Janie Ramsey's talk on The Windsor Style

Janie Ramsey told a packed recent General Meeting audience about the Iconic lifestyle of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. 

After time in the Bahamas and at the end of World War 2 they moved to the French Riviera to enjoy two swimming pools and sea bathing, chauffeured limousines, furniture taken from royal houses, 122 pieces of luggage every time they moved to other houses or on holiday with the contents all meticulously itemised, fabulously choreographed dining table layouts and settings for dinner, the best china, cutlery, glassware and linens and towels, fresh cut flowers in a range of colours over the reception rooms, a vast array of servants at their beck and call including a personal hairdresser and valet. There were designer gowns for her plus jewellery and accessories and beautifully tailored jackets and trousers for him. While visiting New York they were deemed to be in the Top 10 of fashionably dressed people. There was no rationing here unlike in the UK.

The Duke and Duchess entertained as royalty, greeting VIPs such as Cecil Beaton, Cole Porter, Noel Coward, Baron Rothschild, Harold Nicholson and Vita Sackville West etc. and dining late at 9.15 pm. The Duchess ate hardly anything to maintain her slim physique. He played golf and she played poker.

They were exiles of course, forbidden to use the Order of the Garter, the HRH title or to display the Crown but it seems they disregarded these strictures. There is evidence to suggest that the Duke expected to be invited back to the UK at some point and that he may have been involved in a wartime plot to return to the throne.

In the question and answer session following, it was confirmed that their opulent lifestyle would have been financed from the Duchy of Cornwall with little or no record keeping. When Charles became Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwall from 1969 he instituted a process of accountability and detailed record keeping and so  everything changed. 

Contributed by Angela Dowling