Edward VIII, Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David, King of Great Britain and Ireland (Duke of Windsor)

b. 1894; d. 1972

He reigned from 20 January to 10 December 1936 and was the only British sovereign to resign the throne of his own will. The eldest son of the Duke and Duchess of York (afterwards George V and Queen Mary), born on 23 June at White Lodge, Richmond Park, he was educated privately and at Osborne, Dartmouth, and Magdalen College, Oxford.

During the First World War Edward was attached to the staff of Sir John French (later Earl of Ypres) on the Western Front in 1914, was appointed staff captain with the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force in 1916, and became DAQMG in the same year. In 1917 he paid a visit to the Italian front. After the war he made a series of tours abroad. His charm, sympathy, and informality made him very popular and during the depression of the 1930's his popularity was increased by his evident sympathy with the problems of the unemployed. One of the main events of his short reign was a visit to the distressed areas of South Wales.

He succeeded to the throne on his father's death, but abdicated uncrowned because of constitutional objections to his proposed marriage to Mrs Ernest Simpson (née Bessie Wallis Warfield), a US citizen whose two previous marriages had been dissolved. He left England immediately afterwards and married her at the Chateau de Condé, France, on 3 June 1937.

After his abdication he was created Duke of Windsor. Apart from the wartime interlude when the Duke became governor of the Bahamas, retaining his post until 1947, he and the Duchess lived in France. The Duke made a number of private visits to Britain, attending the funerals of his mother, Queen Mary, and his brother George VI, but the Royal Family's continued refusal to receive his wife made a prolonged return to the country impossible. He died in May 1972 and, after lying in state at Windsor Castle, was buried at Frogmore.

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