Jubilee of King George V

Silver Jubilee of King George V

The twenty-fifth anniversary of the accession of King George V.

Event, Royalty

5 memorials
Diana Princess of Wales

Diana Princess of Wales

Born Lady Diana Frances Spencer in Norfolk. Married the Prince of Wales at St Paul's Cathedral in London on 29 July 1981, divorced 28 August 1996. Died in a car crash in Paris with Dodi Fayed. Abov...

Person, Royalty, Seriously Famous, France

12 memorials
Richard Penderel

Richard Penderel

Born Tong Shropshire, one of 5 catholic brothers. In 1651, following his father's beheading in 1649, Charles II was running from Cromwell's army. The Penderels disguised him and helped him on his...

Person, Royalty

1 memorial
Mary Queen of Scots

Mary Queen of Scots

Mary’s first 20 years were an amazing roller-coaster of a life. She spent the last 20 years imprisoned and was then beheaded. Born in Linlithgow Palace (north east of Edinburgh), only surviving ch...

Person, Royalty, Seriously Famous, Scotland

6 memorials

Previously viewed

Royal Hospital Chelsea

Royal Hospital Chelsea

A retirement and nursing home for British soldiers who are unfit for further duty due to injury or old age. They are popularly known as ‘Chelsea Pensioners’. Founded by King Charles II in 1682 and...

Building, Armed Forces, Gardens / Agriculture, Social Welfare

6 memorials
George Maule Allen

George Maule Allen

Lived at 17 Carlisle Street, Soho Square. Died aged 33. We think it likely that this GMA is the same George Maule Allen mentioned on the Kemble family website as marrying Annie Constance Twiss in 1...

Person, Law

1 memorial
Cecil Day Lewis

Cecil Day Lewis

Poet and novelist. Born Ireland but brought up in London. His mystery novels were written under his pseudonym, Nicholas Blake. During the 1940s, while still married to his first wife, he had a long...

Person, Literature, Poetry, Ireland

3 memorials