Guy Trundle: Wallis Simpson's Other Lover?

The world heard the news at the beginning of 2003. The events had happened nearly eighty years previously but the abdication of King Edward Vlll, to marry his mistress Wallis Simpson, was still scandalous news.

This time, the newspapers were telling us that not only was Wallis married when she had her affair with Edward, she also had another secret lover.

Secret papers, held by the public records office, were full of revelations. They include the divorce documents of Wallis and her husband, reports of surveillance by Special Branch, the text of an address that Edward wanted to give to the nation (but was prevented from doing so) and many more.

But the papers that proved to be the most scandalous revealed that during her affair with Edward, Mrs Simpson was also having a relationship with another man.

Images from Wikimedia Commons.

It was explained to the public that documents of this nature are always secret but made public after a certain number of years had passed. In this case, authorities decided to keep them unavailable until the Queen Mother - Wallis' arch-enemy - had died.

The papers revealed that offices from Special Branch (the British secret police) has been conducting around-the-clock surveillance on Wallis because of her known relationship with Edward. Edward was then the Prince of Wales but was also the heir to the throne.

His father, the king, was in his seventies and was in frail health. The government knew that Edward would become king in the very near future so were naturally concerned by his 'liaisons'.

The Special Branch investigations revealed that Wallis Simpson was also having an affair with Guy Marcus Trundle.

Guy was born in York - the son of a clergyman. He was born in 1899, making him a few years younger than his mistress.

He was a married man and his background is relatively well documented. His family was eminently respectable and he was involved in both the First and Second World wars. Indeed, in WW2 he was in the Royal Air Force and became a wing commander.

Before WW2 however, and when he was allegedly involved with Mrs Simpson, he was described as a 'car mechanic and salesman' working for Ford Motor Company.

Whether this was Special Branch snootiness we will never know; Trundle was living at a 'good' London address. Indeed, Princess Elizabeth, the future queen, had been born on the same street some ten years before the abdication.

• Are these papers genuine? I believe they are. I can't put them here because I'd probably be dragged off to the Tower for contravening all sorts of royalty and treason rules. But I have seen photographs of them from what I consider to be an impeccably reliable source.
• Why would Wallis have an affair when she was supposedly so madly in love with Edward? See the first link in the list below. Was their relationship really the 'romance of the century'? Maybe not.
• The Simpsons' divorce papers are particularly revealing. Ernest Simpson stated that Edward 'broke down' in front of his and emotionally declared his love for Wallis. This may be me being extraordinarily British but such passion - expressing his love for a woman to her legal husband - seems a bit over the top to me. At any rate, it adds credence to the supposition that the love in the relationship was mainly on his part.
• By all accounts there is a huge volume of paperwork generated by the Special Branch officers about the relationship between Wallis and Guy. This indicates that their surveillance was very thorough indeed.
• The paperwork includes documents that are personally from Edward's brother (once he had become king), his wife Elizabeth and his mother Queen Mary emphatically declaring that Wallis should never have the title HRH. This has echoes of Diana, Princess of Wales who was also stripped of her HRH title. Why was this so very important?
• Documents claim that Wallis was being very careful when trying to cover her tracks. They say that she didn't want to alienate Edward 'for financial reasons'. Again, this doesn't sound like a woman who is passionately in love.
• Ernest Simpson - still married to Wallis at the time - was also being watched by the Special Branch. They reported that he boasted that he would soon receive a baronetcy or some other high award - presumably for not kicking up a fuss about his wife's affair with Edward and for being understanding about a divorce.
• If you check out the first link in the list below, you'll see that there is a theory that Wallis was 'trapped' into marriage with Edward due to his emotional blackmail. Was her affair with Guy a final fling before devoting herself to a loveless marriage?
• There is also a lengthy report by the officers which describes Wallis' off-colour language and socially-unacceptable quips and jokes. I have often wondered about this. She is generally believed to have attracted Edward because of her charm and wit - but her only'famous' quote was the one about 'you can't be too rich or too thin'. Hardly witty reparteee.
• At one point in the Simpsons' divorce trial, Ernest referred to Edward as 'a madman' - underlying an opinion that was held by many (including Edward's own father) that he was mentally negligible.