Autograph letters signed to Freda Dudley Ward, reflecting candidly on the death of his brother.. This item is unavailable.Autograph letters signed to Freda Dudley Ward, reflecting candidly on the death of his brother.

The future Edward VIII writes to his mistress with shocking indifference to the death of his epileptic brother, Prince John, expressing gladness that the "more of an animal" boy had passed and regretting only that the mourning would interrupt his partying. Freda Dudley Ward, a married English socialite, was Edward's mistress from 1918 to 1929. Winston Churchill observed in 1927, "It is quite pathetic to see the Prince and Freda. His love is so obvious and undisguisable" (Ziegler, p. 89). Edward was then visiting military divisions in Europe. On 17 January 1919 he writes enclosing "the teeny calendar which is now thine": a copy of the "Bond Street" Calendar for 1919, inscribed by him with a sequence of first letters of words from a poem they admired. He comments on rumours he was engaged to Lady Cynthia Curzon, and states that he is headquartered in a former chemical factory. The second letter, dated 18 January, finds him exulting that "I'm nearly through now, only a church parade tomorrow morning & then goodbye-ee to this filthy Rhineland & all these - - Huns!". He did not yet know that Prince John, aged 13, had died that day following a seizure. John had suffered from epilepsy since childhood and spent his final years in seclusion at Sandringham; his condition was made public only after his death. In the next letter, dated 20 January, Edward had heard the news: "I'm in a fever, beloved one, as I arrived here about 4:00 P.M. to find a wire from H.M. [the King] to say that my youngest brother had died & that I wasn't to go to Paris; I wired back to say that I was returning to England at once for a few days. I had great & wonderful hopes of seeing TOI [his pet name for her] tomorrow evening if the goddess of fortune had been kind to us. I'm so miserable darling as I've just got another wire from H.M. telling me not to return to England". The King apparently refused to allow Edward to return to London because he did not want the funeral to become a public event. Edward continues, "Isn't it all too heartbreaking & of course my little brother's death plunges me into mourning; don't think me very cold-hearted, sweetheart, but I've told you all about that little brother, darling, & how he was an epileptic & might have gone West any day!! He's been practically shut up for the last 2 years anyhow, so no-one has ever seen him except the family & then only once or twice a year & his death is the greatest relief imaginable & what we've always silently prayed for; but to be plunged into mourning for this is the limit just as the war is over which cuts parties etc. right out!! No-one would be more cut up if any of my other 3 brothers were to die than I should be, but this poor boy had become more of an animal than anything else & was only a brother in the flesh & nothing else!!". The letters are lengthy and wide-ranging. They are published in part in Letters from a Prince, edited by Rupert Godfrey, 1998. Commenting on the 20 January letter, one historian judged: "Selfish and narcissistic, Edward appeared to be more upset about missing a few parties in Paris and a rendezvous with his mistress than the actual death of his brother" (Greig, p. 144). Geordie Greig, King Maker, 2014; Philip Ziegler, King Edward VIII, 1992. 3 letters, handwritten in pencil continuously on 3 sheets (2 sheets 251 x 200 mm, the third 201 x 124 mm), together with small calendar (see note), in envelope with black wax seal and franked in London on 24 January 1919. Envelope a little soiled and roughly opened; letters in fine condition.…