20. The Appeasement Broadcast from Verdun, 8 May 1939, by Edward, Duke of Windsor

Edward, Prince of Wales in around 1920, in a portrait by the British painter Reginald Grenville (1876-1941). Image credit: Wikipedia

On 8 May 1939, Edward, Duke of Windsor, formerly King Edward VIII, gave a radio broadcast which had been commissioned by the American National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC). That September would see the outbreak of the Second World War.    

The broadcast was made during a visit to the First World War battlefields of Verdun, and it was the Duke’s first since abdicating in 1936.  In it he appealed for peace. These are his words:

‘I am deeply conscious of the presence of the great company of the dead, and I am convinced that could they make their voices heard they would be with me in what I am about to say. I speak simply as a soldier of the Last War whose most earnest prayer it is that such cruel and destructive madness shall never again overtake mankind. There is no land whose people want war.’

The broadcast was heard across the world by millions. It was widely regarded as supporting appeasement, and the BBC refused to broadcast it. It was broadcast outside the United States on shortwave radio and was reported in full by British broadsheet newspapers.

You can hear it at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pG4bu5LJUTo

Edward, as Prince of Wales, playing at the East Devon Golf Club. Image credit: Fairlynch Museum

To find the former King Edward VIII in our Peace Museum may surprise some people, especially when I claim some local connections for him.

Well, it is a fact that in May 1921, as HRH The Prince of Wales. he played around the course at Budleigh Salterton’s East Devon Golf Club.

Kit Harington in 2019. Image credit: Sachyn Mital; Wikipedia

I learnt of a second connection, less well known, while watching the TV series ‘My Grandparents’ War’ in September 2022. Part of the filming for the series had been recorded at Budleigh’s Fairlynch Museum which actor Kit Harington had visited.

 

The ‘Game of Thrones’ star is the great-grandson of Budleigh artist Joyce Dennys, whose two books, set in the town during WW2, were published in the 1980s.  

But the local connection with Edward, Duke of Windsor, was via another of Kit Harrington’s relatives. During the making of ‘My Grandparents’ War’ the actor discovered that his paternal grandfather John Harington had been a WW2 spy whose job it was to report on the activities of the former King, widely regarded as a Nazi sympathiser.

The Duke and Duchess of Windsor meeting Adolf Hitler in 1937. Hitler treated the Duchess with full royal deference. Image credit: Wikipedia

Nazi sympathiser or peacemaker? Edward had abdicated the British throne in December 1936, and his brother George VI had become King. He had been given the title Duke of Windsor and married Wallis Simpson in June 1937. He appeared to have been sympathetic to Germany in this period and, that September, announced his intention to travel privately to Germany to tour factories.

The Duke, together with Wallis, Duchess of Windsor, visited Nazi Germany in October 1937. His interests, officially into researching the social and economic conditions of the working classes, were against the backdrop of looming war in Europe. 

His supporters saw him as a potential peacemaker between Britain and Germany, but the British government refused to sanction such a role, opposed the tour and suspected that the Nazis would use the Duke's presence for propaganda. Windsor was keen for his wife, who had been rejected by the British establishment, to experience a state visit as his consort. He promised the government to keep a low profile, and the tour went ahead between 12 and 23 October.

Edward, Duke of Windsor, accompanied by Robert Ley, reviews an SS squad. Ley was charged with war crimes in 1945 and hanged himself in his cell. Image credit: Bundesarchiv Bild

The Duke and the Duchess, who were officially invited to the country by the German Labour Front, were chaperoned for much of their visit by its leader, Robert Ley. The couple visited factories, many of which were producing materiel for the rearmament effort, and the Duke inspected German troops.

The Windsors were greeted by the British national anthem and Nazi salutes. They dined with high-ranking Nazis such as Joseph Goebbels, Hermann Göring, Joachim von Ribbentrop and Albert Speer, and had tea with Adolf Hitler in Berchtesgaden. The Duke had a long private conversation with Hitler, but it is uncertain what they discussed, as the minutes of their meeting were lost during the war. The Duchess took afternoon tea with Hitler's deputy, Rudolf Hess. Hitler was sympathetic to the Windsors and treated the Duchess like royalty.

Following the outbreak of war, Edward was appointed governor of the Bahamas in July 1940. He apparently continued to reveal his favourable views of Hitler as late as the 1960s, and it is not surprising that he was regarded with suspicion by the Allies. Kit Harington’s grandfather, it seems, was given the task of ensuring that the Duke did not pass secret information to the Nazis.