King George VI felt his brother was a ‘more painful concern’ than the war

King George VI’s brother gave him more concern than the Second World War, a letter from his secretary to Sir Winston Churchill has suggested.

On May 30 1944, shortly before D-Day, George VI’s private secretary wrote to Churchill’s counterpart about the fraught relationship between the King and the Duke of Windsor.

Sir Alan Lascelles wrote to John Martin that “the problem of his brother’s future (involved as it must be with his brother’s past and his own present) probably gives the King deeper and more painful concern than any one of his many responsibilities.”

The letter, from the Churchill Archives, has been cited in Alexander Larman’s new book about the brothers’ relationship, The Windsors at War: The Nazi Threat to the Crown.

In it, Mr Larman explores the “fascinating psychodrama of the uneasy relationship” following Edward VIII’s abdication in December 1936 to the end of the Second World War.

Through access to “rare and never-before published letters, diaries and memoranda” Mr Larman claims to examine the relationship between “the man who struggled to be king and the man who had given it all up for a woman”.

Lascelles’s letter shows that the question of the Duke’s future after his abdication to marry the American divorcee Wallis Simpson weighed heavily on the King’s mind, with suggestions of a move to the United States as most suitable.

At Churchill’s invitation, Edward had served as governor of the Bahamas during the war, but he did not enjoy the experience and famously referred to the country as a “third-class British colony”.

At the time, the prime minister told the US president that the decision was made to send him to the Caribbean due to fears for the Duke’s safety and as part of “strenuous efforts to get him away from Europe beyond the reach of the enemy”. 

‘So formidable a menace’

The Duke’s memory has long been tainted by his association with the Nazis, with photographs of him making a “heil Hitler” salute and letters revealing he wanted “the closest cooperation” with Adolf Hitler’s Germany in 1936.

In 2017, National Archive papers even revealed details of how Churchill attempted to suppress secret Second World War documents detailing a Nazi plot to offer the throne to the Duke in the event of Britain’s defeat.

However, Churchill only succeeded in delaying the publication of the telegrams for a few years and when they did come to light in 1957, the Duke denounced them as “complete fabrications”.

Nevertheless, the Duke was understood to be surprised that he was not granted permission to return to England as a full-time resident after the war.

On September 16 1945, shortly after the end of the war, the King sent a telegram to Churchill ahead of a meeting between the prime minister and the Duke in America.

In the telegram, George VI wrote: “In any discussion as to his future perhaps you would put forward my conviction, which you already know, namely that his happiness will be best promoted by his making his home in the USA. Repeat USA.”

After the meeting took place, the Duke wrote of his surprise, saying: “After eight years’ absence, I was still considered so formidable a menace to the solidarity of the monarchy.”

When the war ended, Edward and Wallis returned to France, where they lived for the remainder of their lives, interspersed with visits to the US.