The Peoples King (28 page)

Most of the letters and telegrams were sent by people of the working
and middle classes, though not entirely. Some of the letters are written
in an uneven hand and with spelling mistakes, suggesting that their
authors did not have much formal education. 'I suppose this will never
get to you,' said one letter, 'but who ever get it don't give it to the
press the writing and spelling is bad but my heart is good.'
³
' Many
people were determined to write, regardless of the difficulty this might
pose or, indeed, of the cost of a stamp which, for an inland letter in
1936, was one and a half (old) pence - no inconsiderable sum for a
poor family. According to a report by the British Medical Association
in 1936, 'The average [weekly] income per head, exclusive of rent and
rates, is shown to range from 4s 9d [four shillings and nine old pence]
for the unemployed, to 10s
6d
for the employed. This weekly sum has
to cover not only food but clothes, heating and lighting."
⁴
The decision
to spend one and a half pence on postage, therefore, using up money
for food and other essentials, would not have been taken lightly.

It is not clear whether Edward saw any of the letters arriving for
him, as it was customary for a king's Private Secretary to deal with
the mail and only to show him anything of particular importance. The
rush of events at this time, in any case, would have allowed few
opportunities for Hardinge to attend to the King's correspondence.
Some of the letter-writers had little confidence in the likelihood of
their messages reaching the King. 'As a one-time Private Secretary to
one of your present Ministers,' wrote a man called Claude Davis on
6 December, 'I realize there is small chance of this letter reaching your
own eyes.' But the urge to help him in any way in his 'solitary position',
he said, 'compels and justifies the effort.'
³⁵
Another letter from London
was equally doubtful. 'I suppose this letter may not find its way into
your hands? I hope it does, because I wonder if you have any means
of knowing how your "common" people think during the present
crisis.'
¹⁶
Certainly it would have been helpful for the King to read
these letters of support, which offered a very different view to that of
the Britannicus letter.

Many letters were full of warm enthusiasm for Wallis. 'Please accept
one of your loyal subjects' congratulations on your forthcoming mar­riage with, I am certain, one of the sweetest of ladies', wrote a Denbighshire woman. 'Our own King can not choose wrongly! . . . And
long may
you
and your
beloved
lady live. Again, God bless you
bothV
³⁷
Another woman, living in London's Baker Street, hoped that he would
marry 'the lady of your choice, but please don't abdicate, England
needs you too. You have the courage to marry, have the courage to
carry on. You are doing a marvellous job, don't leave it, England may
appreciate it when she wakes up.'
³⁸
From the tearoom at Wittering
Aerodrome came the hope that 'you will marry this lady you love &
tell them all to go to the deuce. We
don't want anybody else as King,
so please don't abdicate.'
³⁹
'My mother has a milk round in this
village,' wrote a teenage boy (who said he had sent a 'stinker' to the
Bishop of Bradford),

&
has out of curiosity asked some of the customers their opinion on the crisis
& they solidly state that the King should marry whom he likes & that they
want him & nobody else as King. These I am sure are the thoughts of 90% of
the British nation .. . Long live the King & Queen (to be).
⁴⁰

From a poor widow with two sons who had been in the navy and one
son who was partially blind came the message, 'You are the People's
King and nothing can kill their Love and Faith in You . . . Long
life and happiness with the dear Lady You have chosen, "God bless
our King".'
⁴¹
'We are all with you', urged a letter giving the New
Zealand High Commission on the Strand in London as its address, 'to
the last ditch.'
⁴²

Behind most of the correspondence was a wish to comfort and
reassure the King. 'Cheer up!' urged one letter. 'You must and will
triumph over your difficulties.'
^4.
Knowing from the newsreels and the
press that Edward liked to visit his subjects in their homes, as he had
done on the Penygarn Estate in South Wales, a number of people sent
him an invitation to their own home. They hoped to provide him with
the peace and quiet he would need to get through this difficult time.
'We're newlyweds and still furnishing bit by bit,' wrote one man,

but if at any time you look for sympathy in the upper ten thousand or million,
and find it lacking; remember it awaits you here with an easy chair, tobacco
and a fireside whose privacy is our most treasured possession, yet whose
welcome to Your Majesty is complete and unconditional.
⁴⁴

Many letters were from ex-servicemen and members of the British
Legion, who gave their regiments, ranks and, sometimes, their
numbers. They were often written in the language and with the imagery
of the Great War, especially that of trench warfare: 'We are with you
...
to a man'; 'If Mrs Simpson is good enough for
His
Majesty we
want her. Stick to your guns'; 'Stand on your ground'; 'Stick to your
Post'; 'Stand firm'.
⁴⁵
A
telegram from the Caledon Shipyard Workers
urged the King, 'Whatever you decide the straight eye at your com­mand.'
⁴⁶
'I beseech your Majesty to "Carry on",' wrote another ex-
serviceman, 'so its "eyes Right", Hold your heads up. "Steady" -
!
!!
'
⁴⁷
After a visit to the Kempton races, one man wrote:

the majority of the sporting world are with you body & soul. A message from
Wembley reads:
-
'All ex-servicemen are furious at what they consider the
interference of the Bishops.' Wonder if the Bishop of Bradford will reply to
my letter!!! My King
- a
British-American Alliance would assure world peace.
Stand by your guns!
⁴⁸

Ex-servicemen abroad, too, wrote to encourage the King. From Hali­fax in Nova Scotia came the message, 'Trust in God and Keep your
powder dry.'
⁴⁹

Geoffrey H. Wells, a minor author writing under the pseudonym of
Geoffrey West who lived in Oxford and was the son of a Cardiff
businessman (but no relation of H. G. Wells, although he shared his
surname and, indeed, wrote his biography in 1930), was soon fed up
with the fever of excitement: 'Oh God it goes on', he wrote in his
diary,

If the King
does
back down, my respect for him will totally vanish (not that
I've ever had a lot!): if they want a dummy, not a man, for the job then it really
is time to abolish the job. God save us from the long-faced Duke of York -
who would, I'm sure, be the best of good boys!

The fact that Wallis was divorced with her two ex-husbands still living
did not bother him in the slightest: 'I should have thought if the king
didn't mind it was no-one else's business.'
⁵⁰
The mathematician Alan
Turing took the same attitude. 'I should tolerate no interference by
bishops,' he told his mother, '& I don't see that the King need either.'
⁵
'
In America, where news about the King had been unfettered for
months, the press trumpeted the King's cause. The
New York Post
published an open letter to King Edward from Sinclair Lewis, the
author of such novels as the satirical
Babbitt.
Addressed to 'David
Windsor', it said, 'We don't know what's happened, but one thing we
can tell you - that the whole of America is so excited that you've
become a human being instead of just the King of England.' He urged
Edward to come to America, where he would 'be received as no guest
ever has been'. Americans believed, he added, that

a man must have his own conscience and his own life. We believe that perhaps
the most important thing that has happened in the last hundred years is
whether David Windsor shall have his own life or not. We believe that it is
perhaps more important to the British Empire that a young man in England
named David Windsor should be completely loyal to the girl he loves than to
a British mirage.
⁵²

'Don't you believe Baldwin about the people of this country being
against you!' wrote a man in Virginia to the King. 'All the right
thinking people here are for you and Mrs Simpson and I wish you
great luck and happiness.'
⁵³
A man in Atlanta wrote to say that 'the
American People are with you in choosing the Woman of your Choice
in Mrs Simpson. I am with you Heart & Soul. God Bless you Both.'
⁵⁴

Love and sympathy were sent from the Associated Negro Press, based
in Chicago - 'your loyal coloured subjects in the United States of
America', it said, were praying for him.
⁵⁵

But if Americans generally and the majority of people in Britain
seemed to be backing the King, it was also true that Lockhart's Mrs
Rectors and Mrs Town Councillors did not. 'My wife has just returned
from a Liberal National Women's Committee,' wrote a man from
Glasgow, 'and she tells me all her colleagues were boiling over with
indignation as, of course, she herself has been since the news came
out.'
⁵⁶
But these feelings were by no means limited to women. 'Bad
show!' exclaimed a Sussex farmer in his diary.
⁵⁷
A retired engineer
who had been secretary to the Governor of the United Provinces in
India, and was now living in Kensington, London, wrote in his diary
that, 'the papers are full of the King's crisis with the Govt. We all hope
he will be wise & sacrifice his own feelings towards Mrs Simpson.'
⁵⁸
A woman working in the book department of Barkers, who was a
regular reader of
The Times,
wrote in her diary that