Next Meetings
A brief outline of our next talk Meetings take place, commencing at 7.30pm in the Crawford Hall
May 20 th. 2022. Partners of Prime Ministers. - David Howe The talk begins with the Four Prime Ministers who never married, all of whom at some point had at least one close relationship with a woman. Following on, the focus will be on the Churchills, the Attlees, the Edens, the Wilsons, the Thatchers, and the Majors. June 17th. 2022 The Abdication of Edward VIII - Roy Smart “Too rich, too thin and too American; a bewitching, vulgar, Yankee huntress, out for what she could get - a gold-digger !” But rather, was Wallis Simpson in fact, a benevolent woman, caught up in a situation from which she could not extricate herself and who, indeed, on the eve of war, saved us from a feckless king ? However, as one of the most reviled women in history, Wallis, a twice divorced American with two living husbands, became a hate figure for ensnaring our King and destabilising the monarchy. With his dashing good looks Edward VIII embodied the hopes and aspirations of most in 1936 - The Year of Three Kings ! ; by renouncing the throne he convulsed the nation bringing dishonour and disgrace upon the Royal House of Windsor. Roy Smart recounts how Queen Mary despaired that her son had been beguiled by an American Sorceress, while Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin thought Mrs. Simpson tolerable as “a respectable whore but not as Queen Wally ! ” But the King, whose obsession with Wallis had become total dependency, signed the Instrument of Abdication, making way for the third monarch of 1936. Now, ‘Prince’ Edward fled the country to be with his ‘love’ and a lifetime of exiled futility, and Wallis would, thereafter, carry the burden of blame for this catastrophe; and remain to this day, the enigmatic, compelling subject of gossip and fascination worldwide. Our speaker is Roy Smart who has spoken previously to the Society on Earl Jellicoe and the Battle of Jutland, and on Amy Johnson
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