The Woman Before Wallis: Prince Edward, the Parisian Courtesan, and the Perfect Murder

by Andrew Rose

  330. Lang, op. cit., p. 137.

  331. Ibid.

  332. Anand, S, Daisy: The life and loves of the Countess of Warwick (Portrait 2008), p. 214.

  333. Lord Hewart CJ, quoted in Humphreys, C., Seven Murders (Heinemann 1931) p3.

  334. The Times, 21 January 1932.

  335. See Truth (NZ), 9 August 1912; The White Slaves of London (Stanley Paul & Co 1912) p. 60.

  336. Census 1871 (Wells House, Hobkirk, Roxburghshire).

  337. Cornwallis-West, G., Edwardian Hey-Days (Putnam 1930) p. 102.

  338. Ibid., pp. 242, 244.

  339. Goldia seems to have traded on Major Bald’s name for social purposes: ‘Mrs Ernest Campbell Bald’ appears in the list of boxholders at the New York Met: see New York Times, 6 November 1921.

  340. See, e.g., Rolls, S. C., Steel Chariots of the Desert (Cape 1937) passim.

  341. London Gazette, 9 March 1917.

  342. TNA AIR76/19.

  343. Buchan, J., Huntingtower (Nelson 1924) p. 210.

  344. The Times, 26 January 1909.

  345. Antrobus, G., King’s Messenger 1918-1940 (Herbert Jenkins 1941) p. 151.

  346. TNA MEPO3/1589.

  347. See Chapter Thirteen.

  348. Information from the Earl of Dudley.

  349. Iformation from the late Dr Faϊka B. Croisier 2002.

  350. See Chapter Seven.

  351. Information from Raoul Laurent.

  352. CAC CSCT2/21, Winston Churchill to Clementine Churchill, May 1928.

  353. Kendal would become one of Scotland Yard’s most able senior officers, retiring in 1945.

  354. Montgomery Hyde, H., The Trials of Oscar Wilde (Hodge 1948) forward by Humphreys, Mr Justice T at p. 6.

  355. See Porter, R. and Hall, L., The Facts of Life: The Creation of Sexual Knowledge in Britain (Yale UP 1995) pp. 188–9, and Stone, D., Breeding Superman: Nietzsche, Race & Eugenics in Edwardian and Interwar England (Liverpool UP) pp. 129–30.

  356. Churchill, W., My Early Life (Collins 1969) p. 51.

  357. See, e.g., ‘Erotic Stories & Public Decency’, The Historical Journal, vol. 2 (41), at pp. 511–28 (Cambridge UP 1998); Tamagne, F., The History of Homosexuality in Europe 1919–1939 (Algora 2004) p. 211; Sparks, I., Brown, A. and Barratt, D., Knowledge of Evil (Willan Publishing 2002) p. 76, n. 61.

  358. TNA DPP7/13.

  359. See Jackson, R., Case for the Prosecution (Arthur Barker 1962) passim.

  360. Illustrated Sunday Herald 21 October 1923; Le Petit Parisien, 21 October 1923.

  361. See Georges-Michel, La Vie Brillante, passim.

  362. Jackson, op. cit., p. 171.

  363. See Chapter Nineteen.

  364. TNA DPP1/13.

  365. Fay, E. S., The Life of Mr Justice Swift (Methuen 1939) p.69.

  366. Information from the late Sir Geoffrey Wilson.

  367. Fay, op. cit. p. 146.

  368. See DPP1/74, passim.

  369. Hart-Davis, op. cit., p. 14, E to Lascelles, 19 September 1922.

  370. Hart-Davis, op. cit., p. 10, Lascelles to Thomas (undated), 1922.

  371. Hart-Davis, op. cit., p. 118, Thomas to Lascelles, 15 January 1929.

  372. CAC BGGF 1/75, Godfrey-Fausset, Sir B., Diary, 24 July 1923.

  373. Registrar, Royal Archives to the author, 14 February 2008.

  374. See later in this chapter.

  375. E to FDW, 25 July 1923, unpublished extract.

  376. Le Petit Parisien, 5 August 1923; The Times, 6 August 1923; Le Figaro, 9 August 1923.

  377. Lees-Milne, J., Harold Nicolson Volume One 1886–1929 (Hamish Hamilton 1987) p. 42.

  378. See Bodleian Library: Inverchapel Papers (uncatalogued).

  379. Gillies, D., Radical Diplomat (I B Tauris 1999), quoted in Greig, G., The King Maker (Hodder 2011) p. 192.

  380. Gillies, op. cit., p. 41.

  381. Bodleian Library: Inverchapel Bequest, Box B.

  382. See Chapter Twenty-Two.

  383. Bodleian Library, ibid., Box 41.

  384. See Chapter Twenty.

  385. TNA FO141/796/10.

  386. Ibid.

  387. The Times, 23 August 1923.

  388. The Lady, 30 August 1923.

  389. The Times, 21 August 1923.

  390. CAC LASL 1/4, Alan Lascelles to Joan Lascelles, 23 August 1923.

  391. Daily Express, 25 August 1923; Daily Mail, 25 August 1923.

  392. Wheeler-Bennett, J., King George VI (Macmillan 1965) p. 79.

  393. Ziegler, op. cit., p. 90.

  394. Balliol College Archive: Harold Nicolson, Diaries 1921–3, 23 August 1923.

  395. Ibid., 24 June 1922.

  396. Liddell Hart Centre, King’s College, London: Jean, Lady Hamilton, Diary, 26 August 1923.

  397. Drummond Castle, Visitors’ Book 1923 (Lady Willoughby d’Eresby).

  398. Shaughnessey (ed.), op. cit., p. 139.

  399. E to FDW, 31 August 1923, partly unpublished.

  400. E to FDW, undated. Philip Ziegler, op. cit., p. 577 (note 102.3) gives ‘Probably August 1929 or perhaps 1928’. The original letter, however, bears ‘1922?’ in pencil and resembles other dated correspondence from the early 1920s.

  401. See also Nicolson, N (ed) Vita and Harold (Phoenix 1992) p. 122, 123. Nicolson claimed that he was summoned to the Foreign Secretary’s compartment, but, instead of giving instructions, Curzon had complimented his wife’s latest book, Grey Wethers. The story may have been fabricated for the amusement of Vita Sackville-West.

  402. CAC LEEP1/6, Leeper, A., Diary, 2 September 1923.

  403. Nicolson, H., Curzon: The Last Phase (H Fertig 1974) p. 369 (Nicolson’s chronology is not quite accurate).

  404. BL (©British Library Board) Add MS EUR F112/797, Curzon papers.

  405. E to FDW, 5 September 1923, unpublished extract.

  406. Bowker, A., A Lifetime within the Law (W H Allen 1961) p. 20.

  407. Fay, op. cit., p. 233.

  408. Marjoribanks, op. cit. p36.

  409. Ibid., p. 37.

  410. TNA MEPO3/1589.

  411. Ibid.

  412. MEPO3/1589.

  413. Daily Graphic, 6 September 1923; Daily Mail, 28 September 1923.

  414. Daily Sketch, 11 September 1923.

  415. Dr Abdul Ragai was standing as a candidate in Egypt’s first elections as a semi-independent state, scheduled for the following month.

  416. Dr Abdul el-Bialy was also in London to plead for five members of the ‘Black Arrow’ gang of Egyptian nationalists, sentenced to death for the murder of British officials. Three were hanged.

  417. Egyptian Gazette, 10 September 1923.

  418. Daily Express, 11 September 1923.

  419. Daily Sketch, 11 September 1923.

  420. Daily Mirror, 11 September 1923.

  421. Daily Express, 11 September 1923.

  422. Daily Telegraph, 11 September 1923.

  423. Evening Standard, 10 September 1923.

  424. Daily Express, 15 May 1923.

  425. TNA DPP1/74.

  426. Although a shorthand note was taken at the trial, no transcript of the evidence is known to have survived. Apart from the reporting of sexual matters, press coverage of the evidence was extensive and detailed. This account of the evidence has been compiled from several newspaper sources.

  427. Marjoribanks, op. cit., p. 438.

  428. Evening Standard, 11 September 1923.

  429. Marjoribanks, op. cit., p. 378.

  430. Warner-Hook, N. and Thomas, G., Marshall Hall (Arthur Barker 1966) p. 224.

  431. Daily Mail, 12 September 1923.

  432. Daily Telegraph, 12 September 1923.

  433. In 1989, enquiries made at the Small Arms Museum at Warminster revealed that the mere process of getting a pistol of this type into operation suggested that Marguerite knew how to use it and that it was wrong for Marshall Hall to have claimed that a very small pressure would fire the pistol.

  434. Evening Standard, 11 September 1923.
r />   435. Daily Telegraph, 12 September 1923.

  436. Daily Telegraph, Ibid.

  437. Daily Sketch, 12 September 1923.

  438. Daily Mail, 12 September 1923.

  439. See Chapter Seven.

  440. ‘Sheik’ was pronounced ‘Sheek’ at that time.

  441. Evening News, July 1923.

  442. Pall Mall Gazette, 12 September 1923.

  443. Daily Telegraph, 13 September 1923.

  444. BL, loc. cit., Lord Curzon to Grace Curzon, 9 September 1923.

  445. Evening Standard, 12 September 1923.

  446. Daily Sketch, 13 September 1923.

  447. Daily Mail, 13 September 1923.

  448. Ashton-Wolfe, op. cit., p. 263.

  449. Evening Standard, 12 September 1923.

  450. Ibid.

  451. Daily Telegraph, 13 September 1923.

  452. Evening Standard, 12 September 1923.

  453. The Star, 12 September 1923.

  454. Ashton-Wolfe, op. cit., p. 264.

  455. Daily Express, 13 September 1923.

  456. Daily Telegraph, 13 September 1923.

  457. Daily Express, 13 September 1923.

  458. Ibid.

  459. Bodleian Library: Inverchapel Papers, Box 41.

  460. Evening Standard, 12 September 1923.

  461. Daily Mail, 13 September 1923.

  462. Daily Telegraph, 13 September 1923.

  463. Pall Mall Gazette, 12 September 1923.

  464. Evening Standard, 12 September 1923.

  465. Le Petit Parisien, 20 September 1923; Marjoribanks, op. cit., pp. 442–3.

  466. Information from the late HH Judge Alan King-Hamilton QC

  467. Daily Telegraph, 14 September 1923.

  468. Evening Standard, 12 September 1923.

  469. Hastings, M., The Other Mr Churchill (Four Square 1963) p. 80.

  470. Evening Standard, 12 September 1923.

  471. Hélène Baudry, cantracice des concerts classiques, regularly broadcast on Paris radio, billed prominently as a solo singer, between 1924 and 1938. Schumann lieder and the songs of François de Breteuil featured in her repertoire: see, e.g., L’Ouest-Éclair, 15 April 1925.

  472. Daily Telegraph, 14 September 1923.

  473. Evening Standard 14 September 1923.

  474. Bowker, op. cit., pp. 114–15.

  475. Marjoribanks, op. cit., p. 445.

  476. Evening Standard, 14 September 1923.

  477. Daily Telegraph, 15 September 1923.

  478. Chicago Tribune (Paris edition), 16 September 1923.

  479. Daily Sketch, 17 September 1923.

  480. Sunday Pictorial, 16 September 1923.

  481. Hastings, op. cit., p. 85.

  482. Daily Chronicle, 18 September 1923

  483. See Chapter Three.

  484. Bowker, A Lifetime with the Law (W H Allen 1961) pp. 27–8.

  485. Le Dechainé, 28 October 1923.

  486. Georges-Michel, La Vie Brillante, p. 120.

  487. Marjoribanks, op. cit., p. 447.

  488. TNA HO45/14618.

  489. Flower, N (ed) The Journals of Arnold Bennett (Cassell 1933) p20

  490. The Referee, 7 October 1923.

  491. See, e.g. Rose, A., Lethal Witness (Sutton Publishing 2007) pp. 137, 197.

  492. Information from Raoul Laurent.

  493. Hastings, P., The Autobiography of Patrick Hastings (William Heinemann 1948) p. 154.

  494. TNA MEPO 10/8.

  495. Marjoribanks, op. cit.

  496. Rhodes-James, R. (ed) ‘Chips’ The Diaries of Sir Henry Channon (Phoenix 1996)pp. 293–4.

  497. See Chapter Thirteen.

  498. Bruce-Lockhart (ed. K. Young), op. cit., vol. 1, p. 227.

  499. The hardback sold 12,000 copies in the UK and 30,000 copies in America: Bruce-Lockhart Diaries (see note 194).

  500. See Chapter Nineteen.

  501. TNA MEPO3/1589.

  502. TNA DPP1/74.

  503. Ibid.

  504. Meyrick K., Secrets of the 43 (John Long Limited 1933) pp. 81–3.

  505. TNA DPP1/74 contains statements supplied to the DPP by Freke Palmer, defence solicitor.

  506. Information from Dr Faϊka B. Croisier

  507. TNA FO371/8989.

  508. See Parliamentrary Archives (PA) Beaverbrook papers.

  509. see eg PA, ibid. HA6, Marshall Hall to Blumenfeld, 8 February 1926.

  510. See, e.g., Illustrated Sunday Herald, 30 September 1923.

  511. Le Guignol Enchainé, 25 October 1923.

  512. In later years, Marguerite had a financial interest in a number of Paris brothels. Information from Raoul Laurent.

  513. E to FDW, 27 September 1923, private collection.

  514. BL F112/797, Curzon to Grace Curzon, 5 November 1923.

  515. E to FDW, 13 December 1923, unpublished extract.

  516. A Special Branch minute (TNA MEPO38/126), dated November 1922, shows that, when in the United Kingdom, the Prince had a uniformed officer on permanent attachment, with a Special Branch officer in attendance at public functions. From 1923, a Special Branch officer usually accompanied the Prince during his visits to France.

  517. TNA MEPO38/151.

  518. Le Petit Parisien, 10 April 1924.

  519. Le Figaro, 11 April 1924.

  520. CUL Crewe Papers C58, Crewe to Stamfordham, 15 January 1924.

  521. Ibid.

  522. Le Petit Parisien, 13 January 1924.

  523. de Courcy, A., The Viceroy’s Daughters (Weidenfeld & Nicolson 2000) p. 89.

  524. Ziegler P, King Edward VIII (Collins 1990), p. 152.

  525. Le Gaulois, 24 January 1924.

  526. The Times, 9 February 1924.

  527. The Times, 17 March 1924.

  528. CUL Crewe Papers, Crewe to Stamfordham, 18 April 1924.

  529. Le Canard Enchainé, 16 April 1924.

  530. Illustrated Sunday Herald, 21 October 1923.

  531. Le Figaro, 18 April 1924.

  532. Vaughan, H., Sleeping with the Enemy (Chatto & Windus 2011) p. 36.

  533. Baillen [Delay], C. (trans. B. Bray), Chanel Solitaire (Collins 1973) p 38.

  534. E to FDW, 18 April 1924, private collection.

  535. Brust, H. I., Guarded Kings (Stanley Paul 1936) p. 52.

  536. TNA MEPO38/151.

  537. Brown, E., Champagne Cholly (E P Dutton 1947) p. 235.

  538. See Vickers, op. cit., p. 291.

  539. See, e.g. MEPO38/151.

  540. Thelma, née Morgan, was an American divorcée who married Viscount Furness and was divorced from him in 1933. Described by the Prince’s biographer Frances Donaldson as ‘a good sort’, she incautiously asked Wallis Simpson to look after the Prince while she was away in America. By the time she came back, the Prince had transferred his affections to Wallis.

  541. Le Petit Parisien, 15 February 1929.

  542. Clarke, A. (ed.), A Good Innings (John Murray 1974) p. 299.

  543. TNA MEPO38/151.

  544. See Chapter Eighteen.

  545. Thelma, perhaps not quite such a ‘good sort’ (see note 561), later alleged that the Prince was sexually deficient and that only Wallis Simpson was able to release him from inhibitions. Thelma’s allegations were convincingly refuted by Philip Ziegler in King Edward VIII, at pp. 236–7.

  546. See also Higham, C Wallis: The Secret Lives of the Duchess of Windsor (Pan 1989) at p. 93, 96. in which it is suggested that the Prince took up with Thelma Furness while still involved with Marguerite.

  547. CAC LASL 3/1 Alan Lascelles to Joan Lascelles 16 September 1928.

  548. Ibid. Alan Lascelles to Joan Lascelles, 15 October 1928.

  549. See eg Ibid., Halsey to Lascelles, 13 January 1929.

  550. Bruce-Lockhart (ed. K. Young), op. cit., 5 September 1929.

  551. E to FDW 19 February 1919: Godfrey (ed.), op. cit., p.173

  552. TNA MEPO3/1589.

  553. New York Herald, 27 July 1924.

  554. Georges-Michel, La
Vie Brillante, p. 120.

  555. TNA FO371/13882.

  556. Ibid.

  557. Elsässer Kurier, 8 June 1937.

  558. Information from Raoul Laurent.

  559. See Raynaud, E., Mercure de France, 1 February 1935.

  560. Information from Raoul Laurent.

  561. Hood, D Working for the Windsors (Allen Wingate 1957)p. 42.

  562. Coward, N., Future Indefinite (William Heinemann 1954) pp. 69, 82.

  563. Coward, op. cit., p. 82.

  564. Lesley, C The Life of Noël Coward (Penguin 1978) p207.

  565. Lesley, op. cit., Ibid.

  566. Donaldson, op. cit., p. 393.

  567. Gladwyn, C., Diaries (Constable 1986), Letter of 2 July 1954.

  568. RA GV/ADD/COPY/136, E to Bailey, 1 October 1916.

  569. Vickers, op. cit., p. 343.

  570. Information from Raoul Laurent.

  571. Le Figaro, 13 January 1971.

  Acknowledgements

  Copyright in the letters of the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VIII and Duke of Windsor) vests in the Institut Louis Pasteur in Paris.

  Extracts from the Prince’s Great War Diary and from letters written by the Prince to Capt the Hon Wilfred Bailey are reproduced by permission of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. At the request of the Registrar and the Assistant Keeper of the Royal Archives, four passages written by the Prince have been omitted from the text of this book.

  My thanks are to due to many people who have given help and encouragement during the long process of research. Raoul Laurent, Marguerite’s grandson and heir, provided invaluable family information, unique photographs, documentation and hospitality. Without his assistance, so freely given, this book could not have been written. The late Dr Faïka B Croisier, the great-niece of Ali Fahmy, gave me unique detail about the Fahmy family, their reaction to the trial process, and the fate of the Prince’s love letters; I have had a most interesting email exchange with Mme Sania Sharawi Lanfranchi, Dr Croisier’s sister, expert translator and author of Casting Off the Veil; Henri-François de Breteuil, the Marquis de Breteuil, gave me access to letters written by the Prince, held in the family archive at the Château de Breteuil (an added privilege was working in ‘Chester Cottage’, the beautiful baroque pavilion which housed the Prince in 1912); Max Reed made available correspondence in his possession between the Prince and Mrs Dudley Ward; Anne-Marie Tillé, grand-daughter of Marguerite’s chauffeur and maid, provided important information and sent me remarkable period photographs; Ian Shapiro was of the greatest assistance to my quest, generously sharing his expert knowledge of royal correspondence and memorabilia; Viscount Norwich kindly sent me unpublished entries from his late father’s diaries, allowing me to quote from these and from The Duff Cooper Diaries; Duff Hart-Davis allowed me to include extracts from End of an Era and In Royal Service, based on the papers of the late Sir Alan Lascelles; Hugo Vickers gave me permission to quote from Behind Closed Doors: The Tragic Untold Story of the Duchess of Windsor and sent me a copy of an amusing newspaper article, The Secret Diary of David Windsor aged 19¾; Philip Ziegler helped identify some problem sources and has allowed me to use quotations from King Edward VIII; Geordie Greig kindly permitted me to use a reference from his biography of his grandather, Louis Greig, The Kingmaker; Marion Wasdell helpfully permitted the publication of extracts from an article about the Fahmys written by H V Morton; Kenneth Rose, author of King George V and Curzon: A Most Superior Person, was a most knowledgeable and amusing recipient of many importunate telephone enquiries from me; Harry Legge-Bourke, helped me to gain access to correspondence from the Prince to his grandfather, the late Lord Glanusk; Mrs Alexandra Campbell allowed to me to quote part of a letter written by her grandfather, Arthur Wiggin, 2nd Secretary at the British High Commission in Cairo, to Archie Clark Kerr; David Stockman sent me helpful information about Dr Morton, Medical Officer at Holloway; Keith Skinner gave very useful background detail on Special Branch officers; Lady Willoughby de Eresby sent me photocopies of entries in the Visitors’ Book of Drummond Castle for August and September 1923; Jerry Murland, the military historian, author of The Battle on the Aisne 1914, gave me his expert opinion on letter censorship during the Great War; Olivier Choppin de Janvry, Architect D.C.S.A,of the Musée Sem La Cassagne, near Perigeuex, helped identify and date a caricature of Marguerite by ‘Sem’ and gave me other information about the great caricaturist;’ Simon Berthon, the distinguished biographer and producer of the television drama-documentery based for transmission on Channel Four, gave me the benefit of his experience and intimate knowledge of the media.