Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson - Interview with Kenneth Harris (video)

Duke didn't he strike you as being a very conventional kind of Englishman or as a very different kind of Englishman well he struck me as being with it at that time what kinds of things now made you feel that about him I think he was ahead of his time I think he had lots of Baffin I think very much ahead of his time I think he wanted to establish things that were a little not ready for them reeling perhaps after you've abdicated sir you had two jobs didn't you in rapid succession I was appointed governor of the Bahamas sir - occupied government has now sold for almost five years how did you enjoy being out there man I liked it very much wonderful climate interest and rewarding very rewarding I ran the canteen two canteens there for the RAF and when they were leaving they were going to give me a present so the Duke knows that I'm speechless in which I'm sure the television we're audience will know I'm speechless in front of anything so we had to give the secret away was to be a secret he told me he said they're going to give you a silver box I thought they wanted to be a surprise I knew that you would be able to open your mouth when they presented it so I warned you and what happened well I said two simple words would you like to have gone on and had another job after that sci-fi author buy services they required he never got me would you like to do to have a job yes very much very much in those days that's 25 years ago I think he could have done something what why didn't you get a job you think that's the ask most of the people I think you can say that are underground now who prevented me hard to say do you have any regrets when you look back on your life oh about certain things yes I wish it could have been different but I mean I'm extremely happy and now you've had some hard times but who hasn't they'll just have to learn to live with that Dutch is what is the secret of keeping and looking young I don't know I'm not secretive I think happiness is a great secret to how you feel and look perhaps Sweden they have English words would you describe yourself as a reforming King when you want to find a throne no you know I wouldn't I I wanted to be an up-to-date King that was I didn't have that much time to know and you didn't have as it were you didn't have political conceptions about how the country had lots of political perception that kept them to myself that is the tradition of the royal family what were the things that you wanted to change could you give me some examples some examples of the ways in which you ran up against the conventions well I think it was more well I wasn't there I didn't have time I wasn't there long enough but I had in mind to change especially to do with with the court which after all the court is is is is is dominated by by the king and he influences accordin gives the orders it is command so to speak do you think there's too much court life nowadays no I don't think there is because they've they've simplified it a great deal I've seen very little of it but what I hear and I have been being been around in to interpreting from time to time and I think that is it's very good now it's simplified people haven't got the time for the old ceremonials I'll think the ceremony ceremonial that they used to have when you were Prince of Wales you had definite ideas about how you want to dress for instance you didn't want to wear top hat you wanted to wear a bowler hat my father always wore a top hat and he was surprised that I wouldn't follow his tradition but what he didn't have to go around big industrial clouds that I didn't and go around which and Gardner or not somebody to David what we used to call the slums they were really bad in those days remember at what point did you first become aware of coming into conflict with the government of the day as a result of your different conception of kingship well actually that that was before I became King I had a trip organized to go and visit some of the depressed areas went to Wales and different parts of Britain and this one I think was up in North Northumberland and when Stanley Baldwin ought to hear of this this trip he called me to the House of Commons and said he'd like to talk to me about it he said why are you going to coming up there are there a lot of other important things to do so I said no mr. Bhalla and i said i think it is very important to see how can't give these people unemployment some of the men have been out for ten years I was too borrowing was this suddenly became conscious of the fact that he and his government actually done very little to alleviate the the plight of the unemployed which there were thousands at that time so he said who suggested it you should go I said as a matter of fact I'm going under the auspices of let Alexander Alexander Lee who was chairman of the Conservative Association in in Northumberland all we said wonderful man great friend of mine I'm delighted I do hope you will have a good trip when I left primary use prime minister at that time I thought to myself that he was beginning to drag me in to politics a little too far and as we all know politics is the one thing the royal family has to avoid even however much they might like to express their opinions there was another occasion when you were going to visit some area in which there was a great deal of poverty and unemployment and they wanted to take you round in a rose rice they have the generator you can go was a suitable vehicle for that trip and I upset one of the dignitaries who met me there I had his Rolls Royce for me to get in I said I'm sorry I am NOT going to write in that and he was so very upset and for certain that I was letting him down I think more than letting my position down I went around in an ordinary card it was more suitable what is the occasion set when you went to some area of unemployment and poverty and you will report it in the newspapers as having said it was damnable and something ought to be done about it all I think that it could be almost anywhere South Wales or I really saw some terrible things look there so the stays of the twenties and early thirties well ready until until this last World War did you try and do something about those kind of ones very much that I could do except to to to to to bring it to look to lead to this notice we say of the of the early the really government in power at one occasion I was at Prince of Wales I had a large sum of them the doctor the Dutch of coral there was a big real estate property in Kennington and our two people in the City of London will be people got interested and said will like to put some money up to to develop this tear down the slums and build build a housing estate we've got an architect we had a meeting by where I lived at your house in st. James's Palace and I think that the chairman of the London County Council at that time was Herbert Morrison so we had this meeting and I think alters we had either cup of tea tea break or a drink and when he was leaving mr. Morrison this is getting into his car and he came back he said oh my god he said I've left I've left my briefcase in in in the dining room where we were sitting that I can't leave the socialist secrets in this house so I said Mr Morrison have it perfectly safe but you didn't get must change no no the Levy's be and the London County Council didn't did not wish this this promise group private enterprise group to take get the credit for having built this this housing scheme which actually we could have done very much cheaper than the London London County Council did you mentioned one or two statesmen of your lifetime so you mentioned Baldwin what about some of the others now how do you get on with Lloyd George I got fine with him he was even he was a very colorful wonderful man he eaves he taught me that if he was Welsh septem that I had to - to speak at the time of my investiture canal until 1911 what kind of dealings did you have a Winston Churchill or Winston's a great friend of mine I knew Winston first when he was First Lord of the Admiralty in Liberal government in 1910 or 11 and we kept very close touch even bodies in power it Winston Churchill give you any help with your speeches yes after the punctuation of the phraseology and so faulted he said he said a very good way at a public dinner is to put a finger ball down and then you put a plate over the finger bowl and then you put a glass on the plate and then you put your notes on the glass but he said don't do what I did once and knocked the glass over you remember your father advised you not to put jokes into speeches yes his old secretary Lord Lord stand for them I asked him to help me with a speech and he put in quite an amusing paragraph which had a great success the the audience from public dinner I guess must have been and my father read this speech sent for me he said he said I'm very surprised that you made those rather flippant remarks in your and speech to this association that I've never made a joke in a speech I thought that fence monkey probably lost a good deal and turned and and and hadn't hadn't please his audiences as much as those who can get a laugh I mean you could always get a laugh out of an audience early and you can say the serious things afterwards I wonder what your father would have said about trans Philip I think that I think that any any any audience that the Philip Philip talks to would be very disappointed to be didn't have some jokes and maybe some fairly forceful criticisms as well MacDonald did you have much to do with Ramsay MacDonald huh wasn't it like this wrote a letter to ask you to take more care when you were out riding oh yes Arthur to stop Steve retracing yes I was very polite and I said I quite understood what he he meant but I didn't heed him very much did you ever win with steeplechasing yes about 13 12 13 races and he wanted not to start off Fred winter will be relieved to hear that what he'd be relieved to hear that and but he did write to you and ask you if you would yeah we came to see me mmm-hmm what is he said you said tensing from my position I shall risk my neck but you just went on I've had I've had quite a bad fall yes I'd had a best fall in those days we didn't didn't wear the crash helmets that I that are imposed today there's others thought cap so there's no protection we had at all unfortunately hit the ground hard wasn't for good and other leading politicians of the days a Jimmy Thomas for instance Jimmy Thomas became quite a friend of the of the family my father enjoyed his company a great deal and when I became King to his wealth I was king mmm he got into some political trouble and he had to resign from the cabinet the Kiva's ministry Secretary of State for the Dominion affairs those days and he had to come to deliver deliver up his seal of office so he came into my my office at Buckingham Palace and I scraped with her hand and he sat down quite unceremoniously before I'd even motioned a chair for him sit and he looked at me with tears in his eyes he said it's all a bloody conspiracy and then he added in a very charming way he said thank God your old dad never got to hear of this very touching story the wonderful man what were your first impressions of the United States went to America first in 1919 remember 1919 when low and went Washington that's that made a bit paid I paid a call on President Wilson who was who was then he was then bedridden need he had his stroke endure with rocket before the next election people's suffering from overstrain from the effect that the America wouldn't that Senate wouldn't come into the League of Nations I went to New York and there was it was it was it was it was an Irishman the name of Highland and I invited mayor Highland to lunch with me I went to see him at City Hall and he refused me and for political reasons and so completely the newspaper men said mr. merry said your honor as a call on the head with it why didn't you why did you refuse the Prince of Wales's invitation to lunch he said say boys you know I never lunch well it didn't say there was only the Irish situation was not very good at that time in the that is he had his Irish politics in mind but I've travelled well since Dutchess never married I've travelled them I've traveled a lot in America I remember country it's very invigorating I like going there for the golf I'm I'm a very very very poor golfer unfortunately I once shot of 75 about 14 years ago but that's afraid to last good round really good round that I ever had my father's my father's great hobby was was shooting he's after shooting a very good shot I always preferred it the fox hunting it's a wonderful spot if my time they used to call it the sport of kings and I think it gave you this but added prestige the fact that you that you enjoyed it and rode well and I think after the Member of Parliament sat master of hounds mfh as they call numbers we had the great high dignity nini need each County old weather wherever the hunt was situated but the members of the royal family don't hunt today well I saw my my great lease and last year and said to her at home I know you ride and I over very well and I'm so glad that you enjoy riding as much as I did as I said why don't you why don't you why don't you ever go fox hunting and she said two words blood sports so I thought to myself oh what a pity when you look at the world today and compare it with how you saw it as a young man what are the main changes that you see I think that even the scientific progress is is is is one of the one of the ones they all of them extraordinary things ended especially in my lifetime world walls or any walls of terrible things I have seen too but there are two two things that benefit you can say or can make progress on the count of Wars one of them is in medical science and the other is aviation I flew in a very primitive no I wasn't I didn't pilot the plane but I flew over the lines in the First World War somewheres about 1916 what did the war teacher who taught me to mix with all manner of people who I don't believe I would have been able to mix but not being so easy for me to mix before rough-and-tumble war is a there's no respecter of rank or this I remember you telling me the first time we met that you were a king who collided with the establishment and that since the king is the peak and main pillar of the establishment such a situation was quite intolerable what you mean by the establishments in that context well the establishment was a new word to me until about 15 years ago when I heard it and I asked people to explain it to me it's not easy to explain it's a rather an obscure word but it must have always existed it I think it means all thority authority of the law of the Church of the well person mark to certain extent and called universities and maybe the top brass the Navy in the army and I was reading an article baptism or three years ago and said tower for example Prince Philip is not really a member of the establishment in other words he's he goes out very much on his own and then a little lower down he said and when I come to think of it nor was the Duke of Windsor and I think that's very true by my father certainly was and my brother was but it's why weren't you because I was it have it independent I did I did follow the the the I mean I didn't prevail against the establishment that you collided with a time to some extent I did to some extent or very violently do you think that collision with the establishments would have been inevitable even if your marriage had not been involved I think that it would have I think it would yes inevitable and I think it would have been been fairly obvious even if you remained a bachelor you might still have collided with the establishment yes definitely but not in it not in a bad way but neither it maybe I don't know that's I'm I'm I'm being conceited but I think it might've helped the establishment - and what do you mean by that well I think that it might have revived the the thinking of the establishment I mean the establishment is he has a conservative aspect I think and you mean that unless the conservative establishment is as it were read it aside every now and again then it's liable to I will either get revived it reveal its eyes itself but I think that's 8088 it probably does needs to lead from this from the Maalik

Channel: Roman Styran

Views: 2,671,417

Rating: 4.7108278 out of 5

Keywords: Edward VIII, Wallis Simpson

Id: I02fZDd-BBc

Length: 25min 2sec (1502 seconds)

Published: Tue May 09 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/aderrygirl]

Fascinating - he appears to stutter a bit as well.